Birds of prey movie5/18/2023 ![]() We don’t have to like it, but we do have to accept it. Pretending that the numbers are just fine is no more honest than pretending that it’s a referendum on female-led geek flicks. After the horrible, drunken decision to make that fact public with a literal bang. But it also furthers, perhaps disingenuously, the “female superhero movies only excel when they are paired with a cool dude” narrative (Chris Pine in Wonder Woman and Sam Jackson in Captain Marvel). The film follows Harley Quinn (Robbie) after her breakup with The Joker. Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) uses what appears to be a Smith & Wesson Model 38 Bodyguard revolver as her backup gun, which she gives to Harley Quinn (Margot. It’s well-reviewed and well-liked by those who did show up, so it furthers the “DC Films are good now” narrative. It’s a good movie with a quickly-building passionate fan base. Oh, and Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck’s Frozen II has earned $1.438 billion.īirds of Prey is not a gigantic flop but nor will it pull a Greatest Showman or My Big Fat Greek Wedding and leg out for months. Even as Terminator: Dark Fate (starring three women with the main hero/villain both being Hispanic) and Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels flopped, audiences still showed up for Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood ($64 million worldwide on a $25 million budget), Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers ($157 million/$20 million), Kasi Lemmons’ Harriet ($43 million/$17 million), director Melina Matsoukas and writer’s Lena Waithe Queen and Slim ($45 million/$15 million) and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women ($191 million/$40 million). After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroines Black Canary, Huntress, and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord. The good news is that A) WB would be idiots not to keep Hodson and Yan’s numbers in their rolodex and B) Birds of Prey isn’t the only game in town in terms of major female-directed (or merely fronted) studio releases. After being dumped by The Joker, Harley Quinn. And yet, comparatively speaking, we (once again) didn’t show up. Birds of Prey takes place after the original Suicide Squad film and shines the spotlight on Harley Quinn. It’s even written and directed by two women of Asian descent ( Bumblebee screenwriter Christina Hodson is half-English, half-Taiwanese and indie director Cathy Yan is from China). Robbie and her costars have revealed plenty of things about the making of the movie, like the fact that her transformation took approximately two and a half hours. It’s a female-led ensemble with a diverse cast, of the moment politics and action every bit as rough and spectacular as the boy movies. 'Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)' stars Margot Robbie as the titular character and centers on the formation of a girl gang. It’s frustrating because A) it’s a good movie, B) it’s exactly the kind of unconventional offering that DC Films should be producing and C) it’s exactly what the internet claims to want from Hollywood, in a commercially viable DC/Marvel package no less. It doesn’t validate the folks dismissing Birds of Prey for conventionally sexist reasons, but nor does it further the “women-led superhero movies can be huge too” narrative.
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