Birds Of Prey (or that Harley Quin movie)
(OK, I get the point behind the whole extended sub-title of the movie thing, but I’m a simple guy…)
So, the wife and I went out and saw this on Saturday, and first reactions: damn fun movie. Get a big popcorn and a soda, sit back and enjoy the flick. Margot Robbie and the gang show us a rollicking good time and kick mucho ass along the way.
Now, there’s already been some hullabaloo about this movie on a couple of points: #1: Do not bring your kids. This movie is a HARD R rating, and there is much swearing, violence, gore, drug use, and a couple specific injury scenes that your kids just ain’t prepared for. Harley’s funny and all, but at one point she deliberately breaks both a man’s legs. At once. Unprovoked. (OK, mildly provoked. A slap woulda sufficed…)
#2: There is a bunch of speculation about how much money this movie is going to make, and part of me thinks some of this is hype trying to make the movie seem like a failure because it’s a slap in the face to the Joker-loving’ incels out there all butthurt because Jared Leto proved himself to be a roaring trash fire and lost any chance of ever being the Joker in another movie.
That being said, I also noticed a bunch of empty seats in our Saturday afternoon screening, so there’s going to be some truth to those low numbers. So I will tell you this: if you are a feminist bitching about the low representation of women in the creative process in Hollywood, GO SEE THIS MOVIE RIGHT NOW! It was written by a woman, directed by a woman, and produced by a woman. Not to mention starring a bunch of very able women. It also happens to be a good movie well worth the price of admission, so don’t fret about that.
On to the next potential complaint: they cast a black woman as Black Canary. Yeah, yeah, I get it, you’ve got years of comics and animated series that say she’s a blonde bombshell in fishnets, and this is obviously some SJW-bullshit yadda yadda yadda. Boo-fuckin’-hoo, Jurnee Smollett-Bell does a great job with the role. Maybe you need to take a deep breath and relax a bit, eh?
Now we get to the point where I find something wrong with the movie, and it’s the villain. Or rather, it’s the actor playing the villain. Now, I’m a fan of Ewan McGregor, but I have to say there was something weird about his performance.
He very ably portrayed an irritating, obnoxious, uber-mobster wannabe, but I kept getting this weird vibe throughout the whole thing where it just seemed like there was something up with the performance. About the 5th time he came on-screen, it hit me: he’s trying to channel Sam Rockwell, and he’s not quite hitting it. I think it would have been better to just have Sam Rockwell do the gig. Mind you, it would have been type-casting as all hell, but face it, this is a role Sam knows (and performs) very well.
So yeah, there may be a couple issues with the movie. That’s a pretty common assessment for the genre. Should they stop you from seeing it? Not at all. This is a solid movie, go see it even if you aren’t a feminist.
Hollerings