Review | Birds of Prey film review: Margot Robbie reprises Harley Quinn role in violent, grungy spin-off
- After being one of the few highlights in DC Comics’ disappointing Suicide Squad in 2016, Robbie’s character continues her adventures in Gotham
- But despite Ewan McGregor’s enjoyable performance and entertaining fight scenes, the script doesn’t pack the same kind of punch
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3/5 stars
Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie, was the saving grace of 2016’s Suicide Squad , the ropy DC Comics movie where the villains took centre stage. Her reward is a spin-off movie, continuing her nefarious adventures in Gotham in this violent, scrappy, grungy effort.
The film begins, cleverly, with an animated catch-up, as she reminds us of how she fell for the crown prince of crime, the Joker, landed in a vat of goo and went psycho.
Only now Harley has split from the Joker (so no Jared Leto cameo here), which means she no longer has any protection from the multiple enemies she has made around town – in a neat trick, each one is named on screen with their “grievance” stated.
Things gradually gather pace as the story zips back and forth, as Harley gets sidetracked with details about her breakfast, her pet hyena and more.
The chief antagonist is nightclub owner Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor, having a riot) – aka Black Mask – who likes nothing better than ordering his henchman to peel people’s faces off.
Harley gets on his bad side when she becomes involved with a teenage pickpocket, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), who steals a diamond from him.
There are three other women weaving throughout: badass cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), the crossbow-firing, vengeance-seeking Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and a singer from Sionis’ club nicknamed Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell); those who know their DC will be aware that the latter two were part of the all-girl gang, Birds of Prey.
Director Cathy Yan – whose only other film was Sundance hit Dead Pigs – keeps the action rolling. A wacky fight in a funfair-style room with giant hands and a bouncy floor is particularly fun. And the subsequent high-speed pursuit of Black Mask, with Harley towed on her roller-boots by Huntress’ motorbike, has a real visceral quality.
Yet it’s a shame that the script by Christina Hodson ( Bumblebee ) does not add up to a great deal. Harley Quinn worked well as a live-wire in a bigger ensemble, an antidote to all the dumb-ass testosterone, but here she’s less interesting. The fights – and there are plenty of them – have a Deadpool quality about them, but the dialogue does not.
With Yan’s Gotham about as far removed from the gloomy dread of Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Birds of Prey feels closer to the original Batman TV series. Ultimately, it’s a comic grotesque with a big dose of “ker-pow!”
