Birds of Prey Reactions

[Jim Kelly]

My personal ranking of all the DC theatrical movies since 2013 (not counting animation, and I haven't seen the RED movies or THE KITCHEN)--

1. WONDER WOMAN
2. AQUAMAN
3. SHAZAM!
4. BIRDS OF PREY AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN
5. JOKER
6. JUSTICE LEAGUE
7. SUICIDE SQUAD
8. BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
9. MAN OF STEEL

[sorboares]

My partner and I went and watched it last night, we loved it. It was entertaining, funny, awesome fight scenes and a very enjoyable movie. I admit that it is very different from the comics and the characters don't wear their comic accurate costumes which is a real shame. Not sure why DC/Warner Bro decide to do this when they make their films sometimes?
But all in all we did love it and I think one huge reason it isn't doing so well at the Box Office is because of the R rating. So many of the BOP and Harley fans are teenagers so that's a HUGE market they are losing with this R rating. I know adults love BOP & Harley too cause well I am a 35 year old male that loves female heroes kicking major butt, but I still think there are more teenagers than adults who would flock to see this movie but cant cause of the R rating.
I still hope this film does well in the end at the Box Office so we can get a sequel and we can get many more female lead movies.
I am still dying for a Barbara Gordon as Batgirl solo movie and for her to make many appearances in other films too.

[Ramsay Snow]

My personal ranking of all the DC theatrical movies since 2013 (not counting animation, and I haven't seen the RED movies or THE KITCHEN)--

1. WONDER WOMAN
2. AQUAMAN
3. SHAZAM!
4. BIRDS OF PREY AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN
5. JOKER
6. JUSTICE LEAGUE
7. SUICIDE SQUAD
8. BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
9. MAN OF STEEL

Mine would be:

1. Joker
2. Aquaman
3. Wonder Woman
4. Justice League
5. Shazam!
6. Batman vs Superman
7. Man of Steel
8. Suicide Squad
9. Birds of Prey

[kjn]

All in all, I'd give it a solid B. It's going to tank, and that's the studio's fault. They obviously thought that this could be DC's answer to Deadpool, and so they made it an R-rated movie. It should have been PG-13, and it's going to loose a ton of business because it isn't.

Yeah, I don't think the BoP should be an R-rated property.

You should be promoting these heroines as hard as possible to young girls (even if it sounds like most of them aren't at their heroic best in this film).

I have several thoughts here.

First, the movie we got should be seen as a Harley Quinn movie rather than a Birds of Prey movie. It featured some of the characters that will later turn up in the Birds of Prey team, but it's fundamentally a Harley Quinn movie. And can Harley Quinn be R-rated? Sure.

Second, what was WB's goal here. Was it to maximise box office, or to make the best movie they could? Obviously the best is to get both, but if you only get to choose one? And the path to maximise box office at any price leads to Suicide Squad.

So to me the primary question would be if the movie was made better due to its R-rating?

I think it was. This isn't Wonder Woman, where Diana constantly chafes against the way she is gendered by the people around her. This isn't Captain Marvel, with its exploration of gaslightning and its quiet determination to persist. This is a full-on unfettered feminist revenge fantasy.

Man proposes sex in exchange for Bruce the Hyena. Feed him to the hyena. Man makes a lewd remark. Break his leg. Or as film critic Charlotte O'Sullivan put it:

Me too. This film is brazenly irresponsible. It’s also genuinely feminist, beautiful to look at, brilliantly acted and very funny.

[babyblob]

I went and saw this movie with a friend of mine. I only got about halfway through it before the crowd size and loud noises from the special effects got to me and I had to leave. But I really enjoyed what I did see. Like post above good action, a good mix of humor. The cast did a really good job with this. I really hope this does well. The theater I went to was sold out and it was an afternoon show. I am going to watch the rest of it when it comes out on dvd. Or maybe wait until it comes to the discount theater where the crowds wont be as large and I can try again. Making it even half way through though was a huge step for me because we went to dinner before the show. I am pretty proud.

[Gaastra]

I have young family members who wanted to see this and can't due to the R rating. They liked ss and play her in the lego dc games. The R is fine for a cartoon on a dc streaming service no one gets but comic fans but it really hurts this film at the box office. Like ss this should have been pg-13 at the movies and a R cut on dvd. (plus pg-13 can get away with a lot these days!)

As for birds of prey heroes not acting right, non comic fans (most of everyone else) don't know and won't care. They won't even know they are not acting right.

[Jim Kelly]

I went and saw this movie with a friend of mine. I only got about halfway through it before the crowd size and loud noises from the special effects got to me and I had to leave.

That's unfortunate. I'm in the habit now of always taking my earplugs with me, because there's so much noise pollution these days, and the sound was really hurting me at the beginning, so I put my earplugs in. However, after awhile I took the earplugs out and didn't have a problem with that. I don't know if my ears had adjusted to the sound or if someone in the theatre had adjusted the sound to make it not so ear-shredding.

I don't hold this against the movie itself. Every theatre had its own system and it's up to them to adjust the settings so the movie is shown at the optimal setting. I had problems with AQUAMAN the first time I saw it (at an IMAX 3D preview)--I couldn't see it or hear it that well and it was hard to follow as a result--sometimes all these bells and whistles just make a movie poorer than it could be.

[Frontier]

I have several thoughts here.

