With Disney and its Marvel Cinematic Universe in a bit of holding pattern before things really ramp up in Spring, this was a great opportunity for Warner Bros and the DC Extended Universe to keep their momentum rolling. Hot off of Joker’s unprecedented success, Birds of Prey looked to cash in with one of their most valuable properties…Harley Quinn.
While 2016’s Suicide Squad was widely criticized, it made three-quarters of a billion dollars globally including a $133-million opening weekend and much of that should be attributed to Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Quinn. Despite those numbers, the general consensus was the movie wasn’t very good and many went to see it out of morbid curiosity. This time around, Warner Bros. and DC geared up their star to become the face of the company…at least when Wonder Woman isn’t around. Birds of Prey might have been the right choice creatively but the result isn’t a significant improvement over its predecessor and the box office numbers back that up. It did win its opening weekend with $33-million and held onto the top spot for a week which is not too bad for a normal movie but this isn’t a normal movie. There wasn’t much in the way of high profile competition either…at least not opening on the same weekend.
Going for the R-rating was a bold choice, one that I fully support, but it clearly alienated some people along the way. It makes sense in theory. Studio execs controlling the DCEU were looking for their version of Deadpool and with the rated-R Joker grossing over a billion dollars, why not? The screenplay by Christina Hodson is aggressively violent and profane which is a little surprising for the Bumblebee writer but go big or go home. Harley Quinn is essentially the narrator so the presentation is pretty off-the-wall, which does take some getting used to. Even wit the zany hyper-stylized approach, so much of the narrative is focused on driving home the messaging it lacked the charm and heart that made Hodson’s Transformers reboot work so well. There’s a maternal/big-sister relationship that develops between Harley and the young girl who becomes centrally involved in the plot but it comes along a little late in the game to work with full effectiveness.
Even though the emotional tone wasn’t on point, the presentation and the action certainly were. In only her second full-length feature, Cathy Yan did an excellent job of capturing exactly what audiences had come to love about Harley since her introduction in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992. Beyond her scatter-brained ADHD personality making for a very colorful experience, Quinn was always a formidable opponent for the Dark Knight. Respecting and representing Harley’s considerable hand-to-hand combat skills was seriously overlooked in favor or sexualizing her for Suicide Squad. Yan didn’t make that mistake and put together some action sequences worthy of the Maid of Mischief. Effectively depicting Quinn’s thought process and storytelling style did get a bit exhausting but at least it holds true to the character at the center of it all. It’s reckless, wild, and chaotic but the abundance of energy from start to finish combined with a very colorful style made a bold statement Yan’s behalf.
The biggest beneficiary of the filmmaking approach was undoubtedly Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionis/Black Mask. Trust fund kid turned homicidal businessman, he exists in this world as an alternative to the Joker who was absent for a myriad of reasons. The Scotsman really got to let loose and have fun with a maniacal charisma that we hardly ever get to see from him. Despite him being completely unlikeable, he’s incredible on-screen and you can’t help but want to see more of him. Similarly, Chris Messina was great as the face-peeling Victor Zsasz. His constant ass-kissing of Sionis coupled with his overt sliminess made him equally loathsome. It was exceedingly easy to dislike these two guys which helped strengthen the audience’s bond with the ladies who form the Birds of Prey.
By this point, Robbie has become synonymous with Quinn. Her portrayal was one of the few saving graces of Suicide Squad but this was the moment she took her chance and ran with it. This didn’t have to be an ensemble effort but Ella Jay Basco was essential as Cassandra Cain, the pickpocket who accidentally lifts the wrong thing from the wrong guy. This is where that maternal relationship I mentioned factors in. It was interesting to see Harley as the role model but given the depiction of Gotham, it worked. Jurnee Smollett-Bell also had a bit of a familial bond with the two, playing Dinah Lance/Black Canary. Starting off as Sionis’ lounge club singer, she eventually becomes directly involved in the plot and acts like a sister to both Quinn and Cain. Figuring out the number of personalities to incorporate and how to weave them together wasn’t easy but it worked well for these ladies.
Rosie Perez was great here and she really fit into the story well as Detective Renee Montoya. Much of the character is a cliche but she was very much at home within this world. Rated-R comedies seem to be a good fit for Perez who was essential in grounding a very cartoonish film. Mary Elizabeth Winstead really wasn’t in the movie as much as I had expected considering how much she had been featured in the promotional material. As Huntress, her story is essentially following the main storyline until the two merge fully near the end. She’s very socially awkward which played well in the third act but could have been featured earlier.
You would be hard-pressed to find a more colorful film this year. The production design by K.K. Barrett was great and really felt like a living cartoon. It was important to recognize not just the very animated world these characters come from but the particularly boisterous atmosphere inside Harley’s head as the narrator. Erin Benach designed some very cool costumes to accompany these flamboyant characters and the results onscreen were excellent.
There was a lot of pressure on this film to do well and, as of now, it has made about a 2-to-1 return on its production cost ($155-million) if you factor in global sales. That’s enough to label it successful but I would have to believe Warner Bros was looking for something in the half-a-billion-dollar neighborhood. The problem is mostly that this wasn’t a big enough step forward from Suicide Squad. It was certainly an improvement but there is a long road ahead if Warner Bros wants to keep developing these lesser-known properties.
Recommendation: If you’re really into comic book movies, you’ll probably enjoy this enough and have probably already seen it. If you’re not, this stand-alone story doesn’t look like it’s going to factor in too much with the DCEU anyway so don’t feel bad passing on this one.