My Thoughts on Birds of Prey

I thought I’d share my thoughts and feels about the new Birds of Prey film. In case you haven’t seen it, I’ve posted the trailer below:

I went into this movie thinking at least 80% of the drama and controversy was unwarranted. I’d heard a lot of hot takes saying fanboys were getting angry about female empowerment and having female directors and producers for the film. So, when I watched this for the first, and probably last, time, I was disappointed that it seems like a lot of the anger for Birds of Prey was warranted. Not because of the female empowerment issues (because I’m all for that), but because the movie just sucked.

First off, Birds of Prey is Batgirl’s group. Not Harley Quinn’s. Why in the world did DC not make a Gotham City Sirens film with Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy?!? It would’ve made so much more sense to do that instead of butchering the other female DC characters. Like Cassandra Cain, who is supposed to be a bada$$ assassin. For this film, she was turned into a weak little pickpocket with a broken arm. Wth.

Also, Huntress was ridiculous. The actress is the same one who played the villain in Sky High, so all I could picture was Gwen Grayson having random mood swings. Ick. I did like the actress for Black Canary, though, once again, they ruined her backstory by choosing to go with a more recent comic book storyline versus her original origins. Oh, and the bad guy, Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask, was turned into a joke. He’s a major Batman villain, but now he has zero potential. I seriously cannot believe the DCEU let this film be part of its canon.

As for the plot, we mostly following Harley Quinn, which is expected. The first half was really, really boring. Harley mopes, gets drunk, buys a hyena, eats a sandwich, and very little happens. Yes, the hyena is cute and the sandwich storyline was fun, but it was just shot in such a dull way. I don’t even know how to explain it. The second half did pick up the pace, but the action scenes were cringey. Fun at times, but cringey overall.

So I am dumping on this movie pretty hardcore. And I don’t know if I’ll ever consider it canon, despite its inclusion of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. But the film did have its fun moments. They were rare, as most scenes were either A) boring, B) cringey, or C) ridiculous, but they did exist. I’d say, if you’re curious about this film at all, rent it. Do. Not. Buy. It. Birds of Prey is not worth the $20 it would cost to own a copy.

Overall, I’m really sad that this is one of the first female-comic-book-hero-group film adaptations we get, and it’s just blugh. What’s even sadder is that I don’t really like a lot of the female Marvel characters, so if they do a female team-up film for those characters, I won’t care. The DCEU had the opportunity to really do something, and they blew it writing-wise, directing-wise, and just character-wise. This film is reason numero uno why actors shouldn’t be allowed a say in their characters’ storylines when it comes to adaptations.