My Review of "Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn"

Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is a really long title name for a movie. As you continue to watch the movie and learn about Harley Quinn you start to understand why they titled this movie this way. I think the hesitation to this movie is probably that everyone was a little sore from the outcome of Harley's previous movie called Suicide Squad. I didn't think Suicide Squad was an absolute dumpster fire of a movie but I don't buy into hype when I watch movies either.

The movie starts out with Harley just getting over the fact that she and the Joker had finally called it quits as a couple. She's not taking it very well but yet she's come to accept the reality of the situation. In a drunken stupor she causes a huge wave of havoc in the city of Gotham.

She's letting it be known that she's now "emancipated". She's on her own and she's doing whatever she pleases. The problem is that over the years she's pissed off a ton of people in Gotham. Now that she's not under the protection of the Joker anymore, she's a moving target that everyone wants to shoot down.

Meanwhile we learn of this criminal overlord that's climbing his way to up the ladder among his criminal peers. He's basically killing everyone in his path to get this illustrious diamond that holds the key to the fortune of an underground crime family. As he ascends to power he also becomes more paranoid about the people around him. There are a number of pretty eccentric character that they have fun with in the movie.

While he's looking for this diamond there are new heroes that are introduced throughout the movie. Renee Montoya is a cop that will do anything in order to get the job done. The problem is that the system's failed her so many times that she has to do things in hiding.

Then there's a lounge singer that becomes the big criminal boss's personal driver. She's got a hard past but we don't get to know too much about her except the fact that she can fight very well. They give her the nick name of Black Canary however she doesn't seem to be much of a superhero throughout the movie.

She lives in the same building as a girl named Cassandra Cain. Cassandra's a pickpocket that seems to find the wrong things at the wrong time. I have a bit of an issue with the actress that plays this character. There were some awkward child actor moments with her that made the movie seem rather amateurish. I think they could have found a better actress to take on the role but I guess they were going for a look for this movie. I don't know.

Finally there's a mystery character better known as the Huntress. Not much is known about this character however she's pretty much the catalyst that introduces all of the new characters to one another.

The funny thing about this movie is that the title does say it all. The movie is actually about these newly introduced heroes. Spoiler alert (but it's in the title of the movie?) they all eventually form to become the Birds of Prey. It just so happens that Harley Quinn takes center stage throughout the movie.

I believe they did this because they didn't have confidence to have this as a straight up Birds of Prey movie. In reality they didn't really need Harley Quinn in this movie and it would have been fine. It's like they used her name in order to draw an audience to the movie. Much like they did with the Joker and Suicide Squad.

They should have taken a page out of the Guardians of the Galaxy book. Have confidence in creating a good story to draw in your audience rather than having famous characters bring in people for you. It detracts from the main purpose of the movie and makes it a little muddy.

There were inconsistencies throughout the movie. Much of the movie follows Harley's exploits. They're very stylized and violent but she doesn't seem to have any intent to kill anyone. She's just running around hitting people in any stylized way she can think of. Meanwhile you have characters like the Huntress just straight up murdering people left and right.

I guess you can say Harley's supposed to be psycho and not care whether they live or die however I think she's well aware that these people are going to come after her over and over again if she doesn't kill them. She even talks about something similar to this close to the end of the movie.

I don't like that they only show some of their real powers close to the end of the movie. There's so much that they could have done with some of these characters but I found that they underutilized their potentials. This was the saddest part of the movie. Even I could think of more interesting ways of using the characters. Instead they opted to play up the jokes rather than figure out cool things that the characters could be utilized to do in the story. This could possibly be remedied through a sequel if they ever get a sequel.

Overall, I thought this movie was a bit underwhelming. I was hoping for a little more but it got a little boring close to the middle of the movie. It's too bad too because I saw where they were going with this movie and it had a ton of potential. I'm just sad they didn't utilize the new characters better in this movie. I have to give this movie a 6 out of 10. I would say that you can pass on this movie because it's not all that great.