"Birds of Prey" is pseudo-feminist garbage.

[DetlefK]

Overall:

+ Fantastic cinematopgrahy, wonderful shots.

- Absolutely crappy script:
-- Exposition by voice-over.
-- Mixed-up time-lines as if it's a story narrated out-of-order by Harley Quinn, but then the story somehow is in order and she stops narrating it, and in the end we are back to narrating because writing a proper epilogue was too hard.
-- Telling instead of showing. We are supposed to feel sorry because HQ is an abused woman... Except we never see actual abuse. The audience gets TOLD that she was abused. And then we find out that HQ is an abuser who: 1. beats up other people for fun, 2. breaks other people's knees for fun, 3. tattoos other people's faces for fun, 4. blows up a chemical plant for fun (undoubtedly killing the dozen security-guards and technicians on night-shift there and choking Gotham City with toxic fumes that will undoubtedly send dozens of people to hospital), 5. has her pet-hyena kill a guy because he said something sexually creepy.

Harley Quinn is a mentally unstable psychopath who hurts and kills people with zero remorse. And then this mentally unstable psychopath narrates to us that she was abused and we, the audience, are supposed to believe that at face-value AND we are supposed to accept that as an excuse and forget that she still remains a mentally unstable psychopath who hurts and kills people with zero remorse.

And don't come at me how she obviously must be a nice person because this sandwich-guy and her landlord like her. SHE IS THE PSYCHOPATH GIRLFRIEND OF A PSYCHOPATH MOB-BOSS. Why would anybody like her as a person??? Does anyone really think that the sandwich-guy and her landlord would treat her nicely if she were ugly?

And her "emancipation?" Her realizing that she's her own woman and doesn't need anyone and can live her goddamn-life however she wants? That's an epiphany that's artificially tacked on to the movie at the very end in a scene that's 10 seconds long. Harley Quinn has no character-growth throughout the movie! Her emancipation has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the movie! It's as badly and artificially tacked on as an afterthought as the LGBT-scene in SW:RoS.



The actresses and characters:

++ Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress: The best. A remorseless killer who's at the same time comically socially inept and a vulnerable woman fighting a childhood-trauma. It's a shame that she has only about 5 minutes of screentime.

+ Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn: Very good. It's just a shame that the Harley Quinn-character is so badly written.

0 Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya: Meh. She's okay. And the Renee Montoya-character is sooo badly written as well. SOMEHOW every single one of her all-male colleagues treats her badly, with not setup or explanation given. She's obviously a very good cop, but her colleagues don't care about that because they are men and men are evil. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil!

0 Ewan Mcgregor as Roman Sionis: Okay. Manic but hollow. Too bad that the Roman Sionis-character has no characteristics beyond wanting power, being a misogynist and having fits of rage.

- Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary: Bad. No emotional range. Obviously cast for her looks, which is the absolute opposite of the feminist intention of the movie.

-- Ella Jay Baco as Cassandra Cain: SO BAD. No emotions throughout the movie. She shows emotions ONCE in a shot that lasts less than 5 seconds before the other actresses remind her that she's a damsel-in-distress and that the grown-up women here are the heroes.



The action-scenes make no sense:

- HQ walks into a police-precinct and shoots it up with non-lethal gun that takes 5 seconds to reload after each shot, WHILE NONE OF THE 20 COPS HAS A GUN AND THEY RUN AWAY FROM HER IN TERROR!

- The police knocks on her apartment-door. Some criminal out for revenge throws fireworks through the window and they mess up the room. The explosion is so weak, no one inside gets harmed. Any second now the cops will kick in the door... any second... any second... Nope. THE COPS OUTSIDE HER APARTMENT-DOOR HAVE SOMEHOW DISAPPEARED.

- Sometimes the criminals inexplicably don't have guns. Sometimes they are so bad shots that not even a hail of bullets can hit a heroine. Sometimes they run up to our unarmed heroine and try to shoot her from distance of 1 foot.

- And we are supposed to believe that when HQ wears rollerskates, is standing still and hits a guy with a baseball-bat, then it's not her who will be shoved away (because, you know, she's the one on wheels). Nope, it's the guy who has his feet on the ground who will be thrown back.

+ But at least, in contrast to the new Charlie's Angels, the heroines are strong, athletic women who can ACTUALLY believably throw a punch. They aren't skinny 5-foot models a strong gust would carry away.



"How dare you criticize this feminist masterpiece!!!!!!!"

Where is the feminism? Where?

Harley Quinn has no character-growth all movie long and then she has an epiphany right before she kills the bad guy. 10-second-instant-feminism. Just add boiling water and stir. Very impressive.

Black Canary has a creepy male boss and then she no longer has a creepy male boss, because he's a mobster dying a violent death. Where's the feminism?

Huntress is exacting revenge on the murderers of her family who just so happen to be male. Where is the feminism?

Cassandra Cain is an orphan pick-pocket, a girl that gets dragged along and bossed around by other characters. Where is the feminism?

Renee Montoya quits the police-force after the script yet again twists itself into knots to put her down. Is that feminism?

Faced with the choice of getting killed or working together, the women decide to work together. Wait, don't tell me. THAT IS FEMINISM!!! Did I get it?

[Croney]

1. Maybe you should give a spoiler warning? We wanted to see this today.

[Loki Liesmith]

2. I really don't understand this review.

Quinn is a psychopath. That’s kind of the point of her character. We aren’t talking about Superman here. She’s at best an antihero. She kills people for fun.


So she claims to be abused? Maybe she was but she’s an unreliable narrator. Which, again, is part of the point of the character. She’s convinced herself a serial killer loves her, for God’s sake.

[Aussie105]

3. Sounds like a revenge movie?

You know, world (males) hasn't been nice to the girls, girls need to get revenge?

Or just an excuse of a movie to cater for and please the repressed violence against the world in general in some females?

Often thought some expressions of feminism were anti-male in their nature, not a search for equality. Not a movie worth seeing, really.

[DetlefK]

6. Oh, it's very nice in terms of cinematography. The story is simply bad.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Voted thumbs down when I saw the trailer at the theater.

[TlalocW]

5. Eh, hopefully you're "wrong"

Cuz I was to enjoy this movie.

I thought Margot's HQ was the only saving grace of the hot mess that was, "Suicide Squad," and I've been in love with Rosie Perez since the late 80s, but also, I was hoping that it would do boffo at the box-office just to piss off the people who tried to put, "Captain Marvel," and "Wonder Woman," into an early grave because they don't like strong female leads. Not saying you're that kind. There's a way to present a story with a particular narrative, but if you do it too ham-fistedly it doesn't make for a good experience even if it's a message you support.

The Harley Quinn cartoon on DC's streaming service, while very violent, is very funny, focuses on Harley trying to break away from her abusive relationship with the Joker and has a lot o quirky takes on familiar characters, one of the best being Bane, who speaks like Tom Hardy's rendition from, "The Dark Knight," rises, and it's implied that the real reason he blew up Gotham Stadium was because he got a bar trivia question wrong about which visiting team had played there the most.

TlalocW

[appalachiablue]

7. Trailer. Run, don't walk, nightmare