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.
Heard mixed reviews for this one. Still need to see the first movie.
ReplyDeleteI liked Suicide Squad. It wasn't fantastic, but it was fun.
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