BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN) : Tuesday 11th February 2020.

'BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)' is an MA15+ Rated American all female superhero film based on the DC Comics team 'Birds of Prey' that has appeared in comic books form, miniseries and special editions since 1996. Directed by Chinese American film maker, Producer and Screenwriter Cathy Yan in only her second Directorial outing following her 2018 Shanghai based 'Dead Pigs', this film is intended to be the eighth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and a follow-up spin-off to the 2016 David Ayer Directed film 'Suicide Squad'. Despite that films Box Office haul of US$747M from a production budget of US$175M and it winning seventeen awards and another 39 nominations, it garnered mostly negative press from Critics. 'The Suicide Squad' (aka 'Suicide Squad 2') also starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in what will be her third outing as the character, is currently in post-production and is Directed by James Gunn, sees the cast from the previous film return except for Will Smith as Deadshot and Jared Leto as The Joker, and is set for a 6th August 2021 release date. This film was released in the USA on 7th February following its Mexico City World Premier on 25th January, cost in the region of $85M to produce and has so far performed below Box Office expectations with a worldwide haul of US$87M and has generated mixed or average Reviews with Critics praising Robbie's and McGregor's performances, Cathy Yan's Direction and its visual aesthetic, but less positive for the Screenplay.

Following on from the events of 'Suicide Squad', Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) in the opening sequence narrates an animated update from the point of her conception to her childhood years, her time as a former qualified psychiatrist working in Arkham Asylum to the time very recently that she broke up with The Joker (played by Jared Leto in that film) and he cast her out on the streets of Gotham. She is promptly taken in by the well meaning and warm hearted Doc (Dana Lee), the elderly owner of a Chinese restaurant, as the only person to ever show her any kindness. Slowly getting over her abusive relationship, Harley cuts her hair, adopts a spotted hyena (whom she names after Bruce Wayne), takes up roller derby, and hijacks a fuel tanker truck and drives it headlong into the Ace Chemicals plant where she pledged herself originally to the clown prince of crime, and blows the place to kingdom come.

At a nightclub owned by gangster Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), Harley drowns her sorrows by drinking heavily and popping pills, cripples Roman's driver and meets burlesque singer Dinah Lance (aka 'Black Canary' - Jurnee Smollett-Bell). Dinah later rescues an intoxicated Harley from an attempted abduction. Looking on Roman is so impressed by Dinah's fighting skills that he appoints her as his new driver. Meanwhile, Gotham City Police Department Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) investigates a series of mob killings carried out by the so called 'Crossbow Killer' vigilante. Finding Harley's 'J' necklace at the scene of the Ace Chemicals explosion, Montoya notes that Harley must now be in danger from numerous quarters without the security of The Joker to protect her.

Sionis sends Dinah and his sadistic right-hand-man Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina) to retrieve a diamond encrypted with the account numbers to the multi-billion dollar fortune of the Bertinelli crime family, who were all massacred fifteen years previously. Young teenage pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) steals the diamond from the pocket of an unsuspecting Zsasz, but is arrested and promptly swallows the valuable rock while en route to the Police Station. 

Harley, involved in a cross city foot chase trying to evade Montoya and several other low life crims she has wronged, is captured by Sionis's men. Zsasz informs Sionis that Cassandra has the diamond, and Dinah calls Montoya alerting her about Cass. As Sionis prepares to have Harley killed by the hand of Zsasz who is rather adept with a sharp instrument in peeling off the faces of his victims, she hurriedly offers to recover the diamond for him. Roman agrees putting a midnight tonight time line on her attempt, and also for added security puts out notification of a US$500K bounty on Cass. 

Having tracked down Cass to the GCPD, she storms her way in and using  a colourful array of non-lethal grenade launcher rounds, she is able to free the young pick-pocket and the pair escape to the evidence warehouse. Upon an ambush by goons seeking Cass' bounty, Harley seeks cover behind a pallet load of impounded cocaine which is promptly shot up sending plumes of the white powder into the air all around her. She unintentionally inhales so heightening her reflexes and fighting abilities and dispenses with them all. She and Cassandra then steal a shopping trolley loaded up with groceries from a local supermarket and bond over a bowl of cereal and cartoons on the TV while hiding out at Harley's apartment.

Soon afterwards Doc is approached in his restaurant for information by the 'Crossbow Killer', who is revealed to be Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Having survived her family's massacre fifteen years prior, as a young child she vowed revenge on the death of her entire family and so trained as an assassin. When the time was right (and that time is now) Helena has been targeting each of the gangsters responsible for the murders of her family, and has successful taken out many of them one by one using her crossbow skills. Harley's apartment is bombed by criminals looking for Cass, after Doc betrayed Harley and sold them out, stating in the aftermath, that 'it's just business' and how now he can relocate and open a real Chinese restaurant!

