Random Movie Review - Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn

It's never easy for an actor to win people over in their roles after the first in a series of films featuring their characters ends up being pretty bad. This was the case for Ryan Reynolds whose portrayal as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was criticized for how they removed everything people love about the character. But he found redemption when the two Deadpool films came out which people see as him playing more like the character we know and love. So I guess in a way this is the same for Margot Robbie who was actually OK as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. But the film wasn't great and put the future of her character in the DC Extended Universe into question. So here we are with what I hope is her redemption film so let's take a look:

Now this of course is obviously an origin story for the titular Birds of Prey, but changed so that it can use Harley Quinn (reprised by Robbie) in the plot. Since leaving the Joker (who appears animated and as Jared Leto via archive footage), Harley Quinn has turned over a new leaf and is now operating as a solo villain turned anti-hero. She has a bounty on her head with so many of her enemies (excluding Batman) out to go after her. This becomes more apparent when she blows up Ace Chemicals as a means to announce her breakup with the Joker. But she isn't the only lady that has been wronged and sure enough a certain team is formed when a crime lord becomes hell-bent on killing a child just to get a diamond of sorts.

This is in every way a Harley Quinn film if it was doing the things that the two Deadpool films did. I mean Harley is basically narrating, breaking the fourth wall and pointing out all the clichés and faults that the film has. But to be honest, I was kind of expecting this anyway as in recent years she has become known as the DC version of Deadpool. Just without the immortality and supernatural powers. That aside, this is a good film and even though Harley is at centre stage, the Birds of Prey get their time to shine too which is good. Hope we get more films like this as the DC Extended Universe carries on in this direction. 9/10