Hello, it’s me, another bisexual who feels strongly about Birds of Prey. We need to talk about what an experience this was.
Spoilers ahead!
I saw Birds of Prey on the Friday of its opening weekend. I spent the whole day at work listening to the soundtrack and falling in love with all of the music. Was I blown away by the fact that all of the original songs were female led? Heck yeah! I would like everyone to know that I spent all of my music-listening time this weekend listening to it as well, and I am currently still listening. My favorite songs are Boss Bitch (Doja Cat) and Sway With Me (Saweetie & GALXARA). Honestly, it was hard to pick favorites because the whole dang album is amazing.
But let’s talk about the movie.
While it is known as Birds of Prey, this is a Harley-centric experience. The movie starts with Harley introducing herself and her background. I love the animation here, as well as the fact that they actually discuss her situation. When Harley realizes that no one believes that she’s actually done with the Joker, she blows up Ace Chemicals as a form of closure. This really got me because, of course it’s where she becomes Harley Quinn, but in the Palmiotti & Conner run of Harley comics, her pad is blown up by someone trying to kill her. In the comics, she then wants to go off on her own, and that’s what happens in the movie as well. But in the movie, she takes control, and I love that.
The movie follows Harley as she does post break up things like drink too much, buy a pet, and cut her hair. But once it’s totally clear that she and the Joker are done, people from her past start coming for her. One of the folks who isn’t super happy with Ms. Quinn is Black Mask (Ewan MacGregor). He gets his hands on her, but she negotiates her release by saying that she will find Cassandra Cain, a girl he’s very interested in finding.
This is where our girls start to come together.
Canary, Montoya, and Harley are all out to find Cassandra Cain. In the midst of this, we get the most incredible Harley fight scene. Harley breaks into a prison, knocks out a bunch of officers (with a glitter gun, I kid you not), and accidentally opens all of the jail cells. She has to keep Cassandra safe while taking down all of the criminals who want to kill her. I loved this scene so much because they really showed Harley’s gymnastic abilities without saying, “Hey, she trained as a gymnast” outright. Also, we saw all of the hits land. No quick cuts away, no disguising the violence. We saw people get hurt, and that’s important for a movie like this.
If I go too much further, I’ll be spoiling things. And you should go see this movie because my words can only do so much for it.
I loved every minute of Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn. But there were a couple moments that stood out as not super accurate to me, and we have to talk about that.
Of course, nothing is perfect.
First of all, Cassandra Cain should probably not have spoken as much as she did. It’s a big part of her character to be almost mute, but she spoke a bit in the movie. My guess with this is that the director (Cathy Yan) didn’t want to have a young woman of color silenced on the big screen. I think, if that was the reasoning behind Cain talking, it’s a perfect one. Otherwise, there could have been cool ways to show her communicating without talking as much.
Next, Harley was okay throwing trash on the ground. This may not feel like a lot to everyone, but as a huge fan of her’s and Ivy’s relationship, I know that Ivy would not stand for that. Poison Ivy speaks out about environmental issues, and she would be furious with Harley for littering. My guess here is that Harley and Ivy haven’t gotten close yet. I’m really hoping that changes in the near future; I have heard that Robbie would be very down for a Sirens movie, and we could explore their friendship then.
Finally, Harley’s hair dries so fast. During her prison fight scene, the sprinklers go off. Her hair is soaked, and so is her outfit. But by the time she gets out of that room, her hair is dry. As someone with hair, it’s a rarity that my hair dries without a couple hours’ time. But I’m also not doing crazy kicks and fighting criminals. So who knows.
I think those issues are incredibly minor for how much I adored this movie. There were so many little moments for fans of the comics (taxidermy beaver, anyone?). It was everything to so many people, and I’m definitely one of them. I’m sitting here, with my space buns, thinking about how much I want Harley to keep doing things for herself. If you haven’t already seen this incredible, female-led film, what the heck are you doing? Get yourself to a movie theater immediately!
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