Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey (and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), also known as Birds of Prey, is a 2020 American superhero film based on the DC Comics team Birds of Prey. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the eighth installment in the DC Extended Universe and a follow-up to Suicide Squad, based on the DC Comics team Birds of Prey. It was directed by Cathy Yan and written by Christina Hodson. The film had its world premiere in Mexico City on January 25, 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and 4DX on February 7, 2020.

Plot
It's open season on Harley Quinn when her explosive breakup with the Joker puts a big fat target on her back. Unprotected and on the run, Quinn faces the wrath of narcissistic crime boss Black Mask, his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz, and every other thug in the city. But things soon even out for Harley when she becomes unexpected allies with three deadly women.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Studio interference: Cathy Yan revealed she wanted Cassandra Cain to be dyslexic and have a stutter like in the comics but WB removed her disabilities from the script.
 * 2) The main problem is that the story misses a few aspects of the usual DCEU movie that were generally well-liked, such as the edgy and sometimes politically incorrect humor and the interplay between the main characters.
 * 3) The story itself is generic yet cliched. Centering about a female main character recovering from an abusive relationship. Not helping is that as per usual for a modern Hollywood movie with this theme, it, of course, demonizes men in the process... even though the man who abused Quinn was none other than the Joker; hardly a fair standard to judge all men by. It even becomes more confusing as a result of the constant time jumps as well as an annoying monologue from Quinn.
 * 4) The plot rehashes a few elements from mh:greatestmovies:Deadpool 2, as it involves a crazed anti-villain protagonist (Harley Quinn/Deadpool) encountering a troublemaker (Cassandra Cain/Cable) who was in cahoots with the main villain (Black Mask/Firefist) and they get a team of other heroes to protect them. Also, some scenes in the movie look like they were coming from Deadpool, possibly to cram a bunch of references to it.
 * 5) Misleading title: the film was titled as if the Birds of Prey were the main selling points of the movie. However, Harley Quinn gets more screen-time, to the point where it didn't feel like it's a film about the Birds of Prey, and the supporting characters get placed aside.
 * 6) Aside from the performances of Robbie, McGregor, Smollett, and Elizabeth Winstead, many of the actors didn't do a great job either.
 * 7) Continuity error: Towards the end of the movie when the guy in the passenger seat is shooting at Harley, who is skating in front of the car, he is hanging out of the window. When she flips to the top of the car, the door is suddenly open.
 * 8) Mediocre casting and characterization:
 * 9) *Harley Quinn's clothing looks like nothing but a rip-off of Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series; but when compared to Sparrow's witty and clever personality, Quinn is just a dumb and carefree person who gets out of tough situations through luck.
 * 10) **For example, when Sparrow acts like an insignificant idiot, he uses this to take advantage of others. However, when Quinn acts like an insignificant idiot, she does that because she is an insignificant idiot. Her passive personality has also been overplayed to the point where the pacing of the film has to push her forward through random events.
 * 11) *The constant monologue from Quinn can be seen as annoying by some, even if it exemplifies her carefree and ridiculous personality. This is because when we come across major characters like Black Canary and Renee Montoya, the viewer can never get close to actually care about them, and even if the viewer was aware of the things that make them who they are, the viewer never gets to see any of these take place but instead they just hear Quinn say that they take place.
 * 12) **The Huntress' tragic backstory of how she lost her entire family as a child ends up having less impact than it should since it is turned into a carefree joke by Quinn without the concern of being incompatible.
 * 13) *Cassandra Cain's role is changed from a Batgirl incarnation to a mere pickpocket who joins Harley Quinn in her criminal activities and that she doesn't live a disability like in the comics.
 * 14) *Black Canary's race was changed, since in this film she is portrayed by biracial actress Jurnee Smollett.
 * 15) *Black Mask grows out-of-character towards the third act of the film. Later on in the film, he becomes greedy and power-hungry, which goes against his established personality from earlier in the film, in which he was insecure and had a strong desire to discover the mystery behind his intimate relationship with Zsasz, at where he had established himself as the most dangerous man in Gotham.
 * 16) **Not helping matters is that in the original script, the MacGuffin diamond contained a gallery of photos that are the key to the intimate relationship between Black Mask and Victor Zsasz. However, the content of the diamond was changed to lines of code that allowed Black Mask to take over the Gotham stock market and become rich.
 * 17) The first act is a bit slow, and is consistently pointed out as the weakest. It takes time to introduce everyone and get going, especially considering the story is structured non-linearly.
 * 18) Subtle sexist themes. It is, admittedly, nowhere bad in that department as the 2016 Ghostbusters film or the 2019 Charlie's Angels film, with a few of the female characters being the ones who are villainous, and the male characters generally tending more to be either forgettable or unimportant than actually evil, but it is there.
 * 19) Black Mask's death is anticlimatic. Given that Ewan McGregor's performance is one of the very few good things of the film, it's such a shame that Black Mask gets killed at the end in such a graphic and non-ambiguous way because this means that the character is totally dead and can't return in any further films despite his potential unless they decide to bring Ewan back in films with flashbacks set back when Black Mask was still alive.
 * 20) Despite the film's premise being based around Harley's breakup with the Joker, very little of their actual relationship is touched upon, especially the potentially abusive aspects of it. This was probably inevitable due to how poorly received Jared Leto's Joker was and the negative impression he made on the studio and the rest of the cast, including Margot Robbie, and a recast was probably not happening (though there are BTS photos of Harley in a domestic dispute with a Fake Shemp Joker seen from afar outside their house, it ended up on the cutting room floor).

