Birds of Prey: Non-spoiler review

I wasn’t going to write a review for Birds of Prey, but the narrative around this movie is trash, so here I am.

What a good crew.

Remember when I wrote that whole piece about how people get too upset about politics in pop-culture? I talked about how people get so worked up over certain themes, about how the moment something looks ‘woke’ they get into a panic. Case in point: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). The posters came out, and looked like a new brand of weird, stylistic fun! Responses trashed them for being jarring and ‘poorly conceived’ – okay, perhaps. The trailers came out and promised something fun and fresh. But some people still went vitriolic. Now that the movie is actually out, things haven’t gotten much better. While a lot of the film people I follow have genuinely enjoyed the movie, I still saw a lot of people spewing hate at the movie by sheer virtue of its existence, to the point where there was a whole initiative to make sure Sonic the Hedgehog got a bugger opining that Birds of Prey. That would all be one thing; what really riles me is the story that’s been painted since. A lot of articles have described this movie as a ‘flop,’ as some disastrous effort by DC and Warner Bros, with the implicit message of ‘this feminist movie did bad! Stop making them!’ But, that’s not even remotely fair – Birds of Prey is admittedly doing lower than projections, and opened far lower than, say, Suicide Squad or Wonder Woman, but opened fairly comparatively to Ant-Man with a far smaller budget. All this is without noting Birds of Prey’s R-rating, something that makes it intrinsically more, well, restrictive. I’ve run the numbers – it’s not a smash hit, clearly, but to call it a ‘bomb’ is dramatically overstepping matters.

I say all this because I worry that this whole narrative has spurned a lot of interested people away. By claiming that the movie is a failure, critics dissuade others from seeing it, and thus making it a failure. While I obviously doubt that my word is going to dramatically change things, I hope that I’ll be able to shine a new light on the movie for at least a few people. So, was Birds of Prey the disaster that many are saying it is?

Far, far from it.

The action in this scene in particular is an A+

Like, Birds of Prey isn’t a perfect movie, I’ll grant that. Ella Jay Basco’s character, while great, really has no resemblance to the Cassandra Cain of the comics – like, on a fundamental level. I would have liked a little more time with the team fully assembled. But there is so very much that this movie does right. First of all, the action. Birds of Prey has some of the best action I’ve seen in a comic book movie recently. Unlike movies like Captain America: Winter Soldier or Suicide Squad, which start with fairly grounded action but conclude in a high-end spectacle, Birds of Prey finds a perfect climax for its tone. It sticks to solid, hand-to-hand combat, and always pulls it off with amazing style. Like, nothing has really managed to sell me on Harley Quinn as an active force in Gotham like this movie did. Her acrobatic fight style is amazing, and some of the movies she pulls off with her bat are just as memorable as anything you’d see Captain America do with his shield. That’s all without mentioning how stellar Huntress and Montoya and Black Canary are.

Ewan McGrego is positively terrifying and I love it.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about those characters. Going in, I anticipated Harley Quinn to take up much of the focus, with the Birds of Prey themselves being relegated to the relative background. And, to an extent, that’s true. Harley Quinn is definitely our protagonist. But to my surprise, the rest of the crew get plenty of time to shine. Everyone has depth and has well-developed motivations, and compelling character beats. There’s one in particular between Huntress and Cassandra Cain towards the end that breaks my heart, it’s incredible. And while many of the takes of these characters are probably a little different than usual (for example, this reads more like Black Canary’s origin story than a proper movie with Black Canary), a lot of the changes really work in the movie’s favour. We get to see genuine growth in a lot of the characters, making the finale all the more satisfying. I loved all of these characters far more than I expected myself to. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is so much fun, she nails this balance between being cool and dynamic and empathetic and being the psychotic criminal we know and love. I’d be remiss to leave out Ewan McGregor’s Roman Sionis, the Black Mask. He is terrifying and menacing and charismatic and so much more wrapped up in one figure. He is easily the best villain in the DCEU. Altogether, the cast in this movie is nothing short of incredible.

Honestly, I want a sequel just for more of socially-awkward ace assassin Helena Bartenelli.

But honestly, more than anything else, Birds of Prey is just such an entertaining ride. My guy Daniel Pemberton kills it with a wild score, and the soundtrack album backing it up is just as good. Together, they give all the punk vibes a movie like this requires. Cathy Yen’s directing is frenetic but in a way that maintains coherency, bringing all the stylistic aesthetics that Suicide Squad wanted to have but missed. Honestly, on every level, this feels like a fulfillment of all that which Suicide Squad initially promised. It’s manic, violent, and very much earns its R-rating. But unlike Deadpool, which sometimes feels as if it’s using its rating only to be more vulgar, Birds of Prey’s comically frenzied violence and world seems to necessitate its rating. I saw someone describe this as the movie that shows why Gotham needs Batman, and that’s not far off. Gotham in this movie is nasty, violent, flamboyant, and over the top. But there’s no Batman in view to save anyone, our cast is going to have to do it themselves. Which is a discussion all on its own.

I wasn't expecting to be sold on Jurnee Smollett's Black Canary, but I really want to see him come into her own in a follow-up movie, now. Give us a Green Arrow & Black Canary team-up, DC.

Obviously, there are feminist themes on full display here. But for those worried about some sort of ‘woke SJW movie,’ I don’t think you’ll find one. Birds of Prey is a feminist movie in the sense that it features a group of women claiming their own identities and fighting an obsessive male gangster. But, like, it’s also a very strong movie in isolation. It’s a competent stand-alone, not really requiring much if any knowledge about the surrounding DCEU, and it’s confident in its own story. To reduce it to just a ‘woke’ movie is to miss the point. Frankly, it also costs you a very solid movie. Don’t think about it as something with some ‘SJW’ agenda, think of it as, you know, a fun comic book movie with women in it. Because at the end of the day, that’s what it is.

Again, Birds of Prey isn’t perfect, but it also doesn’t need to be. It’s energetic and entertaining. It’s wildly frenetic and presents the sort of seedy-yet-fun, violent superhero criminal movie I think people have been looking for. If Suicide Squad didn’t scratch that itch for you (and let’s be honest, it probably didn’t), then I think Birds of Prey just might.