The Harley Quinn movie is good somehow.

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is a real movie that is actually called that, and it’s somehow good.

This year we’re getting this, Black Widow, Mulan, and Wonder Woman 2, so if ever there’s a time to make female lead action movies happen it’s now. And they somehow didn’t fuck this one up so maybe there is hope yet.

The movie balances 5 characters that all have clear goals and established motivations, and enough of an arc to make the movie satisfying to watch.

It has the best fight choreography in an action movie from the past year other than John Wick 3. They’re just really well shot action sequences done in long, wide takes where you can see everything that’s happening

The movie has a lot of style in the way that makes it feel like the vision of a director. It uses lots of pop/rock songs for the fight scenes but at least they time the action to the music, and it reflects the tone of the scene.

The movie is also rated R, because of course it is. It’s an action-crime-drama in the same vein as Snatch, starring super-villains and vigilantes. It’s kind of baffling that Suicide Squad wasn’t rated R when you think about it.

The reason this movie works is that it’s a good, well put together action movie with dynamic characters and creatively well shot fight scenes.

On top of that, the movie managed to deliver a version of Harley Quinn that was not offensive or completely terrible. They cover her entire origin in the first 2 minutes in an animation that is more compelling than anything in Suicide Squad. They also don’t make Harley a straight up role model like they do in other versions. She even says multiple times that she is a bad person, and she doesn’t get a cheap or easy redemption. The movie remembers the interesting things about Harley as a character like how she used to be a psychiatrist, and uses it to enhance her character as she’ll often diagnose her peers mid-conversation. The movie even briefly explores the darker aspects of character with a musical dream sequence that kind of implies that she gets off on physical abuse. The scene is vague enough that it could be interpreted more than one way, but that's also what's interesting about it.

There’s even a cool moment with Cassandra Caine (who is a very different character from the comics, but I digress) where she doesn’t know who the Joker is, so Harley realizes that she actually likes her for her. It’s actually kinda subtle too.

Ewan McGregor was really good as the villain. I’m not sure exactly what they were going for since he is clearly coded gay, but also misogynistic, but I like how different his performance is and Ewan seems to be having a blast. I also think they missed a big opportunity with the way they end his character. So, SPOILERS in the next paragraph:

So the whole movie Black Mask has been cutting people's faces off to prove how evil he is, and he has this Green Goblin mask motif going on in his lair, so I thought he would get his face cut off at the end, forcing him to wear the Black Mask mask permanently, or it would melt to his face or something like that, in order to more closely resemble the character from the comics. But no such luck. Instead, he just explodes. But, at least the explosion was violent and memorable.

On gripes, my only other real issue with the movie is there’s this one scene where Harley bursts into a police station and just starts taking out cops like she’s the fucking Terminator, and not one of them remembers that they have guns and can just shot her. But other than that eye-roller, the rest of the action is really good. Even the following sequence is vastly improved because even though Harley is mostly invincible, Cassandra, who she now has to protect, is not. Suddenly there are stakes, thus a much more interesting scene.

So a while ago I did a video about Suicide Squad, (don't look it up) where I tried to improve the movie by pitching this scene that involved the song Hit Me with Your Best Shot, by Pat Benatar. And guess which song shows up in the movie. That’s right, a weird cover of Hit Me with Your Best Shot. Now I’m not saying they stole my idea, but I’m also not not saying that.

I work at a movie theatre and decided to do an experiment where I kept track of what people called the movie. 3 people asked to see "Harley Quinn," and 2 people asked to see "Birds of Prey." So all that I really learned is that not many people went to see this movie. But yes, I think that the title is ridiculous and that people don’t really know what to call it. Even some of the trailer’s are like fuck it, it’s “Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey” Like she’s James Bond, and this movie is just one of many Harley Quinn adventures. Why not just call the movie "Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey?" I don’t think the title alone is what is causing this movie to underperform, but it definitely isn’t helping.

On that, the movie had a budget of around $84 million, but, at the time of recording, has only made $95 M at the box office. Double the budget for marketing, $164 M, and that’s how much the movie needs to break even. It’s still early, so the movie could still make its money back, but I kinda think it’s too bad that it is underperforming, considering how unique this film is compared to your garden-variety Marvel movie that makes a billion dollars no matter what.

This movie kind of had everything I wanted. It’s a good movie with a unique style and vision, and incredibly well shot action scenes. Harley Quinn is an a really interesting and compelling character when done correctly, but for some reason DC tends to forget all of that and just uses her to sell backpacks. And yet, somehow, this movie responsibly doesn't do that. They deliver a version of Harley that is actually interesting, and a true anti-hero. Also, there have been what, 8 live-action Batman movies, and somehow this is the first one to have a third act set in an abandoned amusement park!? Anyways, with this and Shazam, DC might have actually finally figured out how to make good movies. It’s not that hard guys, so I expect good things in the future.