The ultimate break-up movie as Harley Quinn lays waste to all those who stand in her way in yet another sloppy, structural mess from the DC universe.
Birds of Prey is a breakup movie. The opening sequence gives us a clear indication of what we are to expect from the feature and it’s not great.
We get this choppy movie trying so hard to be Deadpool but with a female empowerment that goes beyond leading ladies and runs into arrogant hubris territory.
Structurally this film is awful. The editing of the entire film is on par with Suicide Squad, which is embarrassing.
Fundamentals of basic storytelling thrown in the trash to make way for expositional voiceover and wannabe Deadpool vibes.
Birds of Prey is a DC movie. That’s for sure. Just a company trying to beat their rivals by attempting to become them.
Stick to films like Joker and maybe you’ll go far! Just my two cents.
Just think of how much more range this film would have had to spread its wings if it was R-Rated. Imagine.
Our film revolves around Harley, freshly broken up from the Joker and ready to lead a single life. In a mix of explosions, drinking heavily, hints at rape culture, drug abuse (accidental) and a feature-long ‘men are pigs’ attitude, there’s a story in here somewhere. I just couldn’t quite find it.
Birds of Prey knows its a mess. Advertises itself as a mess and embraces its disjointed beauty.
Margot Robbie is the saving grace in this disastrous feature film. She is breathtaking in every scene, fully embracing the quirky Harley Quinn with intensity, wacky and outlandish scenes and incredible fight choreography.
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The fight scenes are beautifully done. With various color palettes and incredible action you can see much time and effort has been focused on getting this right.
They’ve done an absolutely incredible job with making Harley (and supporting cast members) look absolutely badass!
The movie thrives in its action sequences and they’re so beautifully stitched together.
Margot Robbie really comes into her own and from start to finish, it’s clear this is the role she was born to play.
But the compliments end there.
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Now that Harley is a single lady she no longer has Joker to protect her. Various bounties are on her head and she goes on the run.
In this rather limp storyline, we run into Ewan McGregor who plays Roman Black Mask Sionis. A crime lord with his eyes on ruling Gotham’s underworld. With Harley in his sights as next on his hitlist.
A film made by women this villain has ‘Black Mask’ melted into a puddle of emasculation.
A campy, jokey and unconvincing villain. Perhaps the worst villain of any DC film I’ve ever seen, ever. This includes Green Lantern.
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The way Birds of Prey is edited makes Ewan McGregor look as thou he’s just come out of acting school.
It genuinely looks like his first feature film. A poor performance or just bad editing? Either way, one performance that I’d much rather forget.
With a villain, we can’t quite relate to, in a film that’s so female-targeted it alienates half of its audience. Birds of Prey is a strange taste.
Wonder Woman perfectly blended the all-female ass-kicking superhero flick. This one resorts to cheap digs, girl power and more genital hits than I’d like to see in one movie.
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The year after year debate about why women filmmakers don’t get more recognition at film awards rages on.
No one ever stops and thinks that it may just be the case that the film isn’t very good in the first place despite what gender helmed the movie.
Birds of Prey is a prime example of a bad female-driven movie.
Incredible that films like this are being made but a poor film nonetheless.
Birds of Prey 4DX Experience
When I step into a 4DX screening and see a bad movie (Hobbs and Shaw for example) the 4DX usually allows me to add a star to my grade. Sadly not this time.
Harley walks past a water pipe and I’m preparing myself to be rained on inside the theatre. Nothing.
We step through a misty and foggy scene. I’m looking down towards the front of the screen. No fog machine is activating.
Various wind conditions and I’m there waiting for a storm on the epic scale of Rise of Skywalker. The fans never activated.
The one highlight of the 4DX experience was the spray of mist in your face. Every time Harley threw a smoke bomb or hit a kick-ass move we got sprayed. That was cool.
All movies are individually programmed by a team when certain elements are activated in a 4DX theatre.
My theory is that the team who calibrated 4DX with this title were too disengaged by being forced to watch this mediocre movie they forgot to add anything engaging to the program.
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Overall
I was so excited to be seeing this movie going into the cinema. Sadly, it was all taken away from me and I was quite bored 30 minutes in.
We certainly weren’t the only people in the cinema to share this feeling. Various people voicing their boredom in the cinema quite vocally. One guy and his girlfriend even walked out! I haven’t seen that for a while. It wasn’t THAT bad!
But it is very clear to see the reasons it is failing at the box office.
Birds of Prey is a wacky mess that will appeal most to fangirls, Harley cosplayers, girls fresh out of a break-up and DC diehards.
Everyone else can go swivel it seems.
That’s the message the filmmakers seem to be echoing loud and clear.
I’m a little simple so I thought I’d thoroughly enjoy this one. I’m easily impressed by explosions, cheesy one-liners, and slapstick but sadly, this wasn’t one for me.
It’s Spice Girls with capes.
Another poor DC movie to add to the pile and our worst 4DX experience to date.
Birds of Prey 4DX Review by Sean Evans
Summary
A film that deserved so much better.
Too much focus on female empowerment that storyline fell by the wayside. Embrace the crazy and you’ll have a ball through the incredible action sequences. But once the coloured smoke has settled there really isn’t much to this Deadpool wannabe try-hard spectacle.
Oh DC, when will you learn.
