Birds of prey review movie#
It's a little unclear what that's about - perhaps to show how some men use sexual discomfort or humiliation to dominate the power dynamic? But when the movie crescendos to a funhouse battle in which the women fight off dozens of faceless, mask-wearing men, it becomes more clear that the last hour and a half has been a metaphor for the sexual and gender assault that many women experience as "life" - and that they're just swinging and kicking, hoping to live another day. A sexual violence vibe pops up in several scenes, but then it turns out that assault isn't the thug's intent after all. The women are empathetic and operate on a sliding scale of good-bad, but all the men are evil, selfish, and/or disappointing. Most of the movie's song choices are literally describing what's happening at the moment: The most on the nose is when Black Canary sings "It's a Man's World," which is pretty much the premise of the entire film. J," she encounters women who've been forced by tragedy to be self-sufficient and who are struggling to escape being controlled by men. Maybe we're meant to feel as off-balance as Harley herself, but it certainly creates a longing for the days when Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan were telling Gotham's stories.Īs Harley embraces being her own person and releases her attachment to "Mr. That level of dark irreverence manages to work in Deadpool, but it doesn't here. And when he does it to a kid, the filmmakers try to make it funny rather than horrific. On a dime, Sionis pivots into a sadistic, gruesome psychopath: He doesn't just kill his enemies, he cuts their faces off. Crime lord Roman Sionis/Black Mask is ridiculous, too, with comedy being mined from his narcissism. Even the storytelling is chaotic: Harley jumps back and forth in time more often than Marty McFly. Harley bebops around Gotham, narrating the story with a sassy wiseacre New York accent, adopting a pet hyena, and creating pandemonium by acting completely on impulse - she blows up a chemical plant and it shoots off fireworks, just like you might see in one of the Looney Tunes cartoons she watches constantly on VHS.
Birds of prey review tv#
Unlike Man of Steel, Wonder Woman, and Joker - which strive to make fully realized and empathetic human beings out of comic book characters - the villains in Birds of Prey remain ludicrous and over-the-top live-action cartoons that seem like they belong in the 1966 Batman TV series. And, just like the franchise, this villains-as-vigilantes flick is constantly adjusting and trying to find the right tone - but it never strikes the perfect chord. Like several of the movies in the DC superhero multiverse, Harley Quinn's "bad girl" empowerment film isn't as good as it thinks it is. Themes include female empowerment, friendship, and teamwork. All of the movie's men, on the other hand, are either bad or disappointing. Overall, the female characters are diverse in terms of ethnicity, age, and sexual identity, and they're all shown to be clever, tough, and resilient. While main character Harley Quinn ( Margot Robbie) doesn't quite make it to antihero status - she's self-absorbed and makes many self-serving decisions - Black Canary ( Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Renee Montoyao ( Rosie Perez) consistently put others' needs ahead of their own. Characters swear often, using words like "f-k," "s-t," "ass," and more). One character smokes, and it's implied in one scene that a character gets a sniff of cocaine, giving her a boost of confidence. Frequent drinking includes comically downing shots and having margaritas to celebrate sisterhood.
The main villain cuts his victims' faces off while they're still alive, and people (including a family with children) are gunned down, with blood splatter. That said, violence is nonstop: Sometimes it's silly fantasy, but many other times it's graphically brutal. Rape overtones are consistent, but the women aren't harmed sexually. The movie's theme is about women standing up to their male oppressors and showing that, when they work together, they're unbeatable. Parents need to know that Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is a violent action fantasy based on DC Comics' infamous supervillain "girl gang." It takes place after the events of 2016's Suicide Squadand seems to be aiming to be the female version of Deadpool.
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