Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

I really wanted to like this movie a lot more than I did. I ought to have done. Many of my friends loved it. Given the general dreariness of DCEU movies, Wonder Woman and Shazam aside, something that was not rubbish is to be celebrated. This movie moreover has an all-female creative team, with director Cathy Yan, screenwriter Christina Hodson, and Margot Robbie as producer, who made the initial pitch to Warner Brothers. That is pretty unusual in a superhero movie.

And there is a lot to like. The non-linear storytelling is engaging, and never confusing. The script is consistently amusing. There’s a nice diversity to the casting. No-one in the cast, not even Robbie, is presented for the male gaze, in contrast with the gratuitous costuming and underwear shots of Suicide Squad. The fight scenes are well-choreographed, and it’s good to see that there’s nothing particularly delicate or balletic about the way the women fight—basically they beat the shit out of people until they fall over. Jared Leto’s Joker is, thankfully, nowhere to be seen. (And this is another in DC’s new specialisation in superhero movies in which it’s okay to say ‘fuck’.)

So what’s my problem? I’m not sure, but part of it stems from the fact that, despite the title, this is very definitely a Harley Quinn movie first and a Birds of Prey movie second. Birds of Prey began as a way of finding a role for Barbara Gordon in the DC Universe after she had been shot by the Joker and lost the use of her legs. Of course, the comics and their characters have moved on since then, but Gordon/Batgirl has always been at or near the centre of the team, so it’s a bit of a shame, if not particularly unexpected, to find her wholly omitted here.

Instead, this is very much Robbie’s movie. Everyone else is underwritten. The cast do the best they can with the material that they are given, especially Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell, whose kick ass diva Black Canary makes a welcome change from another skinny white chick. But they are very much supporting characters, both to Harley and to Ewan McGregor’s Roman Sionis/Black Mask. Robbie, who was the best thing in Suicide Squad, is excellent, and clearly having a grand old time. But I think you have to warm to Harley to fully enjoy this movie, and that’s not always easy. She is, after all, still homicidal. Okay, the people she kills here are nasty people who pretty much deserve it, but still, she doesn’t exactly seem to regret any of the killings she does. I think the movie hinges on an early scene in which Quinn, considering buying a pet hyena, is hit on by the pet store owner. The next shot is of the owner’s dismembered foot, having been chewed on by the hyena. If you find that hilariously funny, then you’ll like this movie a lot more than I did.

But don’t take my word for it—you should check this movie out, if only to encourage DC to make more movies like this and fewer like Batman vs Superman. And as I say, plenty of people loved it, and I am aware that I am in a minority here.