Let Us Prey

 I think I've finally seen all the big dumb movies from 2019 finally, and with Birds Of Prey And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020), I might have seen all the big dumb 2020 movies.

It starts with a cartoon introduction to Harley Quinn, narrated by HQ herself, Margot Robbie. This culminates in her breakup with the Joker, who doesn't actually appear in this movie (which is a good choice). So she has to work through her breakup grief. She cuts her hair, gets a pet hyena, takes up roller derby, that kind of thing. 

She goes to Roman Sionis' (Ewan McGregor) nightclub and insults everyone and breaks McGregor's driver's legs. Since the world hasn't heard about her breakup, everyone thinks she has the Joker's protection. McGregor tells his club's chantoozy, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, that she is his driver now.

Feeling low, HQ decides to make a statement, and blows up the chemical plant where the Joker turned her into Harley Quinn. Police detective Rosie Perez realizes that this means HQ and the Mr. J are on the outs and that it is open season on her. But she's kind of busy worrying about the "crossbow killer," who turns out to be Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Meanwhile, McGregor has entrusted Victor Szaz (Chris Messina) with a diamond, that immediately gets stolen by pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). Then she gets arrested, and McGregor hires HQ to get the diamond back, but Smollett-Bell tells Perez whats up. 

And that's just the setup.

This is a fun, silly movie - there's a stretch in the middle where everyone is trying to kill HQ - you get a freezeframe with their name and greivance, and in some cases, nobody really knows who they are. She has a lot of enemies. Plus it has four great female leads, although Robbie definitely hogs the spotlight. I do think that Sionis is weak as the bad guy, just a standard mobster, although having psycho Szaz around helps.

I never read any of the Birds of Prey comics or the cartoons and only watched one ep of the 2002 series. So most of what we know about these characters comes from watching Gotham and Arrow. But we did recognize the garret room with the round windows where they meet. That's about it.