Birds of Prey took the campy cheese of the ‘60s Batman series and modernized it for contemporary audiences, resulting in a queer extravaganza with a rich colour palette and a kick-ass heroine at the helm. It was a spectacular romp from start to finish that let Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn reach new heights, solidifying her, as if there were any doubts, as😼 the perfect choice for the role.

Almost two years on, it’s still criminally underappreciated. It garnered good scores on Rotten T🏅omatoes, landing in the 70th percentile for critics and audiences, but it didn’t make much of a splash at the box office. Meanwhile, as many female-led movies in typically male genres do, it finds itself bein🅷g constantly berated online. Cathy Yan’s debut DCEU film deserves better.

Meanwhile, the recently released 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Suicide Squad is being lauded for its balls-to-the-walls action, bright visuals, and its embrace of comic book goofiness. This is nothing new for DC, however. It has t🌱hat Gunn spark that gives it an edge, but the more cheesy side of DC was put into motion with Shazam! before being perfected in Birds of Prey. Long story short - if you like The Suicide Squad’s tone, BoP is right there on HBO Max and it is in fact a bop.

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The original Suicide Squad - which Birds of Prey is ostensibly a sequel to, although Harley is given far more agency and depth - had a novel idea for Gotham. Rather than being the decrepit, gloomy hellhole ripe with greys, greys, and more greys, it was a lively and flamboyant world of its own. Again, it was stylistically reminiscent of ‘60s Batman but with an up-to-date flair rather than being old-timey in its cheese. Joker fits right in with Ayer’s vision of Gotham, as controversial as that opinion seems. The grills, edgy tattoos, and more glaring outfits al♉l worked in this context. The problem was studio intervention and shallow characters lead to a murky movie that never lived up to its potential.

Harley Quinn Birds of Prey

Yan, however, took that idea of Gotham and its rogues gallery and let it flourish. Black Mask was camp and suave 💟rather than being a generic mobster, while Robbie stole the show in every single scene she was in. Snyder’s more gloomy approach to the DCEU works in isolation, but Ayer, while flawed, introduced an intriguing idea that would help to make the fil🎉ms stand out from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

Yet it was Yan who fully embraced 𒁃a side of Batman’s mythos often untapped in favour of gravelly voices and bad-guy fisticuffs. That’s what makes Birds of Prey stand out. The Suicide Squa♋d was colourful, vibrant, and hilarious - and it owes a lot of its identity to Birds of Prey.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:It also had some of the genre’s best actio🎶n; Chad Stahleski of John Wick fame even lent a hand, resulting in one of the greatest comic book movie fight sequences to🏅 date - a small-time brawl to the backdrop of some jail cells. All the while, the visuals felt ripped out of a comic while the voice-over added that serene feeling that the pages were simply fluttering into the air, coming to life. Robbie’s iconic rendition of Harley only heightened that.

Shazꦍam! Underperformed but director Samberg is back for a sequel, so Warner Bros. is ready to dole out second chances. Meanwhile, there’s still a hankering for Harley. Cathy Yan deserves a chance to take the reins on the long-awaited Gotham City Sirens. For now, though, The Suicide Squad was a blast - literally - but if you enjoyed it, I implore ✤you to stream Birds of Prey. Give it a shot, at the least, and who knows? If you missed out in 2020, you might find something to make 2021 less dreary.

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