BIRDS OF PREY And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn. Absolute Fun At The Movies !

By Edgar Allan E. Yu

Joker's long-time flame and sidekick Harley Quinn, whom we last saw in Suicide Squad, is given another movie to dazzle us all. This time in the wittingly or unwittingly titled BIRDS OF PREY And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn. Why wittingly or unwittingly ? Because it is clearly Harley Quinn's movie, not the Birds Of Prey. She's front and center of the film. (And no, I'm not complaining.) It starts off from her break-up with the Clown Prince of Crime, being bitter about it, then finds herself the target of many criminals she had wronged before. Margot Robbie, who is easily the best part of Suicide Squad, naturally gets her own movie, and she gets to fully flesh-out her character. Harley gets to narrate her story, even breaking the fourth wall ala Deadpool, in ways only Harley Quinn can. It's a no-brainer that Robbie is fantastic as Harley Quinn !  

We also get to meet Dinah Lance/Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). All of these girls are making their cinematic debut, and each of them were given their moment to shine. Notice that some changes were made to their comicbook or tv versions. I just wished they had given more screen time to the Huntress.    

Ewan McGregor as bad guy Roman Sionis/Black Mask is really good in all his scenes, but I don't think he stole the show. His henchman, serial killer Victor Zsasz, played by Chris  Messina is just as good. There's some hint that there could be something more between them but it was never really explored. They do have great chemistry onscreen.   

My favorite part of the film were the action pieces which were well-choreographed and looked amazing ! I never thought Harley Quinn could fight like that. There were elements of John Wick in all those fight scenes. Chad Stahelski who directed John Wick 2 & 3 was brought in as a second-unit director.   

Overall it's a very colorful, stylish, wacky & wildly entertaining comic-book movie. I'm excited to see more of these ass-kicking girls. Rated R-16 for it's violence and language. Co-produced by Margot Robbie. Written by Christina Hodson who also wrote Bumblebee. Directed by Candy Yan who's on her first big-budget studio film. From Warner Bros. Pictures.  #BirdsOfPrey
Photos c/o Warner Bros. Pictures.