259.
Birds of Prey and the Fabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
4/10
We are heading back into the DC extended universe and a spin of from the disappointing Suicide Squad movie. Margot Robbie shall be leading the line as Harley Quinn, the one success story from the Suicide Squad movie. Directed by Cathy Yan, I have no idea what to expect from her but being a fan of DC, I wouldn't mind a good installment for once. Ewan McGregor is probably the most intriguing part of this move, who is going to be playing Black Mask. Robbie actually helped to pitch the idea of this movie to the executives around 5 years ago and the second R rated movie to come from DC Films was about to begin filming. Let's get into it and find out how crazy it can get.
The movie is not set long after the Suicide Squad. Joker has kicked Harley to the curb, which hopefully means we won't be seeing Leto in the movie. She has cut her hair, joined a roller derby team and adopted a hyena, all shown through narrative and breaking the fourth wall. From here, we are setting the scene and introduced to a few more characters in a short space of time. Harley is drinking away her troubles in Roman Sionis' club, AKA Iron Mask, played by McGregor. There, she gets into an altercation with Roman's driver and cripples him. The singer at the club is Dinah Lance and the surname resonates with me straight away, it's Black Canary. She later stops a very drunk Harley from getting abducted and Sionis witnesses this, impressed with her performance he then highers her. On the other side of town, we have a cop named Montoya looking into some killing to the mob but a crossbow killer. The same night as the killings, Harley blows up the Ace chemical plant to announce the split from Joker.
The cops know she is going to be a lot more dangerous now that she is making a name on her own.
Finally, we get down to the main story. Montoya asks Lance to be an informant on Sionis, which is rejected and Dinah Lance is then given her first job, which is to drive Victor Zsasz around to pick up a diamond and some account details from a mob family that was killed years ago. After doing so Zsasz in then pickpocketed by a new character called Cassandra Cain, who swallows the diamond when she is arrested. Harley is also run around town by some people she has wronged, including Montoya but is caught by Roman's men until she offers to get the diamond back for him in exchange for her life.
This leads us onto a chase and a change in morale as Harley and Cassandra bond. Lance informs Montoya of the diamond plot too. Now we head back to the story of the crossbow killer. Turns out its a survivor of that mob massacre. She was a young daughter of the boss at the time and is now around for revenge. Going around as the Huntress she is going to have a role to play by the end. Back at Harley's her flat is bombed as an attempt on Cain's life after the owner of the flat rats Harley out. She offers to give up Cain in exchange for Sionis' protection once again from everyone else gunning for her. He agrees to meet her at an abandoned amusement park. Lance informs Montoya but is caught out by Zsasz who then informs his own boss. This is the first time that we see Sionis don his Black Mask and truly start to lose his sanity.
At the parK, Montoya confronts Harley at gunpoint but is knocked out of a window for her troubles. Zsasz turns up and tranqs Harley, holding Cassandra at gunpoint and then waits for back up. He is taken out by the Huntress after revealing that he was the last killer on her list of killers of her family. This gives enough time for Montoya to sort her head out and a stand-off commences. It doesn't last long as Black Mask arrives outside with a small army and the girls know they need to work together to get out of this alive. The gang fights their way through a 'fun-house' but Cassandra is still captured by Sionis's men.
This leads to a car chase of sorts and plenty more roller skating. Cassandra ends up pulling the ring on a grenade that she slipped into Black Mask's jacket before Harley kicks him off a pier. That's him dealt with. Now for the loose ends. Montoya quits the force, using the account details for the money and joining up with Lance and the Huntress to start a vigilante team called the 'Birds of Prey'. Harley and Cassandra sell the diamond, start a contract killing business and we are pretty much as tied up as we can get. We even get a little mid-credit scene in which Harley is about to reveal a secret about Batman until she is cut off mid-sentence.
I'm pretty sure I left the movie with a very mixed attitude. This felt like watching Suicide Squad once again if not a slightly worse experience. Starting with some good, the movie looked brilliant, very dark and then flamboyant when scenes called for either. This was just like the Suicide Squad. This can be passed across for more compliments regarding the choreography from scene to scene. There would be some slow-motion action with Harley breaking into the police station and then the final fight scene had a contrast of styles and camera angles to showcase a lot at the same time.
