Loud, stylized, bombastic, fun, and flawed. These are the 5 words that come to mind when I think of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Don't worry; I won't use the obnoxiously long title throughout my review. I honestly had a lot of fun watching the film, though I see the obvious flaws with it.
Starting with my positives, Margot Robbie solidified herself as Harley Quinn. She was the obvious stand-out in the film. I honestly rank her portrayal of Harley with the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Hugh Jackman, and Heath Ledger in terms of solidifying a comic book character. She quite admittedly carried a decent amount of the movie. I also have to give her major credit for all the stunts that she performed. Not many actors or actresses today do their own stunts. Robbie went above and beyond in her role.
Birds of Prey looked gorgeous. The cinematography was great throughout the film. There was a good mixture of "wallpaper shots" as well as shots that were extremely well-framed and color-graded. The amount of color used in this film was insane. It seemed like every fifteen minutes there was a new creative use of color that looked gorgeous. This was my favorite DCEU film visually since Batman V Superman, and that's saying a lot personally since I think the DCEU, regardless of quality, has stunning visuals.
Ewan McGregor was plain fun as Black Mask. He was over-the-top, loud, and eccentric; you could tell he was having a blast in the role. His performance reminded me a lot of Patrick Wilson's in Into the Tall Grass. These performances were both by great actors letting loose. An extremely random comparison, I know. However, it's still fresh in my mind since I watched it recently. His mask also looked amazing in limited screentime.
Though I found the storytelling to be jarring at times, I think it worked well for the most part. I really like the narration by Harley throughout the film. It felt like she was in charge of the storytelling the entire time. I think it was unique to the genre and provided quite a bit of the comedy throughout the film.
As for my negatives, my biggest one has to be the plot. It's paper-thin. It is about an hour and twenty minutes of true plot. The other thirty minutes is a retelling of one scene from different perspectives. I didn't mind the retelling aspect but the plot itself is a major negative. There's no clear beginning, middle, and end to the film in reality. Everything just kind of happens. By the time the third act rolls around, you're like "Oh, I guess it's time for the third act fight against Black Mask."
I also found most of the characters other than Harley and Black Mask were extremely underdeveloped. Huntress and Zsasz, in particular, were underused and underdeveloped.
My final negative with Birds of Prey is the title. No, not the length of the full title, I mean actually having Birds of Prey mentioned. It's simply not a Birds of Prey movie. It's Harley's movie with the characters in it. I'm not complaining because I didn't like Margot's portrayal, don't get me wrong. It's just fairly misleading.
In conclusion, Birds of Prey is a really fun yet flawed film. It's a little style over substance, but I left the theater satisfied. This film is right in between Aquaman and Shazam for me on my DCEU list. I'd have to give Birds of Prey another watch to give my definitive answer, however.
7.5/10
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