"Birds of Prey" is a Meh Kind of Movie

On our quarantine date night this week my wife and I decided to watch "Birds of Prey", the Harley Quinn DC movie.

This was my least favorite of the movies we have watched so far, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. I will, most likely, not watch it again, unless I catch it on cable, but it was a fine movie. And, as far as DC goes, I appreciated that they went with more humor and that the movie was quite colorful. This was a bright, easy to see movie. I usually am not into DC movies because they are too brooding and too dark in color. They are hard for me to see what is going on. "Birds of Prey" was opposite that, and as RD has told me, "Shazaam" seems to be the same way. I liked that. I also liked Rosie Perez and the actor that played Black Canary and the young pick pocket girl. They all did a very solid job in their roles, especially Black Canary. My wife said she is a Smollet, but that doesn't mean much to me. She was great though. I also enjoyed the humor. I thought the movie had some solid funny moments. I even liked the story, for the most part. Also, the violence was very cartoonish, which I found to be very fun. If I had to give the movie a letter grade, I would give it a solid C. But, I did have some nits to pick with this movie.

Lets start with the main character. In a movie with her name in the title, I felt they kind of drifted in and out of her story a bit too much. They would dedicate a good chunk to what she was going through, but then it would hard cut to a different character. Maybe they were under time constraints, maybe they wanted a movie under two hours, but it just felt a bit too rushed for me. I also, and I know this is how she speaks in the cartoons, could not get over her voice. That is such a dumb thing to gripe about, but I found it bothersome, and it took me out of moments far too often. I also felt like they copied a little too much from "Deadpool" with Harley Quinn constantly breaking the fourth wall. I liked it, but I have already seen it. I did not like Ewan McGregor at all in the movie. He was chewing the scenery so hard that I just couldn't take him seriously as the bad guy. Maybe that is how he was supposed to play the character, but there were times that I was uncomfortable watching him perform because it was a bit too much. It was like Homer playing the landlord in "Rent" in the greatest "Simpsons" episode ever, "Behind the Laughter". He even makes a joke about chewing scenery in it, and that is how I viewed McGregor's character. I also wanted more from Huntress. She could have been such a cool character, but much like the majority of the movie, she felt rushed. Her story felt disjointed and crammed in the plot. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a good actor, but with this role, she just missed the mark.

Outside that, the movie, as I said, was just okay. I did really like the color, as I mentioned, and the fight scenes were really cool. The one when Quinn breaks into the prison was pretty rad, and that final battle scene was cool as hell. I also appreciated that they didn't linger on beating the bad guys. There were no monologues or any of the usual stuff in movies like this. When someone died, they died quick.

All in all "Birds of Prey" seems like the kind of movie that DC fans will like, and people who like really bright and vibrantly colored movies will enjoy. For me, there was bad and good. If someone would ask me if I would recommend it, I would probably tell them to pass. But that is just me. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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