Birds of Prey

B.A._Baracus · 13-02-2020 9:51am

Saw it last night and I really enjoyed it. Thought it was going to be a meh movie going in but glad to see it was not. Magot Robbie is class as Harley Quinn.

Agent Coulson · 13-02-2020 5:13pm

A very average film that had a few giggles, Robbie is fine as Quinn mostly and the rest were badly cast with the exception of Canary for me.

Black Mask /McGregor really wasn't strong enough or used right to be the villain.

Gatling · 13-02-2020 5:33pm

Did not enjoy this one bit ,

Found the story all over the place and the cast pretty much let it down ,
Robbie seems to force Harley Quinn this time around unlike in suicide squad where she stole the show ,

This likely will kill off any further adventures for ms Quinn in the future

Brief_Lives · 14-02-2020 9:05am

Hilarious review here.... Spoilers everywhere.....

Optimalprimerib · 16-02-2020 10:55am

This is an awful lot better than it should be. The action scenes were fun and I enjoyed Ewan McGregor as the villain.

To poke a snowflakey hole, I wasn't a fan of some of the things they glamourised: binge drinking, littering and how a sniff of cocaine gave her super powers. Also not one man in the movie had any redeeming qualities.

Gwynplaine · 16-02-2020 11:04am

Could it be any worse than Suicide Squad? A film that I blushed at a few times.

Hangdogroad · 19-02-2020 1:44am

Harley Quinn the character is basically a rubbish Tank Girl rip off anyway.

speedboatchase · 19-02-2020 2:02pm

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

Couldn't get through that...

Anyway, I enjoyed the film. I see some table for 1 men getting catty at what they see as a female centric movie that excludes them. It's quite hilarious with all the male centric action films where the women are side lined or written terribly they don't bat an eye but the moment you have one action chick flick the toys are out of the pram.

Literally every single superhero movie this year is female-led (Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, Black Widow, Eternals) and female-directed. Women can also make crap, and be called out for it.

Mark Hamill · 19-02-2020 2:47pm

I don't particularly like Robbie's Harley Quinn (the original animated one is much better), but I quite enjoyed this and thought Robbie was a lot better here than in Suicide Squad. It helped a lot, though, that action was done by the same people who did John Wick. I thought the action was better filmed than anything Marvel has done.

everlast75 · 19-02-2020 2:56pm

Mark Hamill wrote: »

I don't particularly like Robbie's Harley Quinn (the original animated one is much better), but I quite enjoyed this and thought Robbie was a lot better here than in Suicide Squad. It helped a lot, though, that action was done by the same people who did John Wick. I thought the action was better filmed than anything Marvel has done.

Agree with this - apart from the bold part. The action was much better in this movie but wouldn't go as far as that statement.

About 7 or 8 jokes landed in this movie. I think zero landed in Suicide Squad.

I wouldn't be rushing out to see it again but it was a solid enough movie for DC.

santana75 · 19-02-2020 8:25pm

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

Couldn't get through that...

Anyway, I enjoyed the film. I see some table for 1 men getting catty at what they see as a female centric movie that excludes them. It's quite hilarious with all the male centric action films where the women are side lined or written terribly they don't bat an eye but the moment you have one action chick flick the toys are out of the pram.

Dont think it has anything to do with sexism to be fair. Its just not a good movie. And I would guess it would still be pretty bad had it been a team of lads instead of girls. A good film stands on its own merits, regardless of what gender or race or sexual orientation is represented in it.

CatFromHue · 19-02-2020 8:58pm

Yeah I agree.

I was really looking forward to Annihilation and then really enjoyed it when I watched it. It having a mainly female cast didn't register for me at all.

Mark Hamill · 20-02-2020 10:07am

everlast75 wrote: »

Agree with this - apart from the bold part. The action was much better in this movie but wouldn't go as far as that statement.

Marvels CG action is great, but it's CG, so it's easy to just CG up exactly what angle you want and what everyone should be doing. Marvels "realistic" action is sometimes choreographed very well (e.g. Winter Soldier) but it's always filmed with way too many jump cuts and close ups (even when the scene is impressively done in one take).
Birds of Prey had maybe a few too many slow-mos, but otherwise the action was choreographed really well and was very easy to follow with lots of long and wide shots showing everything thats happening.

pixelburp · 17-03-2020 8:57pm

This is appearing online next week, with the increasing number of films being fast tracked to home release due to The Virus That Shall Not be Named.

The White Wolf · 22-03-2020 4:32pm

I thought it was OK for the first hour or so, then it fell apart badly. Another case of a film being cut to pieces where it felt like a whole act was missing.

