Birds of Prey (2020)

[shevek]

To add to the confusion, there is now a Birds of Prey movie in development, written by Christina Hodson who took over the writing of Batgirl when Joss Whedon left, and probably directed by Cathy Yan who has only one indie film to her name. The Birds of Prey movie is also supposed to star Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and it's unclear how Harley will fit into the Birds of Prey team that normally includes Huntress, Black Canary and Batgirl.
https://www.cinemablend.com/news/240428 ... s-director

The reason I say "confusion" is because it was already announced that Margot Robbie would star in a Gotham City Sirens film
which includes the characters of Poison Ivy and Catwoman, developed by Suicide Squad director David Ayer.

And further confusion is because Hodson is apparently writing both Batgirl *and* Birds of Prey. At least for now.

It will be interesting to speculate how all three of these projects, with their overlapping players, might come to fruition.

[ricky1989]

Jennifer Lawrence - Batgirl
Margot Robbie - Harley Quinn
Alexandra Daddario - Huntress
Rihanna - Catwoman

[Imagineer]

It seems like an IMDB page and a Harley Quinn pitch will get you a deal at Warner Bros.

[Visitor]

It seems like an IMDB page and a Harley Quinn pitch will get you a deal at Warner Bros.

It's more like it takes an actress in a profitable film to make them consider it. After all someone at WB green lit "Catwoman" with Halle Berry and Sharon Stone and we all saw how that turned out.

[Maskripper]

Well, every movie with a masked woman is welcome! And a movie with masked womEn is even better.
I hope she does make a good script for both movies. For me the costume desginer plays the most important role. Give me (at least somehow) sexy costumes and masks that actually hide something. Then I'm already happy ;-)

[shevek]

http://boundingintocomics.com/2018/05/1 ... inn-movie/

I am in love with this so fucking much. Margot Robbie is going to make a movie that is raunchy, sexy, and probably lots of fun
to watch! (hopefully)

[TIEnTEEZ]

http://boundingintocomics.com/2018/05/1 ... inn-movie/

I am in love with this so fucking much. Margot Robbie is going to make a movie that is raunchy, sexy, and probably lots of fun
to watch! (hopefully)

Do you really think so? I remember seeing her on TV talking about the Suicide Squad movie and saying she hated the costume and wanted to wear something less revealing. :-P

[shevek]

Just because her next Harley costume is less revealing doesn't mean it'll be less sexy. The "Daddy's Little Monster" version, to be perfectly honest,
was kind of juvenile, even if she did portray it well. Reverting back to more of a red-and-black Harlequin look, which is how she's been drawn in all the latest comics, would make more sense.

Also, the girl gang idea Robbie is pushing is a hot one.

[shevek]

Birds of Prey character lineup is going to be:
Harley Quinn, Black Canary, Huntress, Renee Montoya, and the Cassandra Cain version of Batgirl.
With Margot Robbie around, you know it's going to be female power *and* hot!

Supposed to start filming next year.

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/245060 ... prey-movie

[Nykron]

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/bird ... 202958570/

Sources tell Variety that Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jurnee Smollett-Bell have been tapped to join Robbie in the comic-book spinoff, with Winstead playing Huntress and Smollett-Bell portraying Black Canary.

There are several versions of Huntress, aka Helena Bertinelli, throughout DC comics, but the “Birds of Prey” version is a former mafia princess who was devastated at a young age when her family was killed in a mob hit, turning her into a vigilante and eventually leading her to join the Birds of Prey team. Black Canary, aka Dinah Lance, is a good-natured and idealistic streetfighter in the comics.

[shevek]

Official Birds of Prey lineup is complete:

Harley (Margot Robbie)
Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell)
Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)
Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez)

as they attempt to rescue Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco)
from the villainous Black Mask (Ewan McGregor).

These are some interesting choices. Of course Perez will be fine as Montoya (will she become The Question?) and Ella Jay Basco makes sense as the teenage Cassandra. Smollett-Bell is black, so it remains to be seen whether they'll play that up as an obvious race-flip or tone it down by at least dying her hair the iconic blonde we've been used to for the past 50+ years.

