Movie review: Birds Of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

 Harley and the Joker are over and if that isn't enough, announcing their breakup publicly puts a target on Harley's head. Teaming up with The Huntress, Black Canary, and others Harley and her crew try to save a young girl from psychotic mobster Black Mask.

Margot Robbie (Harley), Rosie Perez (Renee), Mary Winstead (Helena/Huntress), Jurnee Smollett (Dinah/Canary), Ewan McGregor (Sionis/Black Mask), Ella Basco (Cassandra), Chris Messina (Zsasz).

Birds Of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn begins with some lead-in to tie this film with the franchise storyline. This film explores Harley's life immediately following her split with Joker as she, in typical Harley style, goes off the rails. With a target on her head, she teams up with The Huntress and Black Canary to battle Black Mask and save a young girl. Unfortunately, all of that sounds much better than it is.

Acting was a bit of a mess in this one. Robbie, who was excellent in Suicide Squad, retained almost none of that luster here. The humor fell flat much of the time, and the physical presence aka hotness was missing as well. Perez and Winstead almost felt like they phoned this one in, whereas Smollett seemed to oversell it to compensate. And she brought the hotness Robbie lost. McGregor fits as a psychotic nemesis of course.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were nicely done and the film retained much of the big screen feel seen in this franchise. CGI and effects, largely centered around action scenes, are nicely done and in keeping with the franchise. Dialogue was mediocre and as mentioned, much of the humor just didn't land. Sound and soundtrack are okay.

Overall, we were anticipating Birds Of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn and Robbie expanding on her character. Instead this felt like a lethargic attempt to exploit a financial opportunity and little more. The film adds very little to the franchise at the end of the day.

With violence, gore, and foul language, save this one for older teens and above.

Released: 2020
Reviewed: 11.26.20
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Action, Crime, Adventure, Thrillers, Comic Books and Superheroes

copyright ©2020 Dave Riedel