Birds of Prey and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn takes you back to Gotham City with Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie). After Harley and The Joker break up for good, Quinn tries to discover who she is without a man to serve. In doing so, she realizes that without The Joker everyone wants to kill her. Harley must do whatever it takes to take the target off of her back. She will team up with the Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), to try and save a girl, Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), who is also being hunted down by the crime lord, Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor).

This film is fantastic. The writing was very well done, especially with introducing these new characters to the big screen. I do feel like they undersold detective Montoya in the beginning, especially for how skilled she is toward the end of the film. This film is told from Harley Quinn’s perspective and has her narrating the film during which, certain times her character talks on screen mid sentence while her inner voice will finish the thought. Typically this is frowned upon and seemed as a lazy way to portray a story, but this tactic helps emphasize that Harley is a little crazy in the brain. This movie begins in animation, reminding the audience of Harley’s backstory without showing one of the most despised actors in the DCEU, Jared Leto. The acting is really well done. McGregor’s performance as Sionis is amazing. He does a superior job at portraying a crime lord with emotional issues. Robbie does a fantabulous job at portraying Harley Quinn. Her emotions, actions, characteristics, and look are just perfect for this role. Smollett-Bell is an excellent Black Canary. Her singing is very beautiful and she does a good job at showing the struggle of doing the right thing after her mother was murdered because she did the right thing, getting her nowhere in life. Winstead’s performance as The Huntress was sub-par. I felt that as much as she tried, she just failed to hit the mark of this character. I never believed she was a trained assassin by the way she portrayed this role. The Huntress also has a few forced moments where she is trying to be sentimental of an object and it was hard to see that she cared about it. Despite her performance, the overall cast did a great job. There are many references to help keep the viewer in the mind of Gotham, including Quinn naming her hyena Bruce after “that hunky Wayne guy.” The special effects in this movie are excellent. The CGI of Canary’s cry is phenomenal. The fight scenes were very well choreographed. It was amazing to see Harley Quinn in action without the help of The Joker or The Suicide Squad. The costuming was amazing. I felt the costumes really connected with the character’s personalities. The soundtrack is an all female album which helps keep the tone of focusing on women and them trying to be free without anyone to control them.

I really enjoyed this film. While there is an actress that was hard to watch and a few plot points throughout that were forced, it did not ruin the enjoyment of the film. I thought the story line was great. This movie was expected to be a flop, but I thought it is one of the best films that has been released into the DCEU. This is a must-see in theaters. I recommend this film to anyone who loved The Joker movie or any anti-hero movie. I rate this film a 4.5 out of 5 film reels.