Skip to main content

Birds Of Prey







Birds Of Prey Story: Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) teams up with three deadly women to save herself and a young girl from the mob.

Birds Of Prey Review: After breaking up with the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) quickly discovers she’s no longer immune from the thugs of Gotham City. Besides a bunch of people she ticked off, she’s also hunted by the misogynistic and sadistic gangster Roman Sionis or Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) with his accomplice Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). Additionally, a young girl Cassandra (Ella Jay Basco) gets caught in the middle of Harley’s mayhem, along with Renee Montaya (Rosie Perez), Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The women need to team up to have a fighting chance against Black Mask and his goons.

From the outset, it’s evident that this film’s colour palette and vibe is bright and intentionally erratic. Director Cathy Yan’s vision borrows from other irreverent superhero and action films before it but maintains a thrilling, manic tonality of its own. This is conveyed through the characterisation, action set pieces, production design and humour. Bringing that vision to life is a capable cast with the magnetic Margot Robbie in the lead. She embodies the frantic energy of Harley Quinn, putting all the character’s eccentricities on display while being inherently compelling. Jurnee Smollett-Bell is a revelation as Dinah Lance/ Black Canary, showing emotional depth. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a scene-stealer as Helena Bertinelli/ Huntress. Ewan McGregor relishes playing the diabolical Black Mask to make a deranged villain apt for this film.

Besides the director, due credit goes to writer Christina Hodson for setting the female-centric narrative tone without the need for a blatantly feminist angle. However, while the female characters are always front and centre, some beats feel misplaced now and then, and enough screentime isn’t afforded to the entire gang. But, the well-choreographed action in collaboration with ‘John Wick’ franchise director Chad Stahelski is stunning to behold and easily amongst the best action sequences in comic book films till date. These elements combine to make ‘Birds of Prey’ a funny, irreverent, extravagant and delightfully violent comic book film that’s a blast to witness. Greenlight the sequel already!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maaran

Even as early as about five minutes into Maaran, it’s hard to care. The craft seems to belong in a bad TV serial, and the dialogues and performances don't help either. During these opening minutes, you get journalist Sathyamoorthy (Ramki) rambling on about publishing the ‘truth’, while it gets established that his wife is pregnant and ready to deliver ANY SECOND. A pregnant wife on the cusp of delivery in our 'commercial' cinema means that the bad men with sickles are in the vicinity and ready to pounce. Sometimes, it almost feels like they wait around for women to get pregnant, so they can strike. When the expected happens—as it does throughout this cliché-ridden film—you feel no shock. The real shock is when you realise that the director credits belong to the filmmaker who gave us Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, that the film stars Dhanush, from whom we have come to expect better, much better. Director: Karthick Naren Cast: Dhanush, Malavika Mohanan, Ameer, Samuthirakani Stre...
3 comments
Read more

Android Kunjappan Version 5.25

  A   buffalo on a rampage ,   teenaged human beings   and a robot in addition, of course, to adult humans – these have been the protagonists of Malayalam films in 2019 so far. Not that serious Indian cinephiles are unaware of this, but if anyone does ask, here is proof that this is a time of experimentation for one of India’s most respected film industries. Writer-director Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval’s contribution to what has been a magnificent year for Malayalam cinema so far is  Android Kunjappan Version 5.25 , a darling film about a mechanical engineer struggling to take care of his grouchy ageing father while also building a career for himself.Subrahmanian, played by Soubin Shahir, dearly loves his exasperating Dad. Over the years he has quit several big-city jobs, at each instance to return to his village in Kerala because good care-givers are hard to come by and even the halfway decent ones find this rigid old man intolerable. Bhaskaran Poduval (Suraj ...
1 comment
Read more

Kuthiraivaal

  Kuthiraivaal Movie Review:  Manoj Leonel Jahson and Shyam Sunder’s directorial debut Kuthiraivaal brims with colours and striking imagery. This is apparent as early as its first scene, where its protagonist Saravanan alias Freud squirms in his bed, suspecting a bad omen. As some light fills his aesthetic apartment wrapped with vintage wall colours, his discomfort finally makes sense—for he has woken up with a horse’s tail! The scene is set up incredibly, leaving us excited for what is to come. But is the film as magical as the spectacle it presents on screen? Kuthiraivaal revolves around Saravanan (played by a brilliant Kalaiyarasan) and his quest to find out why he suddenly wakes up with a horse’s tail, and on the way, his existence in life. Saravanan’s universe is filled with colourful characters, almost magical yet just real enough—be it his whimsical neighbour Babu (Chetan), who speaks about his love for his dog and loneliness in the same breath, or the corner-side cigar...
1 comment
Read more