Birds of Prey It’s Here To Exist and Be Forgotten Within Days Grade: C

Source: IMDB

Birds of Prey... Or Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey?! First time in my life time where a title of a film is changed within one week of it's release. Anyhow tells a story of recently broken up villain Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), whom is now going on a rampage due to her break up with the Joker. Meanwhile in Gotham, a henchman lost a precious diamond by one whom is skilled in pick pocketing. Unfortunately for the pick pocketer, the diamond belonged to Gotham's Evil God Father Roman (Ewan McGregor). Roman will do whatever it takes to get that diamond back, even threatening Harley Quinn's life for it. Witness an empowering film for women everywhere... I guess? As mentioned earlier about the film's title: I believe it's all a bunch of nonsense. If a movie looks good regardless of title, they'll see it either way. Maybe people didn't think this movie looked any good?! The Cinematography I'd say was solid, does capture the essence of Gotham and especially the known poverty of the city. The Score felt underwhelming for my taste. Composed score was forgettable and honestly the soundtrack selections were disappointing. I really hated the new rendition of Sway With Me, felt it was extremely obnoxious. The cast in this film all in all were solid, I think the cast were much better than the characters written for them. Harley Quinn played by Margot Robbie had the best performance in the entire film, you can tell she had a complete blast having her own film. As far as capturing the essence of this beloved villain... Robbie does a really good job as it's accurate towards the source material. As far as the character Harley Quinn... She was at times fun to watch especially in action sequences, but at times annoying. It's give or take with a character like Harley Quinn, you either enjoy her whacky personality or just down right get a headache from her. The Huntress played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead played a solid performance as The Huntress, I felt this is by far one of the standouts of the Birds of Prey group from the other two members. We have a complete back story of her character, of why she has so much vengeance in her heart, basically the only character with a completed arc. The main antagonist Roman played by Ewan McGregor had a solid performance, but as far as his character... Not much to say. He's just a guy whom is bad... That's it, felt like a complete blank page which is unfortunate. The other members of the Birds of Prey group were under developed, we know little about them, which makes the audience forget about them within days. You know what's funny about Birds of Prey, is that it's like Harley Quinn's relationship: Dysfunctional. Sure there maybe some highs partaken in the relationship here and there, but there is always some sort of distractions making the relationship never succeeding to it's full potential. I felt the way this story was told was done kind of poorly. The constant "Hold up wait a minute? We haven't shown you how we got here, let's back it up shall we?" moments were distracting, as it takes me out of the moment in a few scenes. Here's how they should've done it: Start with Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey gearing up for battle at the end, then rewind and tell the whole story, without doing anymore flashback sequences. Many films have used that format before and it works quite fine, much better than the constant pause and rewind format this film is trying to use. The comedy in this film was pretty bad, I think I chuckled once at most twice?! For a Harley Quinn movie I should've been laughing, but the comedy material never really sticks it's landing ever, these jokes are bad. I think the main problem with this film is it reminds of us of other movies, rather than being it's own film. You can say it's a watered down version of John Wick 3, given almost the entire city is after Harley Quinn and this kid. You can also say it's a passionless version of DeadPool 2... Heck Deadpool was with a kid the entire run time, both their chemistry and comedic material are FAR much better than Harley Quinn and this kid. As Chris Stuckmann has also said: This film is more plot driven than character driven, which is a problem for a film like this one. We don't know what the hell the Birds of Prey group is. They're shown the last fifteen minutes of the film, but honestly besides The Huntress, the other members are a blank page. I mean you could've spent less time on Harley Quinn doing shenanigans and spent more time developing these characters. For a Rated R movie I must ask: Why make it Rated R for?! Suicide Squad was PG-13 and it made a ton of money, Birds of Prey really doesn't deserve a Rated R rating whatsoever. I thought the R rating was completely pointless for a film of it's goofy nature, plus this film is more appealing to young teenage girls/boys than adults... Sometimes you have to stop and think for a little. The film as an overall experience wasn't good nor bad, it had some neat stuff here and there, but it's just here to exist and it'll fade away in due time. Overall, Birds of Prey was just ok. I don't recommend this film, I settle with waiting for RedBox or just watch John Wick 3 or Deadpool 2 instead. -Mitch Smietana