There is a character arc, largely thanks to the presence of Cassandra in her life, a teen who softens Harley and teaches her that maybe she’s not the bad person she thinks herself to be. Robbie’s Harley is an intriguing character because she’s not a hero but she’s also not a true villain, as evidenced by her use of nonlethal force against cops, reserving the deadly stuff for the real bad dudes. McGregor’s oddballness also elicited the most laughs. McGregor is obviously delighting in playing a comic book villain with a camp streak, even if the vibe sometimes resembles the cartoonish bad guy played by Peter Greene in The Mask. Picture: Claudette Barius/Warner Bros Pictures via AP In the final act, while the production design of a funhouse is not as effective as it must have seemed on paper, the choreography of incorporating four female fighters – and Black Canary’s high kicks are something to behold – is truly impressive.īut can Hollywood please agree to stop using “Black Betty” as the song under any more action scenes? Please.Ī playful Ewan McGregor with a miscast Chris Messina. The result is pulsing, and without having to rely on fast edits to hide less than top-notch work.

Yan worked with Chad Stahelski ( John Wick) in realising the action and it shows. What makes Birds Of Prey take flight (sorry) is the fight choreography, a mix of gritty, grounded hand-to-hand combat with heightened and stylistic set pieces. The plot unfolds through choppy flashbacks which generally works without sucking too much momentum out of the story, except when it frustrates – albeit nowhere to the same degree as when Channing Tatum popped out from under the floor in The Hateful Eight, resulting in a 40-minute flashback. Jurnee Smollett-Bell joins the DC movies as Black Canary.

Birds of prey rating