Birds of Prey starts off with Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn updating us on her progress and state in the world. In other words a huge exposition dump. So far so dull. For me the character of Harley Quinn is annoying and pointless even before this film and the only point for her in the previous films was teeny-tiny shorts and lingering shots of bottoms and legs plus she was a sort of water-downed evil.
In this film written by Christina Hodson and directed Cathy Yan we at least get away from the leering sexuality of the previous portrayal but if you are looking for an interesting feminist point of view from the story and characters, you are not going to get it. The male characters are all repugnant from the get-go which did not bother me but just seemed a bit sledge-hammery if I am honest. What we ended up with was female super-villains-heroes or whatever they are doing exactly what their male counterparts did in the other films. You could replace every main character with a male character, and you would not notice it. So, from my point of view utterly redundant. I wanted the film to say something different, open my old, jaded eyes. It did not.
Probably the most disappointing aspect for me though was the acting in the film was spotty at least. Mary Elizabeth Winstead just looked like she was acting and was thoroughly unconvincing and Rosie Perez probably turned in her worst showing since I can remember. At one time it is said she was every bad cop-movie cliché which I am guessing was supposed to be ‘on’ and ‘meta’, but she was and it was wearisome.
The Huntresses’ real boyfriend, Ewan McGregor, turns up as the main villain Roman Sionis who apparently is called the Black Mask although he only dons it for ten minutes and I am none the wiser why he does. McGregor makes a good show of being over-the-top insane and so camp he should be a holiday park in Wales but if it were not for his thorough bleak and blank unpleasantness, he would to all intents and purposes be a yaa-boo pantomime baddy.
Therein lies the rub. I think, I do not know because the Comic Book World is not mine, DC is supposed to be darker than Marvel. This film was, but there is a big clash of styles in all this. Bright jokey situations, smart-Alec and sharp-witted quipping protagonists, and bloody murder, slaughter, torture and bystander slaughter. Unless you have got something fundamentally wrong with you these do not really mix. They really do not. It is jarring.
There was something nasty in the dark corners of this film, something unpleasant, mean-spirited, it liked being there and it was never far from the surface. I did not enjoy the spectacle just because of this.
The sets seem Gotham City-like, grubby New Yorkesque, and Harley Quinn is bad-ass and uncaring enough to litter, the CGI is quite poor for a modern film, particularly the hyena, and worse still I am sorry to say the exciting fight scenes look choreographed and seem clunking and slow much like a large portion of the dialogue which is full of really heavy and awkward exposition at times.
The story is about the hunt for a lost diamond. That is it. The titular group Birds of Prey are in the film for five minutes at the most and there seems to be no real driving reason for them if I am honest.
Overall Birds of Prey is underwhelming and unnecessary. One more comic-book film like this and I think I will be done with this category altogether. At the moment Shazam is holding the fort for all ‘DC films’.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2021-01-06T08:32:36Z
Birds of Prey starts off with Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn updating us on her progress and state in the world. In other words a huge exposition dump. So far so dull. For me the character of Harley Quinn is annoying and pointless even before this film and the only point for her in the previous films was teeny-tiny shorts and lingering shots of bottoms and legs plus she was a sort of water-downed evil.
In this film written by Christina Hodson and directed Cathy Yan we at least get away from the leering sexuality of the previous portrayal but if you are looking for an interesting feminist point of view from the story and characters, you are not going to get it. The male characters are all repugnant from the get-go which did not bother me but just seemed a bit sledge-hammery if I am honest. What we ended up with was female super-villains-heroes or whatever they are doing exactly what their male counterparts did in the other films. You could replace every main character with a male character, and you would not notice it. So, from my point of view utterly redundant. I wanted the film to say something different, open my old, jaded eyes. It did not.
Probably the most disappointing aspect for me though was the acting in the film was spotty at least. Mary Elizabeth Winstead just looked like she was acting and was thoroughly unconvincing and Rosie Perez probably turned in her worst showing since I can remember. At one time it is said she was every bad cop-movie cliché which I am guessing was supposed to be ‘on’ and ‘meta’, but she was and it was wearisome.
The Huntresses’ real boyfriend, Ewan McGregor, turns up as the main villain Roman Sionis who apparently is called the Black Mask although he only dons it for ten minutes and I am none the wiser why he does. McGregor makes a good show of being over-the-top insane and so camp he should be a holiday park in Wales but if it were not for his thorough bleak and blank unpleasantness, he would to all intents and purposes be a yaa-boo pantomime baddy.
Therein lies the rub. I think, I do not know because the Comic Book World is not mine, DC is supposed to be darker than Marvel. This film was, but there is a big clash of styles in all this. Bright jokey situations, smart-Alec and sharp-witted quipping protagonists, and bloody murder, slaughter, torture and bystander slaughter. Unless you have got something fundamentally wrong with you these do not really mix. They really do not. It is jarring.
There was something nasty in the dark corners of this film, something unpleasant, mean-spirited, it liked being there and it was never far from the surface. I did not enjoy the spectacle just because of this.
The sets seem Gotham City-like, grubby New Yorkesque, and Harley Quinn is bad-ass and uncaring enough to litter, the CGI is quite poor for a modern film, particularly the hyena, and worse still I am sorry to say the exciting fight scenes look choreographed and seem clunking and slow much like a large portion of the dialogue which is full of really heavy and awkward exposition at times.
The story is about the hunt for a lost diamond. That is it. The titular group Birds of Prey are in the film for five minutes at the most and there seems to be no real driving reason for them if I am honest.
Overall Birds of Prey is underwhelming and unnecessary. One more comic-book film like this and I think I will be done with this category altogether. At the moment Shazam is holding the fort for all ‘DC films’.
Not good enough.