As for the storyline, this is probably the weakest part of the movie for me. It's not something that gripped me in any way shape or form. For a comic-related movie, it was a very normal styled storyline and this bordered on boring. If I wanted to watch a heist style plot I could pick much better movies. If I wanted to watch a hitman movie or people on the run, there's better out there. What is going on with DC that these terrible plots are simply a non-starter for the DC universe and its spin-offs? Even the script felt forced, at times it brought a little giggled to the audience but then again, it started to feel forced. The wit and r-rated license was lost mid-way through the movie and it just became a chore to follow. The movie came across as a chick-flick by the end, which wouldn't be surprising for a female writer and director being involved. It hardly contained them as the Bird of Prey and the main villain was a shallow gay feller. He didn't develop within the movie and everything then became predictable.
Finishing off with the cast, there could be a lot to talk about but I shall try and round it up. As already mentioned, McGregor was going to be an interesting watch for me and to no fault of his own, I was left deflated. There was a chance of him being totally menacing throughout the movie but it wasn't utilized. Being more flamboyant than evil at times, the one character that I wanted to prevail was rubbish. We know about Robbie as Quinn and this carried on, we don't need to speak too much about it and the fourth wall break at times was great but her story had no arch to it. Wanting to make it one her own, she became a desperate girl trying to stay alive instead. Moving swiftly on to a couple more, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as The Huntress was a very weird moment. Not because of the choice but the way she was on screen, a very serious but awkward portrayal. Not sure where the idea came from to show the character in this way but it didn't work for me. Ella Jay Basco's character Cassandra Cain did not hit home for me. This was the character I enjoyed the very very least. There seemed to be crude for the sake of crude when it came to this girl and the overly, gangster wannabe didn't land with me sorry.
DC needs to take a step back and find out what is going wrong. Nothing seems to be hitting home and I have no idea whether their fans have tunnel vision or are reluctant to say anything bad. I prefer what the DC comics have because it is darker rather than the Disney stuff from Marvel at times. There is something fundamentally wrong with who is writing these stories and the fans need to ask more questions than where that Snyder cut is hiding. The female comic fans could well enjoy most of this movie but it may fall drastically short for the male DC fan, as it did with me.
4/10
We are heading back into the DC extended universe and a spin of from the disappointing Suicide Squad movie. Margot Robbie shall be leading the line as Harley Quinn, the one success story from the Suicide Squad movie. Directed by Cathy Yan, I have no idea what to expect from her but being a fan of DC, I wouldn't mind a good installment for once. Ewan McGregor is probably the most intriguing part of this move, who is going to be playing Black Mask. Robbie actually helped to pitch the idea of this movie to the executives around 5 years ago and the second R rated movie to come from DC Films was about to begin filming. Let's get into it and find out how crazy it can get.
The movie is not set long after the Suicide Squad. Joker has kicked Harley to the curb, which hopefully means we won't be seeing Leto in the movie. She has cut her hair, joined a roller derby team and adopted a hyena, all shown through narrative and breaking the fourth wall. From here, we are setting the scene and introduced to a few more characters in a short space of time. Harley is drinking away her troubles in Roman Sionis' club, AKA Iron Mask, played by McGregor. There, she gets into an altercation with Roman's driver and cripples him. The singer at the club is Dinah Lance and the surname resonates with me straight away, it's Black Canary. She later stops a very drunk Harley from getting abducted and Sionis witnesses this, impressed with her performance he then highers her. On the other side of town, we have a cop named Montoya looking into some killing to the mob but a crossbow killer. The same night as the killings, Harley blows up the Ace chemical plant to announce the split from Joker.
The cops know she is going to be a lot more dangerous now that she is making a name on her own.
Finally, we get down to the main story. Montoya asks Lance to be an informant on Sionis, which is rejected and Dinah Lance is then given her first job, which is to drive Victor Zsasz around to pick up a diamond and some account details from a mob family that was killed years ago. After doing so Zsasz in then pickpocketed by a new character called Cassandra Cain, who swallows the diamond when she is arrested. Harley is also run around town by some people she has wronged, including Montoya but is caught by Roman's men until she offers to get the diamond back for him in exchange for her life.