Although the weirdest one to me is really Winstead. She's really the most known and acclaimed of the bunch, but Helena Bertinelli is an
extremely beautiful and shapely woman with one of the most amazing costumes in comics, and I don't see Winstead measuring up to that quite as much as the actress who played Huntress in the Arrow TV show arc (Jessica De Gouw) or the one who played her in the Birds of Prey TV show (Ashley Scott).

What do you think?

[Maskripper]

I was very thrilled as I first heard about a Birds of Prey movie....
Right now, I don't know what to think of it.
I had hoped for Barbara Gordon as Batgirl
Now it is Cassandra Cain...and will be played by a kid actor????? WHY????????
I hope she does wear at least the full face mask from the comics....but somehow I think she will a crappy eye mask or no mask at all.
And Black Canary is suddenly "black"?

Ewan McGregor as Black Mask should be a good choice.

Right now I don't expect too much from this movie.
And that is pretty sad with so many heroines/villainesses in it.
-
I do hope that the Batgirl movie that will come afterwards will have a different Batgirl (and actress!)!!!!!

[Imagineer]

They're not all going to have big tits. They're just not going to cast live-action comic book roles with a measuring tape.

Winstead can sell badass onscreen. She's done it many times. She's great for Huntress.

Even if the costume sucks. Which of course it will.

But look at it this way. This movie will give Huntress a pop culture awareness bump, and this could trickle down to more prurient portrayals in a neck of the woods that *does* care what people here think.

[shevek]

Oh, don't get me wrong, Imagineer. I'm a Winstead groupie from way back since Scott Pilgrim and The Thing, and even Monster Island, etc. She could be very enjoyable. But you're right, the costume has the possibility of being very tame. Hopefully we're wrong..if it looks even as good as the Batwoman TV one, I'd be very happy.

Huntress (or a character standing in for her) has already been portrayed quite nicely in various SHIP circles, from Primal to the SHG-Media contingent. I own those movies because the Huntress character itself was a draw for me.

Always nice to get more, though. I love how Helena Bertinelli has some good nuance: 1) parents were killed, 2) good Catholic girl, 3) strong social justice/feminist tendencies, 4) Mafia connections, 5) super attractive hetero who falls for the dark-haired bad boy. These threads work great together in a tapestry that could give her portrayal a lot of powerful pathos. Hopefully Winstead can tap into that!

[btw Huntress impressed me so much as a character over the years that I combined some of her aspects with those of Mockingbird, whom I think is her closest Marvel counterpart, to create the Italian heroine Vendetta for Heroineburgh.....]

[shevek]

I know this is on the front page, but might well log it in here as well, where people are much more likely to comment.

I don't see this teaser as being very much of anything yet. Sure, we see the actors who are going to play the major roles but we don't really get a sense of what the costumes are going to look like (we see nothing of Black Canary's for example).

What happened here was that Margot Robbie got all the actors into a vacant warehouse, covered the windows with huge plastic sheeting, passed around a bit of booze, and shot 20 seconds worth to the soundtrack of what sounds like Grimes or something similar. It could just as well be a video for an indie electronic band.

It piques our interest but doesn't tell us anything other than that. This preview looks a lot like the ones that get shot by The Battle for Earth or Lucia, except without the titillation of peril and sexiness. I think we'll want to see a lot more of what these heroines and villains are going to be doing before we decide whether it looks like a dumpster fire (a la Titans) or a solid and fun R-rated action flick. Hoping for the latter!

[Dogfish]

It's a teaser? Are you not teased?!

Seriously though I could watch Margot Robbie do her taxes.

As long as it's absolutely nothing like Suicide Squad it should be good.

[dajinx1]

I'm getting a CWish vibe from this.

[Imagineer]

The "music" causes me discomfort. Is deliberately-out-of-tune what the kids are doing these days?

[Maskripper]

That is just a "behind the scenes" snippet to me.... meaningless. Need to see MUCH more!
But I guess it will take another 6 months or so to get a trailer as the movie comes out in early 2020.

