Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
★★★ — Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Margot Robbie IS Harley Quinn. Full stop. That's not a hot take, it's just a fact, and it's what makes Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) worth watching even when the film around her is wobbling. She brings such anarchic charm and wounded vulnerability to the role that the character feels genuinely alive in a way that very few comic book performances manage. When Harley's on screen doing her thing, you're with her completely. The trouble is that "doing her thing" can only carry a film so far.
The opening stretch absolutely crackles. There's a sugar-rush energy to it, loud, neon-drenched and gloriously unhinged, and I found myself grinning all the way through the early going. Ewan McGregor clearly decided this was his opportunity to have the time of his life, and good on him for it. His Black Mask is petulantly, gleefully villainous in a way that plays almost like a dark comedy riff on entitled rich-boy narcissism. It's a big, theatrical performance and I mean that as a compliment. Between him and Robbie, there's real electricity in their scenes together, a push-pull of charisma that the film knows to lean into.
The soundtrack slaps. The aesthetic pops. The feminist-lite messaging about Harley finally stepping out from a toxic relationship and claiming her own identity lands with reasonable sincerity. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't entertained, because I was, especially on a first watch when the sheer momentum of it all carries you past the cracks.
But the cracks are there. The rest of the "girl gang" never quite clicks as a unit, and that's a problem for a film that bills itself as an ensemble. Their chemistry feels assembled rather than earned, and the story has to work hard to keep finding reasons to throw them together. Compare that to something like Suicide Squad (2016), which I had similar gripes about: both films struggle to make their ensemble feel like anything more than a collection of individually interesting pieces that won't quite fit together. It's a recurring headache for this particular corner of the DC universe.
The action sequences, too, are serviceable rather than special. There are moments that hint at genuine invention, but nothing that makes you sit forward in your seat. For a film this visually confident in its colour palette and costuming, the choreography feels like it's playing it safe when it should be swinging for the fences. I kept thinking about what a truly inventive action director could have done with this material and this lead.
The deeper issue is tonal. The film seems both aware of and trapped by its own absurdity, and it never quite decides whether it wants to be a genuine character study or a knowing self-parody. So it tries to be both, and ends up caught somewhere in between. The result is a film that sometimes feels less like a cohesive story and more like a series of music video vignettes loosely strung together by a voiceover. It makes an extraordinary entrance and then sort of forgets where it was going.
That said, I want to be clear: I had a good time. Robbie's star power and McGregor's delicious villainy carry it through the rougher patches, and the whole thing is delivered with enough conviction that the style becomes a genuine pleasure in itself. It's more a Harley Quinn showcase than a proper ensemble superhero film, and on those terms it largely works. Three stars, and I mean that honestly rather than as a consolation prize. Flawed, uneven, intermittently wonderful.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2020 | Watched: 2026-04-01
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More with Margot Robbie: Suicide Squad (2016) · The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) · Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