First, the movie we got should be seen as a Harley Quinn movie rather than a Birds of Prey movie. It featured some of the characters that will later turn up in the Birds of Prey team, but it's fundamentally a Harley Quinn movie. And can Harley Quinn be R-rated? Sure.

Second, what was WB's goal here. Was it to maximise box office, or to make the best movie they could? Obviously the best is to get both, but if you only get to choose one? And the path to maximise box office at any price leads to Suicide Squad.

So to me the primary question would be if the movie was made better due to its R-rating?

I think it was. This isn't Wonder Woman, where Diana constantly chafes against the way she is gendered by the people around her. This isn't Captain Marvel, with its exploration of gaslightning and its quiet determination to persist. This is a full-on unfettered feminist revenge fantasy.

Man proposes sex in exchange for Bruce the Hyena. Feed him to the hyena. Man makes a lewd remark. Break his leg. Or as film critic Charlotte O'Sullivan put it:

The movie probably benefited from the R-rating but I think the other BoP could probably have benefited from being in a movie that was more all-ages appealing and not be stuck with Harley. Now who knows what they'll do with them.

[kjn]

The movie probably benefited from the R-rating but I think the other BoP could probably have benefited from being in a movie that was more all-ages appealing and not be stuck with Harley. Now who knows what they'll do with them.

At least they've had one good movie outing. That's a lot higher than zero movie outings. Because that's were they'd have been without this.

I think WB's model of one movie at a time rather than Marvel's outlining of future movies can be both an opportunity and a liability here. Margot Robbie is of course one wild-card, but a lot of her pull with WB will depend on how profitable Birds of Prey turns out to be, even if she had little to do with the marketing decisions that hurt the movie.

My guess is that we won't see a Birds of Prey versus Gotham City Sirens movie. Simply too large a cast. I think it's more likely that we'll see another Harley movie (perhaps with a cameo or two from the Birds), that might be GCS or something else, and that the Birds ends up with however the Batman and Batgirl movies will develop.

[beatboks]

I have young family members who wanted to see this and can't due to the R rating. They liked ss and play her in the lego dc games. The R is fine for a cartoon on a dc streaming service no one gets but comic fans but it really hurts this film at the box office. Like ss this should have been pg-13 at the movies and a R cut on dvd. (plus pg-13 can get away with a lot these days!)

As for birds of prey heroes not acting right, non comic fans (most of everyone else) don't know and won't care. They won't even know they are not acting right.

So os the rating different elsewhere?
Down undernits MA+ (15 and over) which is a rating a parent can take young children to if they are with them to supervise. I took my three kids (7,11,13) and the theatre we went to was full of teens

[Killerbee911]

The movie made 80 plus million worldwide, I am not DC fanboy nor I am big conspiracy theories guy but media is doing a hatchet job on Birds of Prey right now selling it as failure is sexy story that get views. Yeah it didn't make the projected 40 to 60 million opening but it made back its budget worldwide market and it is pretty much going make a profit at some point. Comic book movies have so been so over productive that people look at average or slightly above average production as failure. Next Week when it is more focused on overall gross the failure talks will generally go away because the numbers it has solid.

Silver lining is that this kills the some of the DC fanboy narrative of everything must be R and mature. You can always release a unrated cut on home video and that will please the people looking for that but you can't make up the money you miss in theater by being a R movie business wise the widest base of people buying your movie makes the most sense.

[kidfresh512]

Curious for people who have seen it already are you happy or satisfied with all of the non Harley Characters being portrayed the same in their own movie. Or would you prefer they greatly expand or even drop these portrayals and go another route?

Huntress, Black Canary specifically I guess.

[kjn]

So os the rating different elsewhere?
Down undernits MA+ (15 and over) which is a rating a parent can take young children to if they are with them to supervise. I took my three kids (7,11,13) and the theatre we went to was full of teens

Every country has their own movie rating system. That includes both exact age limits, rules for adults bringing otherwise under-age kids, and the way the movies are assessed.

[Wildling]

Curious for people who have seen it already are you happy or satisfied with all of the non Harley Characters being portrayed the same in their own movie. Or would you prefer they greatly expand or even drop these portrayals and go another route?

Huntress, Black Canary specifically I guess.

Socially awkward MEW Huntress has been growing on me.

[Jim Kelly]

Curious for people who have seen it already are you happy or satisfied with all of the non Harley Characters being portrayed the same in their own movie. Or would you prefer they greatly expand or even drop these portrayals and go another route?

Huntress, Black Canary specifically I guess.

Based on the promos, I was trepidatious about all the characters being off-model--including Harley Quinn. But all of that went out of my head when I watched the movie. It opens in a specific way--that when I was thinking about what I would do for a Harley movie, I dreamed up this scenario--so I was amazed that they actually did that thing and it helps to transition into the movie while paying homage to the history of the character.

I just enjoyed the actors for their own performance. But then I don't really expect live action shows to be comic accurate--it's just neat (like in AQUAMAN) when they actually are. I really enjoyed this version of Black Canary and this version of Huntress--they have some pretty cool moments in the movie. At the same time, the movie weirdly depends on you having some knowledge of the comics or the cartoons. I think your average audience would have missed some of the plot points, not having this kind of knowledge.

Having Renee Montoya being so much older was a bit of an adjustment, because I'm used to her as a young cop. However, if Ben Affleck is the Batman in this time period, then Montoya would also be that old. In the Robert Pattison movie, given it's set in the past, I could see another actress cast to play the young Montoya.