[batgirl1969]

I'm getting a CWish vibe from this.

I know some people are going to be getting some vibes from this for sure!!

[shevek]

Uh-oh. Could this turn out to be another Justice League situation? Hope not. But then again I don't totally trust the reports that test audiences are
"loving it", either. Stay tuned for the drama between the WB execs and Margot Robbie!

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/wb- ... ce-league/

[Dogfish]

Must confess, thought Ewan McGregor was playing the Joker in this one, turns out he's the Black Mask, just has mad amounts of Joker energy.

Looks vaguely interesting. Margot Robbie is so hot it's kind of ridiculous. Everything else, meh? It's a DC comics movie so expectations never going too high.

[Maskripper]

It looks like a fun action movie.
BUT I don't see ANY Birds of Prey in there. Pretty much what I feared after the first pictures.
The costume designer FAILED big time. I guess the worst costume desaster ever. At least I don't remember anything worse in that department.
Now they have a Birds of Prey movie without proper costumes, without a single masked woman.
Incl. a huntress in random leather, a black "black canary" and what happened to Batgirl? Isn't even listed on IMDB!!!!
Let's call it "Harley Quinn and some random women in colorfull, ugly clothes."
-
I do like Ewan McGregor as Black Mask...even he has no black mask (off course).
If Batman would appear in here he wouldn't have a costume either I guess. He would hunt criminals in sneakers, tight jeans and a 3 meter long scarf.
I guess I will watch it anyway, alone for the entertainment factor.

[Visitor]

Should be called, "Harley Quinn and others." It's basically just about her, her hyenas, and supporting cast.

[brdiy]

Margot got too much attention in Suicide Squad that it seems DC is betting all their marbles on her and forgot about the "Birds of Prey" part which is not a good thing...I hope we're wrong.

[Dazzle1]

Well they did pick a villain who has not been used in Black Mask

But there are too many players in the game and I just don't see Catwoman in the mix especially where she would be following anyone's lead.

[Dogfish]

Margot got too much attention in Suicide Squad that it seems DC is betting all their marbles on her and forgot about the "Birds of Prey" part which is not a good thing...I hope we're wrong.

She got the right amount of attention to be honest, that movie was absolute crap but she came out of it looking made for the part.

Does look like DC is basically just firing superhero movies in all directions without a plan though. Probably for the best the DC universe thing was a disaster.

[theScribbler]

https://io9.gizmodo.com/margot-robbie-s ... 1820899964

This is a Margot Robbie developed movie. For her to topline. So yep, it's Margot centric.

A number of Harley movies were in development after her standing out in Suicide Squad, but Margot's is the first movie of those that's going forward, with her production company and a couple others co-producing.

Suicide Squad 2 still has a 2021 release date, and Gotham City Sirens is still in development.

The Joker (Jared Leto) & Harley Quinn movie seems unlikely now, but who knows, maybe they'll get back together!

[brdiy]

Margot got too much attention in Suicide Squad that it seems DC is betting all their marbles on her and forgot about the "Birds of Prey" part which is not a good thing...I hope we're wrong.

She got the right amount of attention to be honest, that movie was absolute crap but she came out of it looking made for the part.

Does look like DC is basically just firing superhero movies in all directions without a plan though. Probably for the best the DC universe thing was a disaster.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Margot as Harley, it's just that the "Birds of Prey" part of this movie is more of an after thought and not actual the focus of the movie. Still crossing my fingers that I'm wrong and this doesn't end up as a disaster.

[Visitor]

Warner Brothers tried to duplicate the Marvel tied in movie universe and it wasn't doing well with the Batman, Superman, and Justice League movies even if they were profitable. They've done better with doing the separate characters not interacting as much with Wonder Woman and Aquaman. So I'll hold off on judging this until they release more. We only get to see a few seconds at a time with no idea how they fit together except Harley's breaking free from Joker.