In regards Black Mask's fate, usually that would annoy me but they made such an awful mess of him that the character won't be missed.

silverharp · 25-03-2020 2:57pm

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

There are people literally calling the film out for its so called "female agenda".

the Actors in it said it was a Feminist movie, no problem, it wasn't written for me :pac:

https://twitter.com/ThePlaylist/status/1182697883243405312

pixelburp · 26-03-2020 12:03pm

God we men are awful brittle creatures that the mere mention of "feminism" is enough to bring some to apoplexy. I'm not ignorant to the fact modern feminism has morphed a great degree from previous generations' notions of equality and empowerment (IIRC, previous pillars of the movement like Magerat Atwood have got into hot water for saying "the wrong thing").

Haven't seen the film yet and probably will given *waves hands* ya know, the Great Shutdown of 2020 - but read McGregors comments and seem like boilerplate stuff, bigging up a movie for having notions. Given Suicide Squad wrote HQ as a kinda slutty hot mess, male gaze n' all, seems fair game some might persuade "no no, we treat Harley Quinn right this time, honest!". I don't like Margot Robbie's approach by & large, but Suicide Squad was pretty embarassing.

CastorTroy · 27-03-2020 12:37am

Watched it. Was grand but wouldn't be rushing out to see a Birds of Prey follow up.

That bit at the end with the 3 of them looked more like a tv show or even a fan made thing. But I think fans might have done a better job of Huntress' costume.

And I hate to bring up the comics as I know this is a different thing, but Cassandra Cain? Maybe they should've used a different character that fit the background. I know there are ones who've come from the streets like Mia Dearden, aka Speedy.

mikhail · 27-03-2020 4:10pm

pixelburp wrote: »

God we men are awful brittle creatures that the mere mention of "feminism" is enough to bring some to apoplexy.

There are people like that, sure, and those people are silly. There are probably far more people bored of the degree to which popular entertainments try to lecture about it, frequently violating "Show, don't tell" in the process, and often while selling their product with a picture of an attractive woman in something impractically tight. It's crass, and it's not entertaining, which defeats the purpose of watching the show/movie/etc in the first place.

I remember reading Tina Fey's autobiography. I really enjoy her work, and if it was often political, that didn't seem as overdone at the time, and anyway was secondary to the comedy. But the autobiography bored me to tears, preaching about stuff that anyone who cared to read it already supported.

To tie this back in to Birds of Prey, I don't care if a movie is feminist or not. I do care if it's entertaining, and by most accounts, BoP is not especially entertaining.

silverharp · 27-03-2020 5:21pm

its more a heuristic that it is likely to be not a great movie, or are desperate to get their fake twitter audience to sell it which is kind of the same thing. You wont get the people behind Wonder Woman for example to that that their movie is about mysoggyknees

pixelburp · 28-03-2020 9:32pm

Watched it tonight and it was all right: bang average but kept its feet on the ground with the stakes. The contrived pop punk, anarchic tone never quite landed though. You just can't make a "F The World" kinda film, bankrolled by a corporation, feel anything less than cynical and forced. And I just do not like Robbie's Harley, for the same reason. Just trying way too hard.

The one bright spark was that you could really tell the difference Chad Stahelski made to the action scenes; the John Wick director brought good staging and choreography to the various set pieces - though even those tried too hard, the pace a smidge slower than the Keanu Reeves films, making the punches feel more telegraphed.

jill_valentine · 30-03-2020 3:45am

Half watched this while working the other night and greatly enjoyed it, enough to want to check it out again properly. Some more flavorsome touches in it than I expected (the bad guy's showcase scene with the three captives is gonna stick with me, and the bit with the coke made me legitimately laugh out loud).

The aesthetic was really strong in a kind of old school TV Batman way I didn't know I'd missed, and I didn't expect to like Rosie Perez's nearly as much as I did. I've seen a lot of comparisons to Deadpool, but for some reason it put me more in mind of Ragnarok.

Same as above, I am a bit puzzled by the use of Cassandra Cain's name for that character though, because everyone else was more or less in the neighbourhood if their comicbook counterparts, but I can live with it.

Midnight_EG · 31-03-2020 12:24am

Finally watched this the other night... After all the trailers and TV spots and other media just leaving a sour taste, but I was very pleasantly surprised in that I enjoyed the sh*t out of it!

Mal-Adjusted · 31-03-2020 1:20am

Has this seen a digital release? if so, on what platforms?

brilou23 · 27-06-2020 7:52pm

I liked suicide squad and was looking forward to this but it was awful.

Bigbagofcans · 07-07-2020 6:45pm

The planned Birds of Prey sequel will not be going ahead due to the dismal performance at the box office.

pixelburp · 09-07-2020 4:58pm

Not really much of a surprise; the film was a big 'aul shoulder shrug, the oncoming Pandemic probably didn't help - being shunted onto digital services was a bit of a death-knell. The whole thing came off a little too "Poochie" anyway, no great loss.

