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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 2020 movie Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
This is supposed to be a sequel to the 2016 Suicide Squad. I reviewed that at the time and was extremely generous in my rating.
Story
The story was overly simple which was a good thing but also telegraphed what was going to happen. This wasn’t a movie that left me guessing, it told you early on what was going to happen and then those things happened.
As with any anti-hero story, there were a few morally awkward moments and a lot of humour.
Score: 0.5
Characters
The movie truly shines through its characters, all written and acted superbly. It was nice that they remembered that Harley is smart. I hate smart characters doing dumb things, but Harley did dumb things because she was hurt, broken, sad, and disturbed.
All that other characters were fantastic and left you feeling like they were well rounded (Although definitely in need of a hug and a paid vacation).
Score: 1
Dialogue
Some of the dialogue was brilliant, the narration was awesome, but not everything was great. All the actors had moments were their natural accents slipped, some of the turns of phrase felt like they were meant for someone else to say, and when Harley wasn’t there or narrating, the movie took a dive towards bad cop drama.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
The action pieces, aesthetic, and music were fantabulous. The simplicity of the story led to those big action set pieces. I don’t think I’ve seen better action than that scene in the evidence locker. I also desperately want this soundtrack.
Score: 1
Fun
Other than a few moments were it started dragging (usually non-narrated story parts for the BOP) this was a thoroughly fun movie. Action, humour, drama, and great music.
Score: 1
Conclusion
This movie was fantastic and if you can handle brutal action, I highly recommend it. I definitely look forward to re-watching it.
Much better than Suicide Squad, which I’ll have to re-watch and re-review.
Final Score: 4 out of 5 stars