While the fight for its production has been going on for years now, it is great to finally see Margot Robbie's vision come to life in the fantabulous Birds of Prey. Cathy Yan directs DC's newest superhero film about a group of women who might seem a little less than super. These antiheroes are all fantastic characters and are brought together in such a pleasantly simple plot. There might not be anything groundbreaking about this film's storytelling style, but the amount of glamour and charisma radiating from every element of this movie is very enjoyable. Some may argue that it borrows a bit too much from the aesthetic of David Ayer's Suicide Squad, in which Robbie made her debut, but this coherent script runs laps around that universally-despised corporate mess. Even though I have some issues with Yan's direction and the inescapable "DC-style", there is nothing but fun to be had. Only a month into the new year and this film is already an incredibly strong contender for the best blockbuster of 2020.
Gotham City's two most notorious and clownish criminals The Joker and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) have broken up. When Quinn decides to start her new life over, she finds out that she is wanted by a lot of people, including crime lord Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). She is not the only one under attack, however, and Harley teams up with Gotham superheroes Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) in order to take him down. This comic book-adapted script by Christina Hodson is surprisingly well-written. This film is definitely not the standard superhero origin story or team film, as it has a lot of time to make up for and explaining to do within this cinematic universe. Hodson does a great job of picking up with Harley's story and filling in the ambiguous blanks since Suicide Squad. This was not a very easy task to do and working within Warner Bros. corporate style, Hodson was able to connect these dots while being able to write a genuinely funny and original story. While the plot itself is fairly simple and rather predictable, it is exactly what one can expect from a film centered around the raucous character of Harley Quinn herself. It's about time that Robbie gets the version of this character that she has been fighting to get for so long and this film proves to be exactly what she deserves. So many scenes throughout this movie perfectly encapsulate the goofier comic version that Harley really is and this can be seen with so many of the script's choices, including the roller derby in the beginning and the running gag of the egg sandwich. So many ridiculously creative choices were made throughout this film to really help and give it a voice of its own, including the stellar animation in the beginning and the comedic freeze frames throughout. The R-rating attached to Birds of Prey is also suited very well and while it is not entirely excessive about language or intense content, it has every right to be and utilizes its rating perfectly.
The only issue I had with this film that I feel really held it back from becoming an instant classic was Yan's direction. The way she handles this story is a bit wacky, as the pacing was all over the place. There were a few various subplots going on with the different women and how they all ended up together and this was handled very nicely but the use of flashbacks and Quinn's fourth-wall-breaking narration became a bit distracting. Certain scenes went on for far longer than I feel like they should have and the way that this film is framed to have Harley narrate her story is a smart choice as it focuses on her, but not as smart when it comes to developing the other characters. With a surprisingly short runtime, there was not much wiggle room for telling this overall story but I still think that Yan and Hodson did a solid job together. Birds of Prey also does not hold back on its action or enthusiastic performances whatsoever. The fight scenes and action sequences are some of the most creative and exciting ones that I have seen in a while. The stunt choreography is entrancing and using Harley's signature huge mallet and baseball bat, this film absolutely delivers with the colorful and completely bonkers fight scenes. The scene with the cocaine and baseball bat is especially memorable and the bone-crunching approach that Robbie takes to this more modern version of Harley is fantastic. Robbie's performance as this iconic Batman character is once again the best part of the movie. Her electric passion for this character is so obvious and she was definitely born to play this part (and hopefully will be forever). While I do wish some of the supporting cast like Winstead and Smollett-Bell were given more time with their own subplots, this movie is just purely a lot of fun. It is impossible to not fall in love with these comic book antiheroes and McGregor's flamboyantly eccentric villain proves to be just the right contrast.
Birds of Prey takes an already established universe of characters and improves upon them in every way imaginable. The plot might suffer from scrambling a bit much to recover from a few of DC's past films but the simplistic approach makes for a great, clean slate for its inevitable sequels. Margot Robbie is clearly having the absolute time of her life and if nothing else, at least we can all celebrate that (and her!).
My Rating: ★★★★
No comments:
Post a Comment