Brief_Lives · 10-07-2020 11:06am

yea, it was rubbish.... another DC failure..

gibgodsman · 10-07-2020 12:05pm

It was fairly poor to be honest, felt like a very forced feminist movie for no reason, turning Harley Quinn into a "I don't need no man" meme. Only redeeming feature of the movie was getting to see Margo Robbie, ill never get bored of that. But if you want to see her true acting talents, where she is actually brilliant and not forced into just looking great, I Tonya is the best movie she has done

ronano · 10-07-2020 1:08pm

A film I enjoyed but also a mess, I would have liked a sequel with better writing but eh what you gonna do

Mark Hamill · 10-07-2020 9:18pm

gibgodsman wrote: »

It was fairly poor to be honest, felt like a very forced feminist movie for no reason, turning Harley Quinn into a "I don't need no man" meme.

Hasn't Quinn been in popular solo/female team comics for at least a decade now? Gotham City Sirens and the like?

Just because the protagonists are women and the antagonists are men, doesn't make the movie feminist. That's such a weak and boring criticism.

cdgalwegian · 10-07-2020 10:02pm

Brief_Lives wrote: »

yea, it was rubbish.... another DC failure..

I switched it off after about 20 minutes. The trouble with anarchy is there's just no rules. :pac:
Rooting for a disturbed violent anti-hero is a tough ask, and could have been do-able, but this just seemed too... cartoonish, like a live-action Itchy and Scratchy.

The White Wolf · 10-07-2020 10:08pm

Brief_Lives wrote: »

yea, it was rubbish.... another DC failure..

I'm sure they'll dry their tears on that pile of money Joker got them.

Mal-Adjusted · 11-07-2020 3:10am

I finally got around to seeing this and Jesus, where to start?

I suppose the best thing i can say is it (mostly) carried a consistant tone throughout. Margot Robbie is a fine actor and Harley is grand in small doses, but she absoloutly cannot carry a film. Ella Jay Basco (Cassandra Cain) was awful and just mumbled her way through the film. She's so unlike her comic book namesake i'm not really sure why they used it. Huntress has about six minutes of screentime...it's a joke, she has better character development in her two or three episodes of Arrow. Jurnee Smollett (black Canary) is just kind of...there. Rosie Perez i thought was more or less okay but she's about twenty years too old for the roll.

I found Ewan Mcgregor entertining at least, but save for that one scene where he makes a random girl dance on the table, in no way treathening.

The film was full of gaps in logic across the board...
My presumed association with Joker keeps me safe, let's do a big, public EFF YOU! to him...
Everyone (somehow) knows that i'm the only person who knows where Harley lives, but nobody thinks to look in the apartment directly above my shop, also, i'll wait until *after* my betrayel is revealed to make my escape...
Crash your motorbike to give a rollerblade girl a marginal speed boost instead of using the clearly faster motorbike to catch up to the car...
I also see the annonamous henchmen graduated from the school of getting right in your face before attempting to pull their guns.

Funny thing is, as much as people justafiably criticise the DCEU, the films usually make bank. I think this is the first one to actually flop.

The worst thing about this film is that there was clearly already a BOP script that was gutted and canabilised after Suicide Squad landed and everyone went gaga over Robbie.

pixelburp · 11-07-2020 3:44pm

I haven't watched it but the Harley Quinn (adult) cartoon is supposedly decent, nailing both the character and the tone. So it's possible to have HQ as the lead but you gotta own the fact she's not a hero. And of course, the jokes gotta be funny too.

Instead, this film was incapable or allowed that; can't have a big Star lead as a killer, or alienate the coveted 4 Quadrant demographic. So we got this weird mismash product trying desperately to be hip and pop-punk, while pretending Quinn is a loveable scamp. Robbie's "ain't I a stinker?" routine got old really fast, while gags like the bacon sandwich just weren't as funny as the script thought they were.

CastorTroy · 11-07-2020 10:43pm

The Harley Quinn animated series is great fun. You should check it out

brianregan09 · 13-07-2020 7:01pm

I just recently rewatched the Suicide Squad film recently and she is day and night in both films , in the new one she's a lovable ditz and thats it and it's terrible for it , but she's genuinely mental in suicide squad they should have stuck with that

Coybig_ · 03-10-2020 1:36am

This is a horrifically bad movie, plot is non existent, characters are bad caricatures, editing is among the worst you'll ever see. Dialogue is cringeworthy.

The fight scenes were overly stylised, and not in a good way - like a Snyder Sucker Punch way.