[brdiy]

Warner Brothers tried to duplicate the Marvel tied in movie universe and it wasn't doing well with the Batman, Superman, and Justice League movies even if they were profitable. They've done better with doing the separate characters not interacting as much with Wonder Woman and Aquaman. So I'll hold off on judging this until they release more. We only get to see a few seconds at a time with no idea how they fit together except Harley's breaking free from Joker.

DC is doing a soft reboot with JJ Abrams and James Gunn. If anything, expect the next iterations to be less dark than Zack Snyder's version which have proven to be successful so far with WW, Aquaman and even Shazam.

[batgirl1969]

I walked RIGHT past Margot this weekend at NYCC and thank god I was wearing my Batwoman costume!!! it was so weird being that close to her!! dont get me wrong if it would have been Melissa B. I probably would have totally asked for a hug and convulsed on the floor at her feet...probably get escorted out too but would totally be worth it to be so close to her!!! Her lookalike was there however and she was just as HAWT!!!

[Femina]

Jeff Goldbloom voice: Ah... now eventually you do plan to have Birds of Prey in your... in your Birds of Prey picture... right?

[theScribbler]

Hollywood Reporter
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat- ... ca-1270438

[Dogfish]

Read the Variety review for this. They said it was good, although the more interesting thing was in the comments section somebody pointed out something that the reviewer had missed, namely that the action scenes had been reshot and the director they brought in to do that was Chad Stahelski, so this movie just got a lot more interesting. I love the John Wick movies and his work as second unit director on Civil War was amazing.

So we're getting some hotties* and some immaculately choreographed violence, so at least it shouldn't be a complete waste of time.

*Daily reminder that just because some of the cast are not hot it is impossible to cancel out the hotness of Margot Robbie. That's not how hotness works.

[shevek]

Dogfish - It wasn't just the action scenes that were reshot by Chad Stahelski (Buffy / John Wick) but also apparently a side-plot that had societally reprehensible underpinnings (some of Black Mask's dealings with Cassandra Cain) was removed by him as well.

Anyway, last night, I was on a chat in a comics-oriented Youtube channel where Chuck Dixon (co-creator of Bane, and writer of the first Birds of Prey series which established the team as Oracle, Black Canary and Huntress with guest appearance by Catwoman) directly answered my question about what he thinks of the film.

Here is what Chuck answered, verbatim: "They just took the name of the book and slapped it on the movie. I don't know why it isn't just a Harley Quinn movie or a Suicide Squad movie. I don't know what possessed them to put Birds of Prey over it, but.. I don't get anything out of it, so I don't care, and I'm never going to see it, so...they credit me in the end credits. I saw a screen shot of the end credits today, and the crime is they didn't credit Jordan Gorfinkel, who was my editor who actually created the book. He brought me on as a hired hand to help develop it, but it was all his idea to begin with. [Moderator: Do you plan on seeing the film?] No."

As far as reviews, here is one from the San Francisco Chronicle that definitely doesn't fit with the general media shill narrative on the movie.

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies ... the-bottom

New York Times didn't like it much either.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/movi ... eview.html

All that being said, I will reserve judgement and see the movie for myself tonight. I'll let you know in a couple days about the experience.

[Dogfish]

I love the idea that if somebody likes a film it's a 'shill narrative' and if somebody doesn't like a film that's an act of rebellion worth bringing to our attention.

It's one of the hottest women in Hollywood playing one of the hottest comic book characters out there, with the best action director in the business doing the important stuff. I'm not going to jinx it by saying 'How bad can it be?' but, y'know, this is a pretty difficult movie to fuck up.

[TIEnTEEZ]

It's got excellent ratings on RottenTomatoes.

[shevek]

Tim Pool is tearing up the movie right now. "Cats was better than Birds of Prey" is one of his quotes.
He's saying Huntress is barely in the movie? Still going to see it tomorrow.

[Femina]

I'm just gonna say it....

This is the wrong venue for the movie they are making. If they want to make a female empowerment film about a ragtag gang of ladies in punk rocker street clothes taking back control of their lives... cool.

But don't try to sell me that this is a Birds of Prey film at the same time. Nobodies wearing a costume, Batgirl is MIA. I just don't care.

