Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

Starring: Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Ella Jay Basco, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Chris Messina

Director: Cathy Yan

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Joker have just ended things but she is scared to make it public because everyone hates her and she no longer has the protection of being with the Joker. This includes Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (Ewan McGregor), a madman who likes to cut people's faces off and runs the club Harley likes to frequent. Unfortunately for Harley, when word gets out about the breakup, a huge target forms on her back with everyone coming after her from criminals to police detective Montoya (Rosie Perez). When the Bertinelli diamond is pickpocketed by Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) from Roman's equally deranged henchmen Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), Harley makes a deal to bring the girl in, in order for her own life to be spared. Roman agrees but unbeknownst to Harley also lets every other criminal know, making the stakes for Harley more dangerous the longer her search for Cassandra goes. She doesn't have to do it alone, as Dinah Lance aka Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) as well as Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who has her own mysterious connection to the diamond join the hunt.

This is a wildly entertaining movie. And a strong reminder and reinforcement that for the most part, comic book movies should embrace their source material and if it should be rated R, make it rated R. Birds of Prey definitely embraces this with glee.

Margot Robbie is fantastic in the movie. As great as she has been in other movies, she seems born to play Harley. She’s so delightfully schizophrenic, going from crazy to surprisingly rational. In fact, all the ladies are great. It was nice to see Rosie Perez get a big supporting role. Ewan McGregor is a great bad guy and has what appears to be the time of his life.

The action set pieces are frenetic and unique, with the climactic one set in a carnival funhouse and Harley breaking Cassandra out of a prison being the standouts. I’ve never really seen anything like the funhouse scene and It’s pretty impressive how well they use the setting to their advantage. In fact, all credit to director Cathy Yan, making her feature debut, for making a distinctive and fun comic book film. She cut her teeth in documentaries and I hope this opens the door for her to make more films like this. The movie works in large part because of her.

All this being said, I did think the movie kinda stumbled out of the gate. It took a second to find its footing and really get into the story, using voiceover and some flashbacks to explain backstory. It wasn’t hard to follow but I don’t know that was especially necessary as well.

Minor quibbles aside, I had a lot of fun with the movie. It's a very unique entry in the comic book arena, thanks to its unique set pieces and a game cast of ladies who kick ass and have fun doing it. I hope the DCEU continues to embrace the weird and humorous side of their catalogue to make fun movies like this and Shazam!. This bodes well for and has me excited for The Suicide Squad.

B+