Post by machsabre on Feb 9, 2020 20:36:13 GMT -5
Or AKA, "Harley Quinn and two of the Birds of Prey and some 13 year old girl with Cass' name".
Yes. We know. It's been stated a billion times over and over again that "THIS IS JUST A HARLEY MOVIE WITH THE BIRDS IN IT!" Yes. You know this going in. Every single bit of advertising about it says this basically. Let's get all the complaints about the premise out of the way. (Except for the Cass part. I'll come back to that in a moment.) We good? Okay.
It's fucking awesome. It's a Deadpool Glitter Bomb. I actually enjoyed it MORE than Deadpool, if I'm to be honest. You could tell everyone making this movie had a blast making it and it shows. It's not a deep movie, but it's a lot of fun. Right down the line...
- Margot Robbie is to Harley Quinn what Christopher Reeve, Ryan Reynolds and Robert Downey Jr. is to Superman, Deadpool and Iron Man. She IS the character. Her reactions and facial acting is amazing. Just her Oscar worthy performance over the loss of an egg sandwich alone was worth it.
- No, you do not need to see Suicide Squad for this. In fact, it's probably better that you don't. The movie is about... An hour and ten minutes? It does not overstay it's welcome. It gets in, tells its story, has some fun and gets out.
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also amazing as Huntress, as is Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Dinah. The two of them has some interesting character arcs here. They don't get the screentime I would have liked them to get... But but's still pretty dang good and sets up nicely for a sequel. (More on this in a second.) Originally I would have liked the two roles reversed for the two of them... But they both nailed it. Black Canary is my favorite DC Character and Smollett-Bell was pretty spot on for the role. Winstead's take on Helena, who pretty frickin' dangerous... But also socially inept... Is both intimidating and adorable. Then again, I've liked her in almost everything she's done. (Except for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter... But that's NOT her fault.)
- Rosie Perez as Montoya was pretty inspired casting. And it left a few (VERY) subtle hints to a potential faceless future. Ewan MacGregor was having a blast playing the sleazy Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask. (And yes, he does wear the mask in the climax!) And Chris Messina as Zsasz was also a lot of fun. Like I said, it's obvious they had a blast playing these characters.
- Director Cathy Yan? This is her first movie for Western audiences and I gotta say... She's a already an astounding action director. She knows to pull back and actually show medium to long shots and actually see the stuntmanship going on. The fight in the police precinct in the sprinkler system going off was a beautiful work of art. I am not exaggerating here. Whatever the final outcome of the BoP movie is, Cathy Yan's career should be booming after this.
Now let's talk about the negative. There's really only one big one. The rest are really superficial pacing stuff that if you didn't care about it in movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp or Doctor Strange... Then you're not going to care about it here. But the big problem?
- *sigh* Say it with me Sporky... "That's not Cassandra Cain." I don't know where this version comes from. On the surface, it almost seems a bit like the version from the recent (and excellent) Shadow of the Batgirl graphic novel with some mixtures of Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe/Misfit in there. But... It's not. They literally could have made her ANYONE. She could have been Carrie Kelly for all it mattered. There was no hints about David Cain or Lady Shiva, or any kind of REALLY tragic past. She would have had more in common with Stephanie Brown than Cass. Whatever the argument for it is... But the bottom line is she is not Cass Cain in any capacity that we're aware of. Which was so goddamned baffling, because EVERYONE ELSE WAS!! They got some weird ass subtle details down that was throwaway material that unless you were looking for it you'd miss. And then there's this random character thrown in. And her eventual fate at the end of the movie is even LESS like Cass.
I mean, don't get me wrong. She's a good character and the kid is a lot of fun. But she should have been named something else. That's my ONE complaint.
Long story short, if you liked the Deadpool and John Wick movies... You'll probably love this one too. The box office for this is underperforming a bit, for two big reasons... And it's the same reasons the Bumblebee movie faced some struggles. It's a follow-up to a really disliked movie and there was some issues going on in China that prevented more money. (In Bumblebee's case, it was Aquaman and that they really hated the Last Knight. In BoP's case... It's the frickin' Coronavirus.) But so far, it's 3 million away from meeting it's budget... So it needs to make double that. And once the Asian countries are allowed out to see it, it probably will. And I think once word of mouth hits, that'll help too. Which would be nice, because it sets up some really fun potential for future movies.