Good Qualities

 * 1) Great score that was composed by Daniel Pemberton with a good overall soundtrack, as the highlight of it is "Diamonds" by Megan Thee Stallion and Normani & "Boss Bitch" by Doja Cat being in the spotlight.
 * 2) All of the performances worked well.
 * 3) *Also, Margot Robbie's performance as Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn is the decent selling point of this movie.
 * 4) *Mary Elizabeth Winstead does an amazing job as the Huntress and much faithful to the pre-New 52 version.
 * 5) *Ewan McGregor gave the best performance of the whole movie.
 * 6) The 2D art-style of the film's opening scene by Warner Bros. Animation is great.
 * 7) *In fact, it’s animated by the same people behind Teen Titans Go.
 * 8) The Birds of Prey, at the very least, received a good amount of character development and presentation.
 * 9) Harley Quinn is somewhat more likable here in this film than in the 2016 Suicide Squad film, despite her constant monologue.
 * 10) Black Mask really fits the tone of the movie with his sadism and strangely intimate relationship with Victor Zsasz.
 * 11) Similar to one of the trailers for mh:greatestmovies:Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, there are references to Deadpool, even if they felt unnecessarily put in.
 * 12) Some really funny moments.
 * 13) Like with other DCEU entries, the fight scenes are still great.
 * 14) Stunning visuals and cinematography.
 * 15) After the first act, the rest of the film is much better.

Reception
While Birds of Prey receiving fairly mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who considered it a slight improvement over Suicide Squad, for its visual style, Yan's direction, and Robbie's performance, but criticism towards Hodson's screenplay, the reception from audiences has quickly been turned from positive to negative. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 409 reviews, with an average rating of 6.75/10. The website's critics' consensus reads, "With a fresh perspective, some new friends, and loads of fast-paced action, Birds of Prey captures the colorfully anarchic spirit of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn.". On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 59 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews." as well as with a 3.5/10 user score rating on Metacritic with a "Generally unfavorable reviews" on the same site over a few months after the released.

Gerry Conway, one of the comic book writers who helped Christina Hodson, has blamed male audiences and even men for the failure of this film.

Videos
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Trivia

 * 1) It was revealed that Ewan McGregor had signed up for the role of Black Mask because he was openly misogynistic.