Very good fun, and in my eyes, probably the best film the DCEU's managed. This in spite of absolutely butchering the character of Cassandra Cain (really, if she's to be nothing at all like in the comics, why call her that? You're just making me hate an otherwise perfectly OK new character for no reason) and making pretty lacklustre (if acceptable) interpretations of Zsasz, Lance and perhaps particularly Montoya. But Black Mask is a delight (a fair bit different from his comic origins, but not in a bad way), Huntress is somehow utterly perfectly cool and faithful and hilariously silly and changed at the same time -- and the titular Harley Quinn utterly carries the film. Her chaotic non-linear narration lifts the entertainment value by leaps and bounds, and her charisma on screen (one of the few highlights of the dour Suicide Squad) really get to shine here. The film weakens a bit in the middle when she takes a backseat to plot and ensamble, but thankfully the introduction of Huntress as a fully fledged character towards the end helps end the film on a high note.

The struggling DCEU franchise has by all means made several films that I'll admit are much more even than this one (Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman, Aquaman, Shazam), but every one of those came off to me as either overlong or varying degrees of bland. I'll take an uneven film that for all its faults frequently makes me laugh out loud or grin in delight any day. And "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" does. And having now typed that out in its entirety, I should probably state it might also be in my top five excellent movie titles of all time. ( )

A pickpocket unknowingly steals from a sadistic mob boss.

3/4 (Good).

Good characters, a good sense of humor, and even good action. (It's ridiculous how rare good action is in a superhero movie.) There are some minor narrative problems (mostly unavoidable by the nature of what the movie is). And McGregor's character is unpleasant to watch (with a very hard to listen to "American" accent). Overall, it's exactly the sort of fun I want a comic book movie to be. Hopefully WB isn't too Serious-Grim-Reboot-happy to give us some sequels and spinoffs.

(Feb. 2020) ( )