But let me say this much. If you do see it... Don't hang around for the post-credit thing. It's just a voice over bit that's actually not all that funny.
Yes. We know. It's been stated a billion times over and over again that "THIS IS JUST A HARLEY MOVIE WITH THE BIRDS IN IT!" Yes. You know this going in. Every single bit of advertising about it says this basically. Let's get all the complaints about the premise out of the way. (Except for the Cass part. I'll come back to that in a moment.) We good? Okay.
It's fucking awesome. It's a Deadpool Glitter Bomb. I actually enjoyed it MORE than Deadpool, if I'm to be honest. You could tell everyone making this movie had a blast making it and it shows. It's not a deep movie, but it's a lot of fun. Right down the line...
- Margot Robbie is to Harley Quinn what Christopher Reeve, Ryan Reynolds and Robert Downey Jr. is to Superman, Deadpool and Iron Man. She IS the character. Her reactions and facial acting is amazing. Just her Oscar worthy performance over the loss of an egg sandwich alone was worth it.
- No, you do not need to see Suicide Squad for this. In fact, it's probably better that you don't. The movie is about... An hour and ten minutes? It does not overstay it's welcome. It gets in, tells its story, has some fun and gets out.
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also amazing as Huntress, as is Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Dinah. The two of them has some interesting character arcs here. They don't get the screentime I would have liked them to get... But but's still pretty dang good and sets up nicely for a sequel. (More on this in a second.) Originally I would have liked the two roles reversed for the two of them... But they both nailed it. Black Canary is my favorite DC Character and Smollett-Bell was pretty spot on for the role. Winstead's take on Helena, who pretty frickin' dangerous... But also socially inept... Is both intimidating and adorable. Then again, I've liked her in almost everything she's done. (Except for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter... But that's NOT her fault.)
- Rosie Perez as Montoya was pretty inspired casting. And it left a few (VERY) subtle hints to a potential faceless future. Ewan MacGregor was having a blast playing the sleazy Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask. (And yes, he does wear the mask in the climax!) And Chris Messina as Zsasz was also a lot of fun. Like I said, it's obvious they had a blast playing these characters.
- Director Cathy Yan? This is her first movie for Western audiences and I gotta say... She's a already an astounding action director. She knows to pull back and actually show medium to long shots and actually see the stuntmanship going on. The fight in the police precinct in the sprinkler system going off was a beautiful work of art. I am not exaggerating here. Whatever the final outcome of the BoP movie is, Cathy Yan's career should be booming after this.
Now let's talk about the negative. There's really only one big one. The rest are really superficial pacing stuff that if you didn't care about it in movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp or Doctor Strange... Then you're not going to care about it here. But the big problem?
- *sigh* Say it with me Sporky... "That's not Cassandra Cain." I don't know where this version comes from. On the surface, it almost seems a bit like the version from the recent (and excellent) Shadow of the Batgirl graphic novel with some mixtures of Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe/Misfit in there. But... It's not. They literally could have made her ANYONE. She could have been Carrie Kelly for all it mattered. There was no hints about David Cain or Lady Shiva, or any kind of REALLY tragic past. She would have had more in common with Stephanie Brown than Cass. Whatever the argument for it is... But the bottom line is she is not Cass Cain in any capacity that we're aware of. Which was so goddamned baffling, because EVERYONE ELSE WAS!! They got some weird ass subtle details down that was throwaway material that unless you were looking for it you'd miss. And then there's this random character thrown in. And her eventual fate at the end of the movie is even LESS like Cass.
I mean, don't get me wrong. She's a good character and the kid is a lot of fun. But she should have been named something else. That's my ONE complaint.
Long story short, if you liked the Deadpool and John Wick movies... You'll probably love this one too. The box office for this is underperforming a bit, for two big reasons... And it's the same reasons the Bumblebee movie faced some struggles. It's a follow-up to a really disliked movie and there was some issues going on in China that prevented more money. (In Bumblebee's case, it was Aquaman and that they really hated the Last Knight. In BoP's case... It's the frickin' Coronavirus.) But so far, it's 3 million away from meeting it's budget... So it needs to make double that. And once the Asian countries are allowed out to see it, it probably will. And I think once word of mouth hits, that'll help too. Which would be nice, because it sets up some really fun potential for future movies.
But let me say this much. If you do see it... Don't hang around for the post-credit thing. It's just a voice over bit that's actually not all that funny.