“Birds of Prey”

I made my first new release in the theater for 2020 with this movie. After sitting through Birds of Prey, it is obvious that DC wants to make Harley Quinn their answer to Marvels Deadpool. There are too many similarities. But that isn’t a bad thing because Harley is a really fun character played to the hilt by Margot Robbie. She’s having a blast. You could say this is a spin-off of Suicide Squad, a movie I kind of liked, but there isn’t much connection to that film aside from the reference of the Joker character to which he dumped her. That is referenced a lot, but the Joker is never seen, fortunately because Jared Leto’s version of the Joker sucks. As for this movie, it’s a wild film that is pretty fun at times. It introduces the Birds of Prey and I remember some of it from the comics and a failed TV series and it wasn’t anything like this. But it worked for the most part as each individual of the group is pretty interesting especially Rosie Perez in one of her best roles in years. She’s difficult to cast sometimes. The story is all over the place and is probably the weakest aspect of the picture. It gets gimmicky with the storytelling and I really wish it was more linear because it gets really confusing. Once they do away with that, the film makes more sense and has less problems. The action is well choreographed and pretty fun. The last 30 minutes are a blast and they set things up for more movies. This is a pretty R rated film. There is lots of cartoon type violence, but the language is very adult so please use caution when taking your kids to see this. I took my 13 year old and thought maybe this wasn’t the best parenting choice but then again I have a toilet mouth and he’s probably heard worse on the school bus. Not a great movie, but it’s fun and I give it a mild recommendation

Rating (**1/2)