I just saw The Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn, or simply Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey today. And I have to say that, I liked the film. Maybe I am just saying this out of bias because I am a fan of Batman and Harley Quinn is one of my favorite villains/anti-heroes. But there it is. I liked the film. It was fun and enjoyable.

Margot Robbie (Wolf of Wall Street), reprises her role as Harley Quinn (from the Suicide Squad), And in this film, there were a lot of dark but funny jokes. Plenty of smashing. A lot of campy scenes. Several scenes where the crime lord loses his mind every time his plans go awry.  I mean, it was really a fun movie.

Some people might have seen this film as a female empowerment propaganda being shoved down our throats. But what I have seen with this film is nothing new. There have been many depictions of Harley Quinn becoming her own person and standing up the the Joker, the man she fell in love with and who later on bullied her. This story has been seen in various comic books and there was an episode in Batman: The Animated Series where Harley broke away from the Joker and started teaming with Poison Ivy. Even the adult cartoon, Harley Quinn, voiced by Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) elludes into Harley declaring her independence from the Joker despite trying to get a spot on the Legion of Doom.

In this film however, Harley Quinn is not the only one struggling to break away from the chains of her past. First, we have the Black Canary, Dinah Lance, played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who is trying to break away from the dangerous yet immature, and funny, antagonist crime lord, Black Mask (played by Ewan McGreggor, who also played the young version of the Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Next, we have Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Plilgrim Saves the World) who seems to be locked by her own vengeance against the people who murdered her family. Then we have Renee Montoya, played by Rosie Perez (White Men Can’t Jump, Pineapple Express) who is a brilliant cop that is bitter with her treatment at the Gothan City Police Department due to her partner taking all the credit for her hard work. Last but not least, we have Cassandra Cain, played by the young actress Ella Jay Basco, is trying to break away from a life stricken by poverty and a dysfunctional foster family. So, to me, the overall theme of Harley Quinn was breaking away. And this is what makes Harley relatable to all of us.

Some of us had to break away from the things in our life we knew held us back. For some people, it was someone they loved. Or for some people, it is that job that sucks the life out of them. Whatever is or was, something in our lives held us back and like Harley, we begin to question if we really could make it out on our own without that something anchoring us. To Harley, Joker was a sense of protection and security but as Benjamin Franklin once warned: those who desire security over freedom, deserve neither. Harley learned that the moment she decided that she was going to declare her independence from Joker. And that is one of the things I admire about her.

I will admit, there were times where the film went back and forth due to Harley’s narrating but at the same time, that was what made it fun. Again, I enjoyed the film and to me, Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn, without question.

I definitely would recommend anyone give this film a watch and yeah, maybe there are some themes in it, but in the end, its still a fun film and it has Harley Quinn in it. Enough said.

-Brian From Earth-16