Birds of Prey and the phantasmagoric rebirth of Harley Quinn is the new effort of Warner Bros, based on the comic book character of the same name DC Comics, entrusted to the direction of Cathy yan. After all, the film cost little, we are on a figure that does not reach a hundred million dollars: apparently this is the new formula for Warner, that is to create films with a relatively low budget, pushing on a very strong marketing campaign (often and gladly succeeded). The real question that will flash in your head will be: Will an entire Harley Quinn-based movie be glued to the screen? The answer is in this review!
Emancipate
Birds of Prey opens with the protagonist of the film who tells her story and her origins, to be exact starting from the past, the very deep one: raised by the nuns but always rebellious, Harleen Quinzel becomes one Psychologist and how do we know (or should we know if we had seen the previous film ie Suicide Squad) finds work at the asylum of Harkham a Gotham City and that's where it meets the Prince of Crime, Joker. The madness and preponderant personality of the psychopathic Clown literally drives Harley mad and falls madly in love with that madman that she herself renames "pudding".
All this is told in a cartoon sequence, quick and painless, but which summarizes it all even to a spectator unaware of past events, already told in the previous film. In the actual movie Harley is kicked out of the house by the Joker, ending their relationship; the girl faces the "mourning" as best she can and ... we stop here, in order to avoid spoilers that would not be good for us or for you. The plot in the film is a mere pretext to allow our heroine to take the reins of her life and free herself from the madness of a man who had nothing normal.
Madness and non-sense
The film is a cacophony of events and moments that are not easily explainable even if we were in a comic: things and situations happen on the screen that in our opinion mock the viewer by making them really believe that donkeys could fly, and when they do, well it is. they do better than a fighter plane. Margot Robbie she is excellent in this role, although in our opinion the actress deserves more complex roles like that of Elisabeth played in the film Mary Queen of Scots. Actually, the quick-change artist manages to do hers, and she does it damn well, painting a multi-faceted character, full of expression and madness as it should be. Let's now pass to the "accessory" characters who, in our opinion, are one of the sore points of the film: Mary elizabeth winstead plays Slayer, a girl who lost her parents as a child and was raised as a murderer by a mafia-like family. The character would have been credible and well interpreted, if it weren't for the fact that the writers decided to make her the joke of the team, that is, where she performs the right actions and in line with her nature, she is teased or not taken seriously.
Jurnee Diana Smollett-Bell in the role of the meta-human Black canary she is insipid: linked for no particular reason to the new crime lord of Gotham, we do not explain how and why she is so condescending to a man who, if she wanted, could literally flesh out with screams. Ella Jay Basco in the role of Cassandra Cain she is the girl to be saved, she does his without praise and without infamy, but if she hadn't been in the film probably no one would have noticed. Rosa Maria Perez is optimal in the role of Renee Montoya which is probably the best of the Birds of Prey on screen. We left the best (or worst) for last: Ewan Gordon McGregor who plays (and it would have been better if he didn't) Roman Sionis / Black Mask Gotham's new crime lord who turns out to be a senseless parody of the Joker himself, playing an eccentric and ruthless character for no reason, wanders around the city with impunity when it seems everyone knows where he is and no one dares to try to stop him ... but for no apparent reason.
Show must go on
The show must, in fact, continue: Birds of Prey and the phantasmagoric rebirth of Harley Quinn is a successful film from a directorial point of view, the scenes are always optimal, allowing the viewer not to miss even a minute of what seems like an immense commercial. advertising, where bright clothes, references to the 80s and a soundtrack excellently sewn on each scene (which, moreover, has been entrusted to Daniel Pemberton, which had already bewitched us with the soundtrack of Spider-Man - A new universe).
Therefore what went wrong? The film in general is commonplace, devoid of logical sense and with a final so obvious that not even at the end of season sales. We are in an action movie based on a comic, what did you expect? Well we would have expected a minimum of respect for the viewer, because being teased "is fine", but seeing scenes where five armed men shoot at a distance of slapping the protagonist, without cover, without hitting her ... well, you risk expiring into ridicule very easily. Also, it seems like every DC Comics foe is somehow related to Joker: we had already noticed it in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice when Lex Luthor he looked like a Joker without makeup, and here Black Mask does the same thing, but with the "crime fetishist" mask.
Will this film succeed? Of course yes! How? It is easy to say: the protagonist has a lot of charisma and pleases the public, especially the female one, and since we live in years that are similar to the 60s in terms of female emancipation and "girl power", the film will sell very well ... this to avoid visual horrors and trivial plots.
