Movie Review: Birds of Prey (2020)

The DC Cinematic Universe rolls on! Their latest picture brings the DC Universe's resident all-heroine team known as the Birds of Prey to the big screen. When the villainous Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) goes after a young pickpocket named Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) who absconded with a very important jewel, it's up to former Suicide Squad member Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), police officer Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), vengeance-seeking assassin Helena "Huntress" Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and superpowered singer Dinah "Black Canary" Lance (Jurnee Smollet-Bell) to stop the mad crime boss. Can they save young Cassandra, and bring down Black Mask? Or is their film a gigantic mess? Let's find out.

The big thing I want to say is that the cast is very good. Two of the standouts are obviously Ewan McGregor as Roman Sionis/Black Mask and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. You could tell they were clearly having a blast playing their characters. Robbie's Harley is surprisingly sympathetic and genuinely hilarious at times. I liked that she got to show that psychology knowledge at times.

I liked that the film gave some spotlight to a lesser-known villain in the Batman mythos. Black Mask, I feel, is not as famous as say, Penguin, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, or a certain homicidal clown who got his own movie recently. He has appeared outside of comics in other media, but ha hasn't made as many appearances in other media as other Batman rogues have. It's great he's getting some spotlight here. I liked the approach of portraying him as a smooth, charming rogue...who also is very ruthless and narcissistic.

Speaking of lesser-known Batman villains getting spotlight, we also get Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz. His Zsasz was wonderfully deranged and creepy. Something else interesting is that the film appears to hint that maybe there was something romantic going on between him and Roman. At least, that's the vibe I got from them.

One character I felt bad for was Huntress. I felt she didn't really get a lot of screen time and development. I enjoyed her being shown to be somewhat socially awkward when she wasn't trying to kill gangsters with her crossbow.

One thing that did confuse me about this film was the "R" rating. I felt like the film didn't really earn the rating. The characters were pretty potty-mouthed, but that's really about it. There was violence, but I felt it wasn't extreme enough to warrant the rating. The film was not really overly bloody or gory, so it made me think that they could have made the film PG-13 easily if they just turned down the characters' swearing a bit.

Also, I have criticized the advertising of the film or being rather Harley-centric in the past. And yes, Harley is very much the main character of this movie. There is a part of me that does feel they could have done this movie with giving her the lion's share of the spotlight. I am hoping this film does get a sequel in which the Birds of Prey can get to shine.

On the whole, the film is really good. It's unabashedly bonkers, there's some great fight scenes and set pieces. However, if you're a fan of Cassandra Cain, you may be a bit disappointed with her portrayal in the film, although Ella Jay Basco did do well with what she was given.