I have this problem with pretty much every licensed film that takes the name of something and goes bananas. You told me you were making a Birds of Prey movie, you bothered to name all your characters familiar names from DC comics with all the expectations that come with that... and deliver something that's simply too tonally and visually separate from that thing you said you were going to sell me.

To be VERY clear, the type of story its trying to tell here isn't the issue, the film has turned me away before I ever arrived on a purely visual standpoint. This doesn't LOOK like the comic book superheroes movie that the franchise it derives from actually is. So I have no interest in watching it, I'm certain I'm not alone.

[shevek]

Ya Boi Zack likes it! But weirdly, he doesn't recommend that other people see it in the theaters because it looks "cheap" like a CW episode. And he tends to have legendarily terrible taste in movies.

And Jimmy Palmiotti has tweeted that Harley is very much in character compared to the several years of comic
that he's written. So Harley fans will probably like it, after all they're not going to the theater to see Birds of Prey.
But then again, Jimmy Palmiotti's name is right smack there in the credits, along with Amanda Conner.

Mixed bag, then. Still going to see it tomorrow.

[Maskripper]

Here is my review:

+
really good action scenes
often pretty funny
Harley and Huntress are rocking it
the score is really good, often with interesting female fronted bands

-
...pretty much what was clear after the trailer: this is realllllllly far away from the comics!
....weird casting desicisions! Montoya 20 years too old(!), Cassandra Cain way too young, Canary now afro-american.
(Quite obvious the task was to cast women of all ages and ethnic backgrounds)
...Costumes are way too colorful and often very unsexy (and that was intended from what I read....)

All in all, it was pretty much what I expected. It was an enjoyable, pretty violent and funny movie.
Just RENAME the movie in your head! "Harley Quinn and some random chicks VS the bad guys"
The movie is quite...feministic.

Spoiler

I mean in the end battle the 5 women fight against 20-30 men..... that sums it up rather good (like the subtitle does too).

I don't have any problems with that, but I guess many folks might have issues with that.
I really looking forward to see how much this movie will make.
Fun fact: At the very end of the movie Huntress is

Spoiler

actually is wearing a mask for some seconds, but the costume is still.......bad.

[Dogfish]

The DC movies have been murdering the characters since the Nolan Batman trilogy so I'm not surprised this interpretation is a mess. I'd say it is because the folks running the DC movie franchises care about doing right by their movies more than they care about the comics, but since their hit rate with the movies is atrocious it's probably just because they suck. I think it's important to remember too that this movie is stepping out of the wreckage of one of the biggest cinematic train wrecks in history, and everything they do is tainted by the existence of earlier movies and chained to the possibility that they'll have to make more.

The only complaints I've heard are from folks who don't like the interpretation of the characters, which doesn't matter because lets face it, you were never going to get that $200m budget movie of your favourite D-List Gotham universe character anyway. And other complaints stem from people who are triggered when they see a woman beat up a man in a movie, presumably because that's what happens whenever they ask a woman out.

Seems like an odd choice to go with the Birds of Prey instead of Poison Ivy but hopefully that'd be a sequel.

[shevek]

OK, I took one for the team here, spent $7.50 (no idea why Ya Boi Zack had to spend $20?) on this in a Saturday afternoon matinee
with six other audience members in the theater on its opening weekend.

I would say this is more of a third-wave feminist re-interpretation of a gonzo / nihilist Tarantino flick (as well as DC's stab at capturing the Deadpool lightning in a bottle) than an actual superhero movie, especially considering nobody in this movie has any powers except 10 seconds of a Black Canary scream.

Dogfish mentioned that with the level of the lesser-known characters involved, it couldn't be a "$200 million" superhero flick. But nobody asked it to be. All we needed to make this work were Black Canary and Huntress to be in their regular costumes, and it also would have made sense to include Oracle. I mean, in the end credits they credited people who were specially hired to create bespoke masks for Black Mask (which was indeed awesome) and for Huntress (which was hardly shown). Couldn't they also have hired costumers to spend $10,000 each (or whatever the going rate is) to create worthwhile costumes for the three lead actresses who are supposed to be costumed characters? That alone doesn't turn an $83 million movie into a $200 million dollar one (the only reason this movie is going to at least break even is because it was relatively cheap to make).

