‘Birds Of Prey’ Review: Why The Harley Quinn Movie Is Worth Watching

Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn was the most memorable and enjoyable part of 2016’s “Suicide Squad,” but audiences might be wondering if she can lead “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn)” without Joker or her squad by her side. Robbie very much proves that Harley doesn’t need a man in this uproarious romp.

“Birds of Prey,” directed by Cathy Yan, follows Harley after her breakup with Joker (who does not appear in person in this movie), and the fallout after she loses his protection from Gotham’s other criminals. Quite a few people are after Harley, and she helps the audience keep track by providing title cards with names and grievances against her.

The most important enemy is Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). He has it out for Harley in a major way, and she isn’t his only target. Eventually, Black Mask and his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina), are going after Harley, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), forcing them to team up.

“Birds of Prey” is definitely one of the better DCEU movies released so far, certainly surpassing “Suicide Squad.” Check out a few reasons why viewers will love it:

The Bonkers Action Scenes: “Bonkers” is truly the only word to describe the action. Some of that is Christina Hodson’s smart writing, like setting the big hero sequence in an abandoned amusement park. Matthew Libatique's playful cinematography, like when Harley shoots off colored smoke bombs during an attack, also helps. The hand-to-hand combat looks outrageous, but it’s still believable. A lot of it is also the free reign of having an R rating. Harley unintentionally getting high on cocaine, bones breaking in ways they shouldn’t and faces getting cut off all makes this feel like Harley’s world.

Real Women Made This Movie And It Shows: During the big fight scene, Black Canary gets a hair tie from Harley and Montoya later has her hair tied up. Harley just desperately loves greasy egg sandwiches. Huntress feels forced to compliment someone after they offer her a nice comment. All these tiny things add up to make the characters feel authentic. Every female relationship feels natural and realistic in a way that just very much works. Strong female friendships are something we haven’t seen much at all in DCEU, but “Birds of Prey” makes these new connections fully believable.

It’s Funny: Like, really funny. Hodson’s script is packed with jokes that hit all the marks.

Balancing Insanity With Heart: Make no mistake, Harley Quinn is a villain, but she isn’t unfeeling. A lot of this movie is about her sadness regarding people always leaving her behind. Robbie gives her harlequin a hint of pain throughout the movie, really giving a lot of sincerity and nuance to Gotham’s resident bad gal. It’s not just Robbie who delivers, though.

Perez is perfect as a tough, underappreciated cop and Bell is just as nuanced in her performance as a singer controlled by her abusing boss and hiding her superhero powers. Winstead, in particular, leaves audiences wanting more. Huntress shines with her dry humor and desperate desire to be cool, but she doesn’t get nearly as much screen time as the other women.

The Villains: Roman and Zsasz are delightful to watch. They have a weirdly possessive relationship (the gay subtext will be analyzed in fanfiction for years to come), and they get to be truly evil. McGregor and Messina are having a blast being the bad guys, and it shines through in their performances.

Quick Origin Stories: Some people love superhero origin stories, but often, they take a long time to get to the action and spent two-thirds of the movie telling you everything you learned in the trailer. “Birds of Prey” takes care of the origins of the Huntress, Black Canary and Montoya in a delightfully brief fashion. It sets it up so that the next time audiences see that team, they can jump right into an adventure.

There’s a lot to love about “Birds of Prey,” but not everything is perfect. Like many action movies, the plot revolves around finding a MacGuffin (in this case, the Bertinelli diamond) that the audience doesn’t really care about. The movie focuses so much on Harley that viewers might not be all that excited for a “BoP” film without her. Plus, Cassandra Cain’s potential future as a superhero isn’t so much as hinted at. Non-comics fans won’t realize that she could be the future Batgirl.

The LGBTQ representation is not great (which, unfortunately, isn't exactly shocking for a mainstream comic book adaptation). Montoya has an ex-girlfriend (Ali Wong), who is clearly concerned for the detective, but we never see any romantic lesbian scenes. Harley’s bisexuality is referenced in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. Like other recent franchises, people are acknowledged as identifying as LGBTQ, but no one feels the need to do anything to show it.

Meanwhile, the villains aren’t confirmed gay, but they seemingly mirror Joker and Harley's romance, with Roman as the mastermind everyone fears and Zsasz's overwhelming loyalty. They’re definitely acting like they’re in a relationship, which is problematic in terms of queer-coding (giving a character obviously gay attributes while not stating their sexuality).

“Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn)” is not a perfect movie by any means, and it’s going to win any Oscars. However, flaws aside, its main goal is to be a fun couple hours for comic book fans, and it definitely passes that test with flying colors. "Birds of Prey" is a wildly good time that’ll leave fans happy that Robbie is already back with her bat filming the “Suicide Squad” reboot.

Warner Bros. will release “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn)” in theaters nationwide on Friday.