This leads us onto a chase and a change in morale as Harley and Cassandra bond. Lance informs Montoya of the diamond plot too. Now we head back to the story of the crossbow killer. Turns out its a survivor of that mob massacre. She was a young daughter of the boss at the time and is now around for revenge. Going around as the Huntress she is going to have a role to play by the end. Back at Harley's her flat is bombed as an attempt on Cain's life after the owner of the flat rats Harley out. She offers to give up Cain in exchange for Sionis' protection once again from everyone else gunning for her. He agrees to meet her at an abandoned amusement park. Lance informs Montoya but is caught out by Zsasz who then informs his own boss. This is the first time that we see Sionis don his Black Mask and truly start to lose his sanity.
At the parK, Montoya confronts Harley at gunpoint but is knocked out of a window for her troubles. Zsasz turns up and tranqs Harley, holding Cassandra at gunpoint and then waits for back up. He is taken out by the Huntress after revealing that he was the last killer on her list of killers of her family. This gives enough time for Montoya to sort her head out and a stand-off commences. It doesn't last long as Black Mask arrives outside with a small army and the girls know they need to work together to get out of this alive. The gang fights their way through a 'fun-house' but Cassandra is still captured by Sionis's men.
This leads to a car chase of sorts and plenty more roller skating. Cassandra ends up pulling the ring on a grenade that she slipped into Black Mask's jacket before Harley kicks him off a pier. That's him dealt with. Now for the loose ends. Montoya quits the force, using the account details for the money and joining up with Lance and the Huntress to start a vigilante team called the 'Birds of Prey'. Harley and Cassandra sell the diamond, start a contract killing business and we are pretty much as tied up as we can get. We even get a little mid-credit scene in which Harley is about to reveal a secret about Batman until she is cut off mid-sentence.
I'm pretty sure I left the movie with a very mixed attitude. This felt like watching Suicide Squad once again if not a slightly worse experience. Starting with some good, the movie looked brilliant, very dark and then flamboyant when scenes called for either. This was just like the Suicide Squad. This can be passed across for more compliments regarding the choreography from scene to scene. There would be some slow-motion action with Harley breaking into the police station and then the final fight scene had a contrast of styles and camera angles to showcase a lot at the same time.
As for the storyline, this is probably the weakest part of the movie for me. It's not something that gripped me in any way shape or form. For a comic-related movie, it was a very normal styled storyline and this bordered on boring. If I wanted to watch a heist style plot I could pick much better movies. If I wanted to watch a hitman movie or people on the run, there's better out there. What is going on with DC that these terrible plots are simply a non-starter for the DC universe and its spin-offs? Even the script felt forced, at times it brought a little giggled to the audience but then again, it started to feel forced. The wit and r-rated license was lost mid-way through the movie and it just became a chore to follow. The movie came across as a chick-flick by the end, which wouldn't be surprising for a female writer and director being involved. It hardly contained them as the Bird of Prey and the main villain was a shallow gay feller. He didn't develop within the movie and everything then became predictable.
Finishing off with the cast, there could be a lot to talk about but I shall try and round it up. As already mentioned, McGregor was going to be an interesting watch for me and to no fault of his own, I was left deflated. There was a chance of him being totally menacing throughout the movie but it wasn't utilized. Being more flamboyant than evil at times, the one character that I wanted to prevail was rubbish. We know about Robbie as Quinn and this carried on, we don't need to speak too much about it and the fourth wall break at times was great but her story had no arch to it. Wanting to make it one her own, she became a desperate girl trying to stay alive instead. Moving swiftly on to a couple more, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as The Huntress was a very weird moment. Not because of the choice but the way she was on screen, a very serious but awkward portrayal. Not sure where the idea came from to show the character in this way but it didn't work for me. Ella Jay Basco's character Cassandra Cain did not hit home for me. This was the character I enjoyed the very very least. There seemed to be crude for the sake of crude when it came to this girl and the overly, gangster wannabe didn't land with me sorry.
DC needs to take a step back and find out what is going wrong. Nothing seems to be hitting home and I have no idea whether their fans have tunnel vision or are reluctant to say anything bad. I prefer what the DC comics have because it is darker rather than the Disney stuff from Marvel at times. There is something fundamentally wrong with who is writing these stories and the fans need to ask more questions than where that Snyder cut is hiding. The female comic fans could well enjoy most of this movie but it may fall drastically short for the male DC fan, as it did with me.
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