Plenty of plot details follow.

Spoiler

At the end of the movie, we briefly see the real costumes that Birds of Prey would be wearing if they made a sequel. Those costumes are terrible - they look baggy like they were pulled off the rack of a Halloween store.

There was way too much narration by Harley, and the plot timeline jumped around a good bit, causing the need for even more narration to explain to the audience what was going on and in what order it happened. As a result, they literally repeated a bunch of shots in the guise of 'recalling' things, thus saving them even a bit more money on shooting time.

As for the action? Yeah, there was lots of it, and it was ultraviolent in a grindhouse mode. I've got no problem with the ultraviolence - I grew up watching Clockwork Orange, and as I've mentioned in the past, I'm a fan of extreme blends of violence and erotica such as the Japanese flick "Gun Woman."

But in grindhouse movies, you usually see the protagonist (who is some kind of anti-hero) endure hardships. There were no hardships here and very little peril. Other than Harley being a captive of Black Mask for a few minutes, and the scene of a woman being deliberately humiliated, the rest of the movie was women beating up dozens and dozens of men. Other than the "Frida Kahlo-looking" woman who shot at them for two seconds from a passing car, men were the enemy everywhere in the story, from Black Mask & Zsasz, to the various teams of bounty hunters tracking Cassandra down, to the entire staff of the Gotham police department, to the customer toadies in Roman's club, to the "men of Gotham" whom assembled in a large throng at Roman's behest to take down Harley/Birds in the amusement park.

Another indicator of third-wave comic book fare? Lots of references to food, and how much the characters love the food, and miss the food, and wish they were eating the food. And, once everyone meets each other and understands each other (which happens well before the end of the movie), lots of mutual validation being passed around ("you're so cool, you're so great", etc).

The ending? Anti-climactic at best, and very 'on message'. Did anyone notice Harley striding through the mist of "Founders Pier" and there are statues of the Old White Men who established the City of Gotham on both sides of her, as she traipses through the very patriarchy itself to hunt Black Mask down? But there is no final battle with Black Mask - the whole thing ends very suddenly and without much of a visual reward - mere trickery wins the day.

Imagine what this could have been. Blake Lively was interested in being Black Canary. Sofia Boutella was interested in playing Huntress. And there's then omission of Oracle, who is a redhead, and any number of actress choices could have fulfilled Barbara Gordon. You could have had an insanely gorgeous cast in top-notch costumes for not much more than they spent here. Instead, you get Margot who is ostensibly hot, but the costuming and makeup constantly plays it down on purpose, and you get Jurnee Smollett (yes, the sister of the infamous hoaxer Jussie Smollett) who is the most beautiful cast member, but whose acting is less than convincing. Everyone else, the male gaze barely even wants to rest on.

The good parts other than the ultraviolence? MacGregor does a good job with what he's given as Black Mask, considering he's a one-note disposable bad guy. I wish he did a bit more with the technique of slicing people's faces off, except that he'd be a little bit too much like "Mouse" from the Batwoman TV series.

And the young actress playing Cassandra is funny as kind of a female version of Short Round. However, not in a million years was Cassandra ever Harley's "apprentice" in the comics (in fact, she had a whole different 'Gang of Harleys' dreamed up by Jimmy Palmiotti). And Cassandra in the comics is a living weapon, an expert martial arts assassin who doesn't talk. So regardless of her ability, her character was actually more different than anyone's, and her presence there didn't make sense except as a human MacGuffin.

Chuck Dixon was indeed correct that the movie inexplicably failed to credit DC editor Jordan Gorfinkel, who came up with the original idea for the Birds of Prey team, and let Chuck run with it. It makes no sense to give the credit they did to Palmiotti, Conner, Dixon and Gary Frank (not to mention thanking about two dozen other comic book creators!) and not mention Gorfinkel at all. He was robbed.

