Birds Of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Cathy Yan, February 7, 2020) Movie • Page 10

Blah this is not having a good opening weekend. Please make everyone you know go support this so the studio isn’t like “welp, can’t make anymore women team up movies”.


That being said, seeing this shortly.

 

Something else I liked about this is that it had some fourth wall stuff but didn't ever feel too obnoxious. I know some people find Harley to be too much, but she works for me in a way that the "look at me! look at me!" Deadpool doesn't. Some small pieces of marketing here & there had me worried, especially when the initial reactions were throwing out Deadpool comparisons. That's definitely the field they're playing in, but, I dunno, it just doesn't have that same dumb Family Guy vibe that keeps me at arm's length from Wade.

 

Yeah Deadpool is just annoying, you can see why everyone finds Harley annoying but she's still lovable

 

I appreciated that they actually showed how smart Harley can be too.

 

some of the fourth wall stuff was a little much for me. I enjoyed the smaller winks but there was a whole lot of exposition they had to try to make entertaining in the first half or so and it could miss the mark sometimes.

Harley and Deadpool are characters that can be one-note in the wrong hands, they're characters that basically have to be on for the whole movie and that energy can be a lot. Luckily this film was able to be fun to look at, while the Deadpool movies are weirdly stagnant looking visually, and even when their action is well-choreographed, I don't remember much about it. I found the energy and style to Birds of Prey just enjoyable to experience visually. Loved the glitter.

Definitely felt a little corporate feminism-y, but I didn't really expect anything else. A lot of the soundtrack was so overtly hitting you over the head, sometimes it worked (the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes sequence), some of it just felt a little too obvious, even for a Harley Quinn fronted movie. But as shallow as this was, it's basically the best case scenario for a comic book movie. They're getting so stale to me, and this was refreshing. Loved it ten times more than Endgame if I'm being real.

 

I also think Harley had more heart than Deadpool. I know some people like those stories, but the cutesy irony there just really kept me from ever being invested in any of the shallow attempts at heart. (I do generally enjoy Deadpool 2, but in spite of the main character, mostly just out of 90s X-title nostalgia.) Here, the shenanigans & the heart actually worked together to paint a character that I cared about.

As for the corporate feminism... I dunno. I feel like I'd personally view "corporate feminism" more so as tacked on elements (Captain Marvel & a couple Dark Phoenix scenes come to mind), vs heavy handed storytelling, which is something I'm pretty forgiving of when we're talking superheroes. It's hamfisted, but it's also sincere & driven by the characters & story instead of tacked on to signal marketable "wokeness."

 

I mean, the movie is partially marketable “wokeness”, but it does come organically from the story, unlike say, the lesbian kiss in Star Wars or the female heroes lining up to protect Spider-Man in Endgame. I just kind of take it as the way these movies are kind of going to be made for the most part, but it wasn’t insulting in this movie, just the nature of the movie and I think it works.

 

I think the movie's also relatively anti-capitalist, I mean people act like Joker has something to say about mental health and poverty but I feel like this actually does it better accidentally haha, I mean Harley has $1 t0 her name and Roman is a Colonialist with generational wealth who bitches about how hard his life is

 

I had a great time with this movie.

Whoever decided what Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Huntress would be deserves a gold medal. She stole the movie (and stole my heart a second time, after her Ramona performance.)

 

I enjoyed this a lot. Huntress was great and I'm a sucker for anything with Ewan.

 

Only thought this was ok. I really liked the Birds of Prey, but they felt like an afterthought with Huntress and Black Canary having very little to do. Also I liked the character of Cassandra Cain, but when using the name of an established character, that gives me some expectations of who that character is and she was the exact opposite of her comic counterpart and should have just had a different name. Overall it was fun but had so much underdeveloped and unused potential IMO.

 

If this movie had less or no voice over and was told in order I would of liked it more tbh

 

Totally disagree w/ Black Canary not having much to do. She & Renee both had pretty substantial roles imo. The only character who felt sidelined ‘til the end was Huntress, which I was fine w/ ‘cause she popped into the other characters’ plots pretty organically & was ultimately intentionally mysterious, both dramatically & comedically.

Probably would’ve made sense to call this “Harley Quinn & the Birds of Prey” instead of “Birds of Prey: [subtitle],” as much as I love how extra “The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn” is. But, I don’t agree w/ anyone who’d go as far as to say this isn’t a Birds of Prey film.

 

I agree with Tim. Canary had a ton of screen time imo

 

Also from what I can gather Margot was adament that she wouldn't make just a Harley movie right

 

I’m a big fan of the comics/JLU series character so that may be clouding my view but between this and Arrow, I don’t think she’s been given justice in live action yet. She spends most of her time just looking uncomfortable at what Sionis is doing and while she has a lot of screen time, I don’t think she got much development/focus in most of those scenes.

 

I'm in the same boat as you on this one

 

This is maybe my favorite cinematic Gotham City. Burton’s had a lot of personality, similar to Birds of Prey. Nolan’s was almost too realistic to be unique, it felt like a generic city, despite the cinematic realism, and I can’t tell you much about the BvS Gotham except that it’s across the bay from Metropolis. Joker’s Gotham is New York Lite by way of Scorsese Lite.

 

is.... is BvS' Gotham not the same Gotham as this?

 

I've had the same thought since seeing the film, though '89 Gotham is so iconic & influential that it feels weird to compare. Barring maybe that version, though, definitely the best live action adaptation of Gotham.

I mean, it is, but like, in the same way that Dark World's Thor is the same as Ragnarok's Thor. Or, how different writers & artists' versions of characters in the comics are technically the same, but executed in different ways.

 

I'm crazy about that hair tie moment too, it really made me happy to see so many subtle things like that. The more I think about this movie, the more I love it.

 

This is the most fun I've had with a DCEU movie, which is saying a lot because I really enjoyed Shazam. I love Harley's narration and how it affects the structure of the movie, plus the on-screen information was consistently hilarious. The action is tastefully stylized, over-the-top without being too gory/Deadpool-y--the slow-mo only accentuates the brutality. The entire ensemble was great, but MEW and Ewan really stole the show (they barely had any scenes together, though--I almost forgot they're dating irl). Probably the only weak point is this Zsasz had too much Leto-Joker vibes; idk how he is in the comics but the only time I really enjoyed the character was in the Arkham games. I like how they managed to incorporate so many Asian side-characters in addition to having EJB as a lead; I wonder how much Cathy Yan had to do with that--was not at all expecting an Ali Wong cameo.

 

Random thought: Thor: Ragnarok was the most fun I've had with an MCU movie. Clearly Asians are killing it behind the camera. It's so stupid that it's taking so long for us to get an Asian superhero in the lead.

 

Stanning JSB. Really enjoyed the movie. I appreciate that it was pretty confined in a couple of day time period and on one main event. Excited to see where they go with these characters in the future.