Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
It is of course traditional to start a review of a DC Comics based film by pointing out what a terrible mess DC and Warner have made of them, and there’s not much point reiterating that. Except to say that we now apparently have Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker existing in the same multiverse as Jared Leto’s Joker from the execrable Suicide Squad, to which this outing, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is a really loose, barely connected sequel. Like most things DC, it’s best not to think about it too hard.
Margot Robbie returns as psychiatrist turned villain Harley Quinn, dealing with the emotional fallout of breaking up with her pudding’ the Joker. Not just emotional, as it turns out, as her violent antics have peeved a number of Gotham’s most dangerous characters who now see an opportunity for vengeance, as she’s shorn of Joker’s protection.
People like Ewan McGregor’s Roman Sionis, a night club owner cum crime lord under the Black Mask moniker. While he wants her dead, he’s more interested in the McGuffin family diamond, which apparently has the key to a secret account o’ much wealth or something, which happens to have been lifted by a young cut-purse, Ella Jay Basco’s Cassandra Cain.
Meanwhile, Rosie Perez’s detective Renee Montoya is trying to build a case against Sionis, much to the disbelief of her supposed superiors. Meanwhile, Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Helena McGuffin or The Huntress as she styles herself, is looking for vengeance on Sionis for the massacre of the McGuffin crime family. Meanwhile, Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s Dinah Lance, or Black Canary as we’ll see later, is chafing under the employ of the increasingly unhinged Sionis, first as a singer in the club before being “promoted” to Sionis’ driver, working alongside Chris Messina’s nutball killer Victor Zsasz.
There’s a lot of meanwhiles in that last paragraph, as despite Birds of Prey doing its best to distract you with it’s non-linearity and visual stylings, this is not so much a plot as it is a bunch of scenes that happen next to each other, obfuscating a frankly too simple premise to hang a film off. However, you could argue that’s a welcome change of place from comic book movies overplotting, particularly as it’s had the good grace to come in well under two hours.
So if narrative is your bag, this bag is too small for you. However, I must say, I’m more or less on board with the rest of it. Margot Robbie and Ewan McGregor chew their way through all of the scenery in a way that did not fail to delight me, and the action sequences and fight choreography are on-point. The over-the-top riot of colours and overproduction that Cathy Yan and the film goes for is, I suppose, something will prove divisive, but any film that reminds me of Dredd and Crank is going to find some purchase with me.
By no rationale a “good movie”, whatever that means, but for me at least a very enjoyable movie and worth taking a butcher’s at.