Annlyel James 
Annlyel reveals why she won’t be lining up to see the return of Harley Quinn in theatres
Birds of Prey; it’s the first film in the long list of announced and unannounced comic book movies to come this decade. It’s currently got an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes which is a slight lead on last year’s Captain Marvel (78%), the most recent superhero movie to focus on a female hero. It’s also one of the few DCEU films to garner a fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. And yet, I’m not interested.
My introduction to Harley Quinn was via Suicide Squad just over a year ago when I watched the film for the first time on TBS. I didn’t like the movie but the two characters I did, in fact, enjoy were Will Smith’s Deadshot and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. I didn’t know anything about Harley Quinn but Robbie dazzled me with her wacky attitude and eye-grabbing performance as the comic book villain. Despite this, when it was announced that she would be getting her own movie I wasn’t thrilled. You see, Harley’s awesome, but she’s no Joker, a character that is synonymous with Batman in worldwide recognition.
Our first introduction to her on the big screen was in Suicide Squad, a movie that underperformed and has taken four years for essentially a reboot that will arrive next year with James Gunn at the helm. And you can’t forget, a lot of people didn’t see Suicide Squad so they don’t even know who this hammer-wielding broad is. And on top of all that, Birds of Prey is rated R. That whittles down the audience turn-out to a select few. Older people don’t care about the character so they’re not going to see it. Millennials may go see it but we’re not turning out in force. And with the film garnering mixed reviews, there’s no real sell point.
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For me, I love Harley Quinn, I love Ewan McGregor, and not even these two people could make me interested in seeing this film. The trailers and commercials never solidified a solid storyline, which I guess makes sense, considering that Harley Quinn isn’t exactly a solid character. The women that surround her in this movie, namely Huntress and Black Canary, don’t come off as superhero or supervillain material. There are no fancy outfits worth cosplaying and their individual skill sets haven’t been elaborated upon.
RELATED: Review | Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) (Kat’s Review)
The makers of this film forgot that not everyone reads comic books and has assumed that we already know who Huntress and Black Canary are. Spoiler-alert, I’m one of many who is unfamiliar with the heroes and villains in DC Comics outside of Batman and Superman.
Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing a film that highlights a whole lot of women kicking a**. Unfortunately, this movie is not coming across as something I am enthused to see. It probably should’ve been released after The Suicide Squad so that we can fall in love with Quinn once again but alas, the DCEU continues to make poor choices on when to release certain movies and that’s a shame.
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Annlyel James is a prolific Staff Writer for Future of the Force. She is passionate about Star Wars and Marvel but loves a wide variety of movie genres. Aside from her role with Future of the Force she also writes for her own blog: annlyelonline. Follow her on Twitter @annlyeljames where she channels the Force frequently!
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Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely that of the author and do reflect the overall opinion of thefutureoftheforce.com, it’s writers or affiliates.
Annlyel James is a Senior Correspondent of The Future of the Force. She is passionate about Star Wars and Marvel but loves a wide variety of movie genres. Aside from her role with Future of the Force she also writes for her blog: annlyelonline. Follow her on Twitter where she channels the Force frequently!
I saw it this past weekend. It wasn’t horrible. It was okay. I liked it better than I liked Suicide Squad but that is a pretty low bar because I did not enjoy Suicide Squad.