Birds of Prey and the fantabulous emancipation of one harley quinn (2020)

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The concept of a comic book emancipation movie sounds good on paper and is obviously very timely... but the execution was average at best. There are good moments in the movie, don't get me wrong, but it's not as funny as it thinks it is.

This is a long held personal opinion but Harley is no Deadpool. Both characters in essence balance between irritation and comedy, but Deadpool is the one who's actually funny and likable. Harley is just annoying to me. Sorry, but I've never liked this character. It might be the voice or just trying too hard... I don't know, I don't get her.

It doesn't help that the titular Birds have so little development. The actresses are mostly pretty solid and that's why Montoya and Huntress are still pretty good. Unfortunately, Canary is supermeh, and Cassandra is horrible... when compared to the comic. If you treat her as a completely new character, she works pretty great in the movie and is not an issue for me at all. But fans of the character will not be pleased (personally I've never cared about the character so I'm not bothered by the changes).

What I really liked is Black Mask and Zsasz! Ewan is campy, exaggerated, but he commands the scenes he's in. They are absolutely bad to the bone and in a movie where every man seems to be evil as per the intention of the filmmakers, these two still stand out. Of course, their ending is also badly done, but when they are on screen they're fun to hate.

And some quick points: poorly executed action scenes (hacky sack launcher and R don't match), but the made good use of R rating in the dialogue, decent cinematography and music choices.

I'll give it a mixed 5/10. It's not a terrible time, it runs fast when it's not too cringy, but ultimately it leaves you with nothing.

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That's a good review and I have a lot of similar sentiments.

I do like that the movie does not take itself so seriously though and it has fun with the comedy and overall tone.

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Batfan175 wrote:
April 5th, 2020, 2:03 am
Good news: the director is planning a sequel featuring Poison Ivy:
https://www.thewrap.com/birds-of-prey-d ... ivy-video/

It'll be pretty hard to present their relationship better than the animated 2019 Harley Quinn show though.
Bad news, BoP was a financial flop. Well, not so much considering a budget, perhaps superearly VOD and quaranten helped. I would certainly hope to see more Harley beyond Suicide Squad by Gunn.

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m4st4 wrote:
April 6th, 2020, 11:34 pm
Batfan175 wrote:
April 5th, 2020, 2:03 am
Good news: the director is planning a sequel featuring Poison Ivy:
https://www.thewrap.com/birds-of-prey-d ... ivy-video/

It'll be pretty hard to present their relationship better than the animated 2019 Harley Quinn show though.
Bad news, BoP was a financial flop. Well, not so much considering a budget, perhaps superearly VOD and quaranten helped. I would certainly hope to see more Harley beyond Suicide Squad by Gunn.
I don’t see this getting any kind of theatrical sequel.

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The starring part is some of the funniest lines they ever had.

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Even if this ends up never getting a sequel, imo it's one of the best comicbook movies ever made.

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Batfan175 wrote:
April 7th, 2020, 2:49 pm
Even if this ends up never getting a sequel, imo it's one of the best comicbook movies ever made.
Why do you say this? What makes it one of the best?

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Batfan175 wrote:
April 7th, 2020, 2:49 pm
Even if this ends up never getting a sequel, imo it's one of the best comicbook movies ever made.
It was pretty good, but the non-Harley characters needed to be developed better.

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bootsy wrote:
April 7th, 2020, 10:13 pm
Batfan175 wrote:
April 7th, 2020, 2:49 pm
Even if this ends up never getting a sequel, imo it's one of the best comicbook movies ever made.
Why do you say this? What makes it one of the best?
Honestly, the characters (especially Harley, Black Canary, Black Mask, etc.) were tons of fun and well-played by all the actors (Ewan McGregor actually reminded me of Gary Oldman from Léon a couple of times) and this is a superhero film where every single character dynamic reinforces and works to build on the underlying theme, which is women's (lack of) power in society as expressed through the different interpersonal relationships (Montoya and her colleague, Harley and her abusive relationship with the Joker, Black Canary and her boss Black Mask, Huntress and the mobsters) and their quest to gain some sort of agency and a) I have not seen many superhero films tackle this thematic and b) I have not seen many other superhero films that center all their characters around a central theme this well without it being preachy and heavy-handed but this manages to avoid that very nicely. I also enjoy that it is a small-scale story that manages to be unabashedly fun without all the CG explosions and the world-ending stakes. The action is inventive and fun and the soundtrack rocks. Don't need more than that. I'm not saying it's better than The Dark Knight but I am quite sure there is no other superhero flick like it.

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