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For years, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has been nothing but the Joker's (an animated cameo) girlfriend and thus could do what she wanted because she was under his protection, but now that she has broken up with him (and presumably blown him up), all those she has wronged go after her with the intention of killing her - especially the town's crime kingpin Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), whose men actually manage to capture her, and he's about to kill her when she tells him she can get him what he wants - because you know, Sionis wanted to get his hands on the Bertinelli diamond, but when it was already in his right-hand man's (Chris Messina) pocket, it got stolen. More by chance than design, Harley knows it has been stolen by young pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Sionis lets Harley go and get the diamond, but then puts a prize on Cassandra's head, meaning that every crook in town now goes after Cassandra as well. Now Cassandra is presently in police custody, but Harley has no problems breaking her free using some joke guns - but getting the diamond is not that easy, since Cassandra has swallowed it, and apparently presently suffers from constipation. On the run from every goon in town, Harley arranges to meet Sionis in an abandoned amusement park to exchange Cassandra for her freedom, something Cassandra's not too happy about, and at the park, Harley indeed has second thoughts - and soon Sionis, now wearing a black mask for no reason at all with his whole army of goons, but Harley and Cassandra find unexpected allies in Sionis' driver Dinah a.k.a. Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett), who's fairly good at martial arts, crossbow killer the Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who's the last of the clan who originally owned the diamond, and disgruntled ex-cop Montoya (Rosie Perez), and between the five of them, they have no problems taking out Sionis' small army and ultimately blowing him to (unbloody) pieces.

So ok, 2016's Suicide Squad was a bit of a mess, but most agreed that Margot Robbie was the most memorable thing about it, so why not squeeze her into a Birds of Prey movie (she was never a member of the team in the comics, nor the TV show, where she was a recurring character at least)? So ultimately the film became all about Harley, with the titular Birds only being supporting characters - and it also turned into a mess. What's really off about this film is the storytelling: The film wastes too much time just establishing that Harley is quite crazy and has broken up with the Joker, who apart from an animated sequence isn't really in the film, before even thinking about setting up the (a bit too straight-forward) plot of the movie, in which the actual Birds of Prey are relegated to the sidelines and are afforded only the most clichéed character arcs (the disilluioned cop, the underworld girl who discovers her conscience, the orphan on a path of vengeance discovering compassion) - topped only by Ewan McGregor's villain who seems to come right out of a bad 1980s action flick. Only his demise (blown to pieces by a hand grenade) is really cool, even if it's a somewhat underwhelming punchline to the finale - that at times though feels like the old Batman TV show. Which really brings us to the core of the movie's problem, it seems to be entirely undecisive if it's an action comedy, a parody, or a straight superhero movie, and thus seems to trip over itself repeatedly.

So in all, rather a disappointment really, and not the Harley Quinn film everybody has been waiting for.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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