Ewan McGregor is terrible as the villain. The Huntress was the only marginally interesting character and barely gets a minute on the screen. Unsure if worse than Suicide Squad, both utter disasters.

johnny_ultimate · 15-02-2021 10:50pm

Watched Cathy Yan’s debut feature Dead Pigs last night - a messy but largely successful and interesting film that was vibrant enough to get me to give this a look tonight. I remember reading bad things here, and I’m generally not at all interested in comic book movies any more so expectations were low enough.

Colour me surprised then than I found a perfectly pleasant, enjoyable film here. Indeed, I’d say it’s an actual cut above the genre norm: it’s proudly colourful and frivolous, fully aware and comfortable with what it is. It has an unusually strong visual identity for a big budget superhero film, but more importantly Yan has a great eye for action and set pieces. She doesn’t insist on cutting away from movement or stunts like others do (coughrussobrotherscough) and while it’s still a fast-paced, rapidly edited film it gives character moments and gestures the time they deserve to breathe. A lot of it feels practical as well - longer shots with a relatively conservative use of CG (the more obvious CG being confined to a few shots like the big title screen explosion).

Great cast too. While they work great as an ensemble, Smullet and Winstead are particularly good (as they usually are), while McGregor and Messina make for a refreshingly odd, dynamic and menacing villainous duo.

I do think the first half is messy as hell, with the flashbacks within flashbacks and excess narration killing some of the momentum. But it rallies rather well indeed in the back half. I’m not going to pretend it’s a perfect film or anything like that, but I’d sure as hell take more of this fun, vibrant, candy-coloured silliness over any MCU film to be perfectly frank.

Also, this is a film made for HDR. The visuals sparkle - quite literally given the presence of confetti bombs - and the colours really pop like they deserve to.

pixelburp · 16-02-2021 7:01pm

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Watched Cathy Yan’s debut feature Dead Pigs last night - a messy but largely successful and interesting film that was vibrant enough to get me to give this a look tonight. I remember reading bad things here, and I’m generally not at all interested in comic book movies any more so expectations were low enough.

Colour me surprised then than I found a perfectly pleasant, enjoyable film here. Indeed, I’d say it’s an actual cut above the genre norm: it’s proudly colourful and frivolous, fully aware and comfortable with what it is. It has an unusually strong visual identity for a big budget superhero film, but more importantly Yan has a great eye for action and set pieces. She doesn’t insist on cutting away from movement or stunts like others do (coughrussobrotherscough) and while it’s still a fast-paced, rapidly edited film it gives character moments and gestures the time they deserve to breathe. A lot of it feels practical as well - longer shots with a relatively conservative use of CG (the more obvious CG being confined to a few shots like the big title screen explosion).

Great cast too. While they work great as an ensemble, Smullet and Winstead are particularly good (as they usually are), while McGregor and Messina make for a refreshingly odd, dynamic and menacing villainous duo.

I do think the first half is messy as hell, with the flashbacks within flashbacks and excess narration killing some of the momentum. But it rallies rather well indeed in the back half. I’m not going to pretend it’s a perfect film or anything like that, but I’d sure as hell take more of this fun, vibrant, candy-coloured silliness over any MCU film to be perfectly frank.

Also, this is a film made for HDR. The visuals sparkle - quite literally given the presence of confetti bombs - and the colours really pop like they deserve to.

Just on the above about Yan's "... great eye for action and set pieces", I think it's worth pointing out this film received reshoots: specifically around its action set-pieces, where John Wick's Chad Stahelski joined as 2nd unit director. The amusement park dust-up and subsequent car-chase scene did smell the parts Stahelski might have had a hand in filming, so I'm not sure what percentage of the final film's action was down to Yan.

That's not to diminish her work or anything, just that I remembered this film in particular had its action set-pieces reworked by someone else, and the mention of John Wick stuck in my brain. Which for my own enjoyment, made the thing a lot choppier and messier as a whole.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/john-wick-director-oversee-new-action-scenes-birds-prey-1231715

expen12 · 02-03-2021 10:30pm

The script was all over the place. And I HATE the "Smallville style costumes" Gotham didn't feel like Gotham at all. The movie felt like one of those 90's comic films that was ashamed of its origins. Oh and too much Harley not enough focus on the other ladies.

The White Wolf · 03-03-2021 6:11pm

expen12 wrote: »

The script was all over the place. And I HATE the "Smallville style costumes" Gotham didn't feel like Gotham at all. The movie felt like one of those 90's comic films that was ashamed of its origins. Oh and too much Harley not enough focus on the other ladies.

I seen someone say they enjoyed MEW and Smollett in the film, I'm sure I would of too if not for their utter non roles.

Huntress in particular has to be the biggest waste of time I've seen in the genre.

Birds of Prey

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