Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
2020
Running time: 109 min
Genre: Action, comedy
Director: Cathy Yan
"...action-packed and displays fantastic stunt work that gives it a spectacular flair accompanying the visuals and the film’s editing."
Taking off from the first screen appearance of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street; I, Tonya) in the movie Suicide Squad (2016), Birds of Prey brings forth to the stage Quinn’s ostentatious and unpredictable character together with a little help from her new friends. Director Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs, 2018) maintains the glittery and manic personality of Harley Quinn while still giving the new characters their own moments in this exciting addition to the ‘DC Extended Universe’.
The great thing about the film is its ability to let you understand the whole plot and back story without going back to the first installment of the Suicide Squad. It tells the viewer right away who Harlene Quinzel is and her past up to the circumstances that led to her ‘emancipation’ as a result of her break-up with the Joker (which is shown as series of previous footage from the prequel). However, with such freedom and lack of partner-in-crime, she is now the one being hunted by those she offended one way or another. One of them is the notorious gangster Roman Sionis a.k.a. Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), but Harley comes into terms with Roman by agreeing to find a diamond that has been stolen from his vicious accomplice, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina).
The plot seems to be chaotic at first as different profiles are presented in a seemingly incoherent way. But as Harley narrates the back story and introduces us to her friends and enemies, everything becomes clearer as the movie gains its momentum. Good thing Yan and Robbie are able to tie it up and make the story comprehensible amidst Harley’s scattered mind. And the alliance was not too late to be organised either as Helena Bertinelli a.k.a. The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Dinah Lance a.k.a. Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) fight off Black Mask’s mob to save Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco).
Birds of Prey is action-packed and displays fantastic stunt work that gives it a spectacular flair accompanying the visuals and the film’s editing. With the predominantly female cast and crew, I sense an illustration of women empowerment while reminding us of a Deadpool-esque story-telling that is violently entertaining. Bonus for having a Filipino cast (Ella Jay Basco) and Yan being the first female Asian director to do direct a Hollywood superhero film.
Watch the trailer here:
I think the movie catches attention but it feels like I've seen most of what I watched here before. That's just me though. How about you?
*original version of this article appears in Getamungstit March 2020, Issue 02, Vol. 06, written by me
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