7.0
Score

Pros

  • Margot Robbie & Ewan McGregor
  • CGI effects
  • High speed action
  • Soundtrack

Cons

  • Too many sexist & feminists comments
  • Slightly confusing storyline
Directing
7,5
Camera
7
Special effects
7,5
Characters
5
Soundtrack
8

Final Verdict

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey as a solid, entertaining, action, comic book movie with two leading actors and great action.

I’ve spoken about the Birds of Prey already in the February preview. That time the movie was called Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.

After seeing the first box office results ($33,010,017 opening weekend), the DC Comics decided to change the name into Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Some rumors say that they did it in order to improve the SEO of the movie.

As I thought correctly people did not start running into cinemas due to that change. More importantly, it did not bring any significant growth from ticket sales.

Anyways, despite the small success in the box offices, I was still right about one thing. The Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is definitely a “worth-to-watch” movie. This theory is confirmed by very positive critics reviews that the movie received. But was it actually a good movie? What are its strengths and weaknesses?


Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey movie review - no spoilers.

Harley Quinn Birds of Prey movie review – no spoilers.

Like Joaquin Phoenix took the stage in Joker movie, Margot Robbie did the same in Harley Quinn. She is excellent in the role and without her, the movie would be below average.

I actually enjoyed each scene in which she has appeared, and it was visible that she is having fun.

Another big surprise to me was Ewan McGregor. He was really good at playing Roman “Romy” Sionis a.k.a. Black Mask. In some moments I had a feeling that this was his best performance since Star Wars and his iconic role of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

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What I would highlight as a “space to improve” is definitely a storyline. I have finished watching The Witcher Netflix Original series a few days ago, and the way of telling the story was very close to that. It went there and back in time and sometimes it was disturbing and confusing to follow. But in the end, it just all made sense.

Maybe this is the way how stories will be told in the next few years so let’s see. For now, it seems that everyone is copying everyone and if there is something that works people just start to do the same.

Besides the storyline, sometimes I had a feeling that the movie was also created to reflect the “gender problem” in Holywood. Lately, there are too many talks about this issue. Just look at what happened to Natalie Portman at this year’s Oscars. Also, I would even say that this might have affected the final cut of the movie. I understand the point of open talks about equality and I am strongly on the balance side, but what is too much is too much. In my opinion, the feminist or sexists comments from men’s world (or vice versa) should be skipped from the movies.

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Studios should care more about the quality of the movies than politics. The director Cathy Yan did her best. But I would still love to know in what part the idea was hers and in what part the studio told her what to do.

And if you think that you can’t produce a good movie without any gender balance talks, just look at the first Wonder Woman from Patty Jenkins. The movie earned $821,847,012 in the box offices globally and there was no single comment or scene where a gender issue was mentioned.

If this will continue further, the studios should start to add a G-rating (gender rating) beside the PG-rating (parental guidance rating) .


Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey movie review - no spoilers.

Final verdict.

In general, I would sum up the Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey as a solid, entertaining, action, comic book movie with two leading actors and great action. Sometimes it wants to be perceived as a brutal thriller, and a few minutes after it is changing into a comedy. Or a B-grade action movie from the 90s. But somehow it all works.

Last but not least, this movie greatly reflects the entrepreneurship era we live in. All the youngsters want to become successful in no time. But the ones who did it are telling that the only way of achieving great success is with hard work. And that’s the truth.


Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey – Official Soundtrack


Harley Quinn Birds of Prey movie review - no spoilers. 1

Image credit: DC Comics

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