Here’s my reactions
1. It was an absolute blast, it was so much fun and I love it. Everyone who hasn't should go see it right now. This movie knows exactly what it’s about and what it’s trying to be, and it is that thing the whole way through. It’s an amoral roller coaster ride of joyous violence and sociopathic humor and I am HERE for it. It’s everything I wanted Suicide Squad to be back in 2016, and that Suicide Squad utterly failed to deliver on.
2. There’s gonna be Dinah Lance and Cass Cain fans out there who will be VERY MAD that the movie didn’t have their faves in it in a recognizable way compared to the comics. This is justifiable anger, but for me this distinction in no way detracts from the movie as it is for me, just as Eric Bana thinking his name is Bruce Krenzler doesn’t keep Hulk (2003) from being an absolute masterpiece, which it doesn’t. Hulk is a masterpiece, and Birds of Prey, similarly, slaps. It slaps my entire bod.
3. Even though Cass bears almost no relation to her characterization from the comics (she’s really more of a gender-flipped Jason Todd) she is still amazing. Also, as I am a big Jason Todd fan, this is emphatically Not a Problem for me.
4. Canary’s tangential relationship to herself from the comics is more of a Problem for me, but I have hope that IF this movie does well enough to get a sequel, more Canary will be definitively more in the comics’ vein.
5. Huntress is amazing and hilarious. I found myself thinking “that’s Batman’s daughter alright,” although she literally is not. Montoya is pretty great too.
6. Black Mask is an interesting character. The root of his evil is clearly a kind of rampant materialism in which he treats people like possessions he can control, where he gets violent any time he something he dislikes happens. There’s a kind of homoerotic tension to his relationship with his right hand man Victor Zsasz, but they’re both clearly sexually interested in women as well? But neither of them respect women, and Zsasz is possibly the only character Black Mask does respect.
7. I didn't think the movie was particularly trying to sell any particular political or even feminist message beyond the basic assumed premise of "super-type women can kick some ungodly amounts of ass" which... yeah? And yet when I got home and searached for "Birds of Prey" on YouTube, it seems like the idiots are coming out of the woodwork with video titles like "Woke Didn't Work" and that kind of bullshit. This movie is absolutely not doing any kind of moral posturing, the main character is a bad person, the whole thing is gloriously amoral. It's not trying to be woke, and it isn't woke. And it succeeds at being what it's trying to be, which is fun and hilarious.