Birds of Prey (2020)

 

No surprises that the most memorable character portrayal from 'Suicide Squad' was Harley Quinn. Not only was her look rather flamboyant, but Margot Robbie's portrayal just worked best in a film that didn't work as a whole. So it made sense that she got a solofilm and to make things even better: they didn't go for the dreaded PG-rating to water everything down. So this one has a shit metric ton of 'Fucks!' and a lot of pretty brutal violence.

Just what we like.

Harley and the Joker have broken up, for realsies this time and at first, she is just doing what she did before, which was getting pisspoor drunk and getting up to trouble. But when she finally realizes that she needs a clean break from her recent past, she drives a tankertruck into Ace Chemicals and blows it up, thus destroying the place where the entire Joker/Harley dynamic was born in a vat of chemicals. 

But now the trouble starts, because she pissed off a lot of people and they are now all gunning for her, crazed nightclub owner Roman Sionis first and foremost. While this is happening, a young pickpocket called Cassandra has stolen a diamond that Sionis wants, so Harley and others are out looking for her. In come Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya, who all have a link to Sionis and several bones to pick. In the end, the ladies will have to work together in order to survive and thus the foundations for the Birds of Prey will be laid. 

Yes, it seems as though the plot is rather thin. Well, in actuality: it is. This is pretty much a characterstudy of Harley Quinn and as such, it works. No really. She narrates it all as well, so we're pretty much in her head all the time and thanks to some fun writing and of course Margot Robbie's take on the character, we don't get bored of her. Unless you never liked her to start with, in which case this will be quite a long trip to sit through. It's not that the other characters aren't okay, they are (props to Jurnee Smollett as Black Canary, she's awesome), but they are just not that impressive. Ewan McGregor is hamming it up just a little too much as Roman Sionis and his henchman Victor Szazs is much more intriguing. Okay, he's abviously a total psycho (and if you know the comics and Arkham-games, that should come as no surprise), but there is something gleefully evil about him and he could easily get a bigger arc on his own. 

He won't, but I'm just saying. 

There are a lot of fun scenes, though. The all out war at the dilapidated amusement park is lots of fun and there are few cuts, so hurray for decent fight choreography! It is also set to an awesome tune, so, yeah. The soundtrack is once again pretty cool. 

The biggest downside of the film is the fragmentary nature in which the story unfolds. I get that it is supposed to reflect Harley's broken psyche, but at times, it does get a little too much and it sometimes feels like a rather sloppy gimmick. It doesn't detract from the overall fun nature of the film, but they do milk it a little. 

In the end, you can enjoy this if you like Robbie's version of Harley Quinn and if you like your films colourful and a little disjointed. It's not for everyone, but it is better than you might think at first glance.