Harley has a moment of clarity following Doc's 'business' revelation and calls Sionis and offers to turn Cassandra over in exchange for his future protection, agreeing to meet at an abandoned amusement park. Dinah notifies Montoya of the rendezvous, while Zsasz notices Dinah's treacherous text message en route to the park, orders Dinah to pull over and contacts Sionis with this latest update. Devastated by Dinah's betrayal, Roman puts on his face mask from which he gets his villainous pseudonym 'Black Mask' and makes for the amusement park. At the park, Harley has Cass taped to the toilet having plied her with laxative so that she can shit out the diamond. Montoya confronts Harley but is knocked out of a window. Zsasz arrives and tranquilizes Harley before holding Dinah at gunpoint and ordering that she slice open Cass' stomach with a knife to retrieve the diamond. He is promptly killed by an arrow to the neck delivered by Helena, who reveals that Zsasz was the last on the hit list of her family's killers. Montoya climbs back through the window just as the effects of Harley's tranquilizer is wearing off. 

A stand-off ensues with Cass now holding the women at gunpoint out of anger and frustration more than anything, saying that Dinah was about to slice her open, and Harley was about to trade her in to the evil Sionis. The women then observe that Sionis has arrived with a small army of face mask wearing goons all out to claim the bounty on Cass' head. Using Harley's old gear conveniently found in a trunk in the room where they are all standing, the makeshift team of women successfully withstand and fend off their attackers, while safeguarding Cass, in an area of the amusement park that is suddenly illuminated and looks brand new like it was last used yesterday and a far cry from being abandoned and disused.

During the battle, Cass is captured by Sionis, while Montoya is shot, but survives due to her wearing Harley's bulletproof bustier. Dinah reveals her metahuman capability of hypersonic-level screaming, so instantly wiping out the additional goons sided with Sionis. Harley chases after Sionis' car on roller skates, and with assistance from Helena riding a motorcycle, the pair pursue him and Cass. At a nearby pier also fallen into disrepair, the final showdown takes place. Shooting at a shadowy figure masked by the nighttime mist, whom she believes to be Sionis, Harley uses her last bullet as Sionis appears from behind a statue, having missed. Sionis holds Cassandra hostage and is poised to kill her. However, Cassandra pulls the ring from a grenade she had taken from Harley’s weapons trunk earlier, slipping the grenade into Sionis' jacket. Harley drop kicks Sionis backwards sending him toppling into the harbour just before the grenade detonates and blows him into tiny pieces with body parts flying in all directions.

In the aftermath with Sionis criminal regime now destroyed, Montoya quits the GCPD. With the money from the accounts encrypted inside the diamond, she joins forces with Dinah and Helena in setting up a team of vigilantes, who call themselves the 'Birds of Prey'. Harley and Cassandra sell the diamond to a pawnshop, start up their own business, and are seen driving off in a convertible with a recovered Bruce the hyena in the back, and the pair biting into Harley's favoured fried egg and cheese sandwiches.

'Harley Quinn : Birds of Prey' as it has been renamed for the American audience it would seem is not a bad film, but its also not that good either. In the grand pantheon of comic book big screen Superhero movies, of which there have been many, I would rate this somewhere in the bottom half. What is it with the DCEU that they just can't emulate what the MCU have done numerous times over already with their finely crafted storytelling, intricate world building, deep rooted characters with empathy and a meaningful back story that we can relate to, and action set pieces delivered with aplomb. Here Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn steals the show with her unhinged and unpredictable emotions, her acts of extreme violence, moments of pathos and her live for the moment attitude. And Ewan McGregor as villain Roman Sionis seems to be relishing in his role as the dastardly underworld kingpin. As for the Birds of Prey as they come to be known, they are relegated to the final fifteen  minutes of the film and Harley ultimately isn't even one of them! This is certainly a colourful film with a thumping soundtrack and some moments of originality for sure, but the action sequences are frenetic, delivered all too often seemingly to grab the attention and maintain interest but look as though they have been lifted straight out of the Looney Tunes Cartoon playbook. How we are supposed to suspend all belief in seeing Harley and her three other female pals thwart a small army of crims of all shapes and sizes hellbent on a big bounty payday and armed with all manner of hardware really is beyond all comprehension. I guess 'stupid is as stupid does' as someone once said! And in between all the cartoonish action, in the brief moments of relative calm the script is left wanting punctuated with effing and blinding aplenty and what amounts to a fairly shallow storyline.

'Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)'  merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-