DC Comics are at it again. Trying to establish a groupie even without making stand alone movies. Unlike Marvel, we see stand alone movies of their superheroes then they join them together to form the Avengers. DC does it the opposite. They do a groupie thing then they see viewers reaction, which superhero endears to the fans, then they do the stand alone movie.
They did this already three times, DC Comics. First off, the Justice League (except for Batman and Superman who their own stand alone franchises). Second they did Suicide Squad (only with Joker which they did a stand alone movie after this movie was shown) and now this, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).
Movie starts off after the end of Suicide Squad where Mr. J or the Joker breaks it off with Harley Quinn. This left Harley devastated and is going around Gotham carelessly. To show the city that she was not J's girlfriend anymore, she blows up the chemical factory where she became Harley Quinn and eventually Mr. J's love interest.
When the town knew that she was no longer under the J's protection, all those people whom she wronged were now after her, including Roman Scionis aka the Black Mas, (played by Ewan McGregor). Just before she was about to be killed, she pleads with Roman to let her get the Diamond that was lost. This diamond is the key to the Bertinelli fortune, large enough to make Roman as the best or biggest gangster ever.
Harley needs to track down the girl who stole this diamond and she raided the police station just so to get it. After some gunfire and explosions, Harley was able to secure the girl, Cassandra Cain (played by Ella Jay Basco) but the diamond was swallowed by Cassandra so it will take some time to get it. Lots of twists and turn and some characters making their thing, they all bunch up in a place where they were surrounded by Roman Sionis' goons.
Harley Quinn, Renee Montoya (played by Rosie Perez), Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dinah Lance aka Black Canary (played by Jumee Smollett-Bell) all band together to help protect Cassandra Cain (and the diamond in her).
In the end a group of bad guys or ladies, finally defeats the even more bad guy, the black mask. Montoya leaves the police force and joins Black Canary and Huntress to fight crime as the Birds of Prey, while Cassandra Cain went with Harley Quinn and started their own contract killing venture.
This third outing of a groupie thing should have been a launching pad for the Birds of Prey but what are they doing in a Harley Quinn movie? Is this a HQ stand alone movie or a groupie movie? Judging from the title, try holding your breath, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), That's quite a mouthful and it should feature the Birds of Prey. Why are we watching the movie about Harley Quinn?
Is this a two in one movie of sorts? Nope. This was all about Harley Quinn. Half of the movie she was moping about her separation from the J and that all the bad things she had done were a result of her emotional breakdown. Since a lot was shown about Harley that there were no more time left to feature the Bird of Prey members. Back stories on them, or the lack thereof, were all narrated by Harley. So we can't fully relate to the rest of the group. The only back story we liked was about the Huntress' experience of having her family killed with her the only survivor saved by one of her family's killers. What? And she grew up trained to avenge their death. She didn't bother killing the person who rescued her? Why?
The movie we think was done to show how Harley Quinn mind works. Just when you think you are chugging with the story then suddenly a back story comes up. Not a short back story but a long one then by the time it goes to present times, it leaves you gasping for air already. Like Quinn's mind is, the movie is a convolution of ideas and back stories that sometimes get confused and left us hanging.
Story is just simple guys, a diamond showing the whole Bertinelli money was stolen by a kid and it is the pursuit of that kid is the story. Throw in some back story and character development for the Birds of Prey members, and that's a tall order but they chose to deal with Harley Quinn's story instead. So the title is a misnomer. It's not a Birds of Prey movie, its Harley's. It was near the end of the movie that they banded together, out of necessity.
The lack of screen time for the members left us wanting for more. Renee Montoya was just a cop who's having bad luck all the time. That's her story then she teams up to form the Birds of Prey. Back story on Black Canary was narrated by Montoya, albeit a very short one. Then nothing else except she became the driver for Roman Sionis. There was supposed to be a connection between her with the kid, but it was just her giving 20 bucks to the kid. It was only the Huntress who had a decent character build up with a decent flashback which was shown twice or thrice, the same scene always.
Story wise, this had a very simple plot yet made confusing by making all the other things thrown in haphazardly hoping to get two objectives in the end. To make a Harley Quinn stand alone movie and introducing the Birds of Prey as well. Sadly, the birds didn't fly as we hoped it would.
Now critics said the action scenes were great, but we can't say the same. It's easy to identify the bad guys (Harley and the girls) and the even more bad guys (Sionis' goons) and the latter were waiting to be hit by the girls. The jumps and leaps and punches might be cinematic and great to look at, but mostly it was just the men waiting to be punched and kicked in the end.
Margot Robbie who we loved playing the titular lead Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad is still the lovable character here in this movie. We liked her more here as she showed us lots of her character here. She talks and walks Harley and the fight scenes were a level up from that she showed us in Suicide Squad. We tried finding fault in her here but simply we can't and we adored her even more.
Due to limited screen time and maybe the script, the other actors (except for Ewan McGregor) like the film, they might have been confused as to who they really are. We are not fans of the comics so we based our opinions on what we see in movie. Rosie Perez was really way off to be cast as detective Renee Montoya, Jumee Smollett-Bell was too slow to do her fight scenes, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was too sweet still to be the Huntress. The kid, Ella Jay Basco was too cuddly to be a thief. We simply can't relate them to their characters. Sorry guys we tried.
Ewan McGregor as the Black Mask was okay however a lack of character development prevented us from really relating to his character. He is a splendid actor and he brought the bad character out of Roman Sionis. Although we don't really know why he wears that black mask and the reason why he wants to peel off his victim's faces. Sadly we won't see him in the future as his character gets killed off in the end. Since the movie is confusing enough already, we might see him come back as a prequel or back story perhaps.
When we first saw the trailer for this, we really want to watch it. After a few other trailers came out, we seem to decide against it. It's like a confusing movie and we were right.
But we like all the scenes with Harley Quinn in them. Its vibrant, colorful and witty sometimes. She maybe eccentric in appearances but she's lovable at the same time.
