[click here for Toast's take]
As Toast explained in his review, Harley Quinn came out of Batman: The Animated Series, where I really liked the character. She was turned into a hot-pants and bustier-wearing pseudo-Deadpool in the comics, and I was not on board. Somewhere along the way, while I wasn't paying attention, she settled into a force of malevolence, breaking free (though not entirely) from the "Joker's Girlfriend" mold.
I've written about the Harley Quinn cartoon (currently in its second season) which fast became something I enjoy immensely, and I consider to be the definitive second-take on the character. The emancipation of Harley from the Joker is a season-long arc of that show, violent, bloody, absurd and funny. I'm guessing both were in development at the same time, and once the episodes started streaming (on the "DC Universe" platform in the US) Margot Robbie said "I've made a huge mistake", because, frankly, that's how it is done.
This movie is, to paraphrase David, kind of a non-entity. It certainly exists, but it's uninspired. It's got all the feelings of a first draft, and a first edit. It feels unrefined. It's not until the third act -- where it actively mimics The Warriors then segues into a bizarre fun-house brawl -- that I realized Yan was striving for some sort of gritty grindhouse aesthetic. But she didn't commit, she didn't lean into it. A brutal feminist action-comedy with grindhouse trappings would have been amazing.
This instead is something that can't decide whether it's going for something PG-13 or hard-R. It certainly doesn't shy away from violence, but at the same time, it doesn't seem to get the revelry of it either. Harley clearly loves beating the crap out of people, and we see that in Robbie's performance, but the camera doesn't know how to love the violence-as-art. It just looks like violence with no real take on it.
I was rooting for this film, but I was left wary by the trailers. The fanboy in me wanted the Birds of Prey as proactive costumed crime-fighting vigilantes, not well-tailored women happening into a bad situation together. In my head cannon, the Birds of Prey would have been an established team, reluctantly helping Harley who had gotten herself in over her head post-Joker. Instead, Harley is helping out a young pickpocket, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), who stole mob boss Ewan McGregor's precious diamond. Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), lounge-singer turned attache Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and vengeful assassin Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) all find themselves involved in middle of the situation as well through different angles. It's much messier than it needs to be and also quite underwhelming.
There's a definite undercurrent of the uphill battle against misogyny all women face, that is sometimes flagrant and often institutional (no matter the institution). There's a message about finding solidarity in facing this fight together, even if it's with someone you don't necessarily like or identify with. I like the message, which I should add is unvoiced, but obvious.
That said, the movie doesn't really *inspire* like I wanted it to. It passes time, but it's not the good time, the rollicking entertainment it should be. The fight scenes seem plain, but it's because they're not shot dynamically. If you pay attention the coordination in those sequences is actually quite astounding, but the lens doesn't get how to draw attention to that. It captures everything but enhances nothing.
... and now... *nerd gripes*
1) Rosie Perez, always liked her, I even like her here, but she's not the Renee Montoya I wanted to see. She's 55 and the role acknowledges that because she's a woman she's underestimated in her police department, and been stepped over time and again. But I want a Renee who can become The Question, and she's not who I picture making that journey.
2) Cassandra Cain from the comics is not at all represented in this film. Ella Jay Basco is fine in her in-over-her-head sass-mouthed pickpocket role, but that's not Cassandra Cain. This is shades of 90's comics-to-film transitions where they literally just take a name and nothing else. Meh.
3) Mr. Zsasz is a terrifying serial killer in the comics. Here he's a nasty misogynist playing mob enforcer against Black Mask's much subtler misogynist. Messina doesn't seem right for the part, and the part doesn't seem like the right adaptation of that character. It should literally just be some otherwise generic goon.
4) I don't really know what Black Mask is like as a villain in the comics, but I found McGregor's performance here confusing. It wasn't until late in the second act that I truly understood he was a petulant spoiled rich kid who was playing at being a big-time mobster by cultivating his own worst instincts. The storytelling doesn't convey that very well, though the performance is trying hard to get that across.
5) Harley narrates this thing, but as with most films the narration tapers off completely after the first act...only it returns in the most jarring manner in the third act.
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