Birds of Prey take topflight

 

Dylan Frazier

frazierd@findlay.edu

@dylanfrazier44

 

With two bad trailers and not much marketing, I was very worried that Birds of Prey would be a disaster, I am glad I was wrong. The colors, the humor, the actions made this Harley Quinn-led movie a real treat at the box office. It’s a shame it isn’t’ doing better as far as financial success goes.

 

As a sequel to the very much hated Suicide Squad, this film follows the aftermath of Harley Quinn getting dumped by the Joker. She tries to find herself and where she sits at the table, as well as trying to stay alive because everyone in Gotham wants her dead. Harley soon realizes she needs some help to save not only herself but everyone she cares about.

 

There’s a lot to like about this movie and for the biggest thing was Margot Robbie’s performance as Harley Quinn. She just puts so much into the character and it’s great to see how much she cares about her role. She’s funny, she’s violent, but above all, she does a great job humanizing the character that’s a criminal. Her interactions with all of the characters were easily my favorite part of the movie, especially with Ewan McGregor’s portrayal of Black Mask (We’ll get to him in a second). Robbie gave it her all and she should be praised universally.

 

As mentioned previously, Ewan McGregor was phenomenal in his role and was an incredible villain for this movie. He was sinister, violent, but somehow extremely charming and lovable in all the worst ways. The way he could go from the nice guy who owns a night club to a guy who wants to kill anyone who gets in his way. I could have watched a two-hour movie on him and his rise to a kingpin in Gotham, it’s a shame we won’t.

 

My only complaint is the first 40 minutes was really bizarre and it took forever to get going. Maybe it’s just I like getting into the plot without having the plot explained, but I like diving right into stories. It’s not major in any way, just more of personal preference. This is NOT my complaint, but rather just an observation, I could see some people hating the way it was told initially. It’s a non-linear story and it jumps around a bit at first, it can be a bit much at times, but I didn’t hate it, I thought it was something new for the genre.

 

I really did like this movie and I wish it was doing better financially, it only made $80 million worldwide opening weekend after it was projected to make $120 million. Even with that, I can’t recommend this enough it appeals to so many crowds.

My score: 84/100

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