OK, that's about all I have in me tonight, as I have to get up early. However, I can go to sleep knowing securely that probably 75% of the costumes used by various SHIP producers looks better than anything in the Birds of Prey movie, even if they can't afford millions for sets.

And next week I'll go back to watching the adult-cartoon Harley episodes which are much more fantabulous.

Nerdrotic says some things better than I can:



And even Arris had some serious problems with the movie, even though he tends to go easy on most other things:

[batgirl1969]

they ruined my Cassie Cain character....sorry this looks like hot garbage...I have cosplay Cassie for YEARS !! they should have paid some.cosplayers to star in this with their own costumes and makeup skills...we do it RIGHT!!!

[Dogfish]

So I gave it a watch.

Few random points:

1. The fight scenes are the best in any comic book movie. Bar none. The violence is outstanding, but there's also some really funny bits that don't detract from the combat itself. The director does an amazing job of giving each character their own style and making it look like it hurts when people get hit. Notably they don't fall into the usual trap when putting women into fight scenes of just having them trade punches with dudes and emerging on top because Girl Power, instead the characters rely on weapons, leverage and vulnerable points and it works visually.

2. For a large bit of the final battle and final scene I really got the sense that they were channelling the 1960s series, with the faintly surreal setting, the baddies in masks, and then the visit to the docks. Felt like a callback to the Adam West movie. Anybody else get that vibe?

3. I liked the low stakes. Suicide Squad was bad in so many ways, but one of the most notable was the plot and the unspoken assumption that literally every other hero was out of town when the world nearly ended. Birds of Prey was a Gotham mob war, and though I felt like Black Mask and Mr Unspellable Name were a bit underwhelming in a movie series you don't get the luxury of comics or TV to let a villain develop, and you generally have to kill them at the end, so it worked.

4. Huntress was great. Nearly stole the show for me. The character isn't around much but what Mary Elizabeth Winstead does with her central comedic concept of not giving a fuck, but giving a fuck about people knowing she gives a fuck, and trying to efficiently communicate to the world that she doesn't give a fuck, it's just great.

5. I like the sly soft-reboot of the Joker in the flashback animation. The purple suit is baaaaaaaaaack. Don't let the door hit you on the way out Leto. Fingers crossed the next guy brings his green wig and gets another Oscar because fuck it, I want a Joker Oscar hat-trick now. It's on y'all.

Folks have said it's more of an action movie than a comic book movie, and I would agree accept that the latest crop of DC movies haven't been comic book movies either. This is very much a DC comic book movie. It's probably the best one too although the bar there isn't very high.

[shevek]

The movie had the worst opening weekend earnings-wise for a DC-related film other than Jonah Hex (which I don't think *anyone* saw). Way worse than the 2011 Green Lantern by around $20 million. Which gave me an idea: since I never really took it in from start to finish before, although I've seen chunks of it, I'm going to go back and re-watch Green Lantern, for science. Let's compare and contrast!....

....Two hours later...I return to this post. Yes. 2011 Green Lantern is a better movie than Birds of Prey.

[DrDominator9]

I see the studio is trying to improve the box office by doing a slight rebranding, renaming the film "Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey."

https://nerdist.com/article/harley-quin ... cial-title

Probably should have gone for that at the outset. We'll see if the renaming and decent reviews bring it back up to decent box office levels. I suspect that bird has flown though. Certainly can't help that the Chinese market is closed due to a little thing like the coronavirus.

[Maskripper]

Yes. 2011 Green Lantern is a better movie than Birds of Prey.

You are lying! Revoke that devilish blasphemy before it's too late!
Ryan Reynolds is still traumatized by that experience.....

[Dogfish]

I see the studio is trying to improve the box office by doing a slight rebranding, renaming the film "Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey."

https://nerdist.com/article/harley-quin ... cial-title

Probably should have gone for that at the outset. We'll see if the renaming and decent reviews bring it back up to decent box office levels. I suspect that bird has flown though. Certainly can't help that the Chinese market is closed due to a little thing like the coronavirus.

Yeah the title was the worst idea. Like what the fuck even was that?