Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Margot Robbie, Rosie Perez, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett, Ewan McGregor, Ella Jay Basco, Chris Messina, Ali Wong, Derek Wilson, Joe Buraco III, Steven Williams, Charlene Amoia, K.K. Barrett.
The comic book became darker, it turned away from the quirky but loved offspring of the three or four picture strip that embedded themselves in the newspapers of the thirties and forties and in turn gave itself the new self-determined title of the Graphic Novel, and to the rejoice of the reader who immersed themselves into the world of D.C., Marvel and other purveyors of tales of suspense and disbelief, that they were no longer to be seen as people to be scorned or mocked, that in that name change, a commanding of respect was delivered.
It is all in the name on how Graphic Novel heroes have been received on screen, Batman, under the auspicious eye of Christopher Nolan not only vastly improved upon the respectable Michael Keaton outings of the late 80s and early 90s, but took apart the valued, but artistically mundane picture created in the silver age of television and the lack of forethought beyond to entertain the comic book fan.
For some who are hyper-critical of the influence of the Graphic Novel/Comic Book adaption on cinema and film, the lack of parity between the truth of today’s world and the hard-sell hysteria that others believe leave audiences with the lack of appreciation of classic drama, then the viewing of Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) will give them substantial ammunition in further denigrating the genre.
However, for what the film sets out to achieve, an anti-hero film that looks into the psyche of women pushed to the edge by a world run on machismo and anti-feminist rhetoric, Birds Of Prey achieves its vision, a film that sees the action through the female eye and mind, of pushing back in every character shown against the damnation of the misogynist, the man who takes credit for the achievements of the woman, the man who uses brute force to get his point across instead of reason, and the women, who quite rightly are fed up, angry, determined to put a stop to such prejudice and discrimination.
Birds Of Prey though does owe more to the cartoon nature of the 60s interpretation of Batman than it does to Christopher Nolan’s visionary insight on screen; it is not meant to be a film that discusses the darkness in a person’s soul, instead it is about the discussion of how men have pushed women into fighting back against chauvinism and it is meant to be amusing, not critical, but stylistic, graphic novel fantasy embracing a very real issue.
Birds Of Prey won’t win awards or plaudits in the same way that other Graphic Novel adaptions have been fortunate to be garnered with, but it does bring one of the great characters from the D.C. stable out into her own, and with the sheer physicality of Margot Robbie’s performance as the psychopathic psychiatrist Harley Quinn driving the film along, it is hard not to enjoy and take note of the action supplied.
The object of any film is not only to deliver a message, but to entertain, it might not be the finest of example of such drama, but it does exactly what you hope it would suggest, what you hope to witness on screen, and for that it has its own sense of liberation, of deliverance. This particular bird of prey has claws, it just doesn’t go in for the kill as one would hope.
Ian D. Hall