Birds of Prey

[peter]

I searched in vain for a thread on this film and thankfully did not find one. That means that hopefully no-one else has been subjected to the visceral pain that seeing ones life slip away inexorably second by second in wasted time can cause - and was indeed my overriding sensation in watching this drivel.

Like many others, I was briefly mesmerized by Margo Robbie in cosplay mode in Suicide Squad (hell, I'm in my sixties - I should know better!), but let's face it, it was a pretty thin gruel to base a full movie on, and alas time has not been kind to our anti-heroine when placed under the full scrutinising glare of 35mm at 24fps (or whatever it is - frikked if I know). In that last outing, Robbie's manic Harly had a sexy frisson about her (peeling off her shirt and saying "What?" and all) that this time round was just plain - well - manic. And more than that, it was in some way weird and unpleasant. This time round the magnification of her face showed every bloodshot vein in her eyes, every early-stage wrinkle fighting to reveal itself through the thick impasto makeup that the makers had used in vain to try to cover the fact that she's getting older.

And she deserved better. She's beautiful, still very beautiful, but she's not twenty years old and to try to make her look it isn't going to work. But beyond this, the script was just shit, the way that the bad story was told in voiceover was shit, and even the look of the film was (candyfloss color-book) shit. No excuse for that last one. Ewan McGregor flounced around as about the weakest villain, alternating from silly vanity posing to hand-wringing rage-fest at the drop of a hat and with no decipherable reason, out there in many a long year. And inside all this bubblegum was a nastiness that seeped through and pervaded the whole thing. Every actor in the whole miserable production would have been better to have stayed in bed that day, because this stinking pile of offal could do none of them any good.

[I'm Murrin]

Wow, I think this is the wrongest I've seen you be about something so far.

[peter]

It's also the guiltiest I've felt about evicerating a movie to date Murin. After I posted I thought "hang on - some people are going to enjoy this movie: because it doesn't do it for you doesn't make it bad by default". I even thought about pulling it altogether, but didn't get round to it!

So yes - ignore the above post and put it down to me being cranky!

(Will try better, will try better, will try better.........!)

[I'm Murrin]

Sorry for not elaborating on my response, too. Was a little ill yesterday.

Birds of Prey isn't a great film, but I thought it was a fun one, and it had a couple of really good action sequences (Chad Stahelski directed some of them, you can see his fingerprints all over the fight in the police evidence locker, for example). I also thought Ewan McGregor was great in it (and clearly having a great time), and loved the choice to play Roman as a spoiled brat who throws temper tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Harlene Quinzel was created for the Batman animated series from the early 90s--I certainly don't ever recall seeing her as a character before then in any comic book--and that character had a completely dysfunctional, co-dependent relationship with Joker. To complete that role, though, she had to be an emotional doormat--in fact, their relationship reminded me a lot of the relationship between Maggie Gyllenhall and James Spader in Secretary.

In the last few years, though, the character is evolving and now her "canon" story is that she has left that abusive relationship and is finding her own path in life. This movie is simply another version of that story and in that it did its job reasonably well.

Note, though, that Margot Robbie as Harley got her own mostly-solo movie before Scarlett Johanssen got her own movie as Black Widow, which now probably won't even see any theatrical release--are they just going to put it out on Amazon and Disney+?

Anyway, I agree--the movie isn't great but it is quite enjoyable as popcorn fluff.

[Cagliostro]

Yep, sign me up too for a whole lotta fun, and light on substance. I'd watch it again because it was a fun ride.