The Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn

Harley Quinn lives life on the wild side, and that’s putting it lightly. I mean, we all know she is a little crazy. Okay, maybe more than a little. But, believe it or not, she’s more than just a clown.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, shows us Harley Quinn in a way we haven’t seen her before. The movie shows the self-finding journey of Quinn after her breakup with the Joker, narrated by Harley Quinn herself.

Just like the rest of us after a breakup, Harley Quinn becomes immersed in a pool of mixed feelings and has to find a way to cope. She cuts her hair, gets her own place, and destroys any leftover evidence from her well-known relationship. A lot of Gotham city citizens see that Harley is on her own and use it as an opportunity to try and kill her since she no longer has Joker’s protection. So maybe not just like the rest of us.

This isn’t the whole plot of the movie, but with self-centered Harley Quinn as the narrator, it might as well be. In the movie, we also meet a few new on-screen characters, such as Black Canary, Huntress, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain. We get their backstories and watch as their struggles become intertwined with Quinn.

If you are a comic book fan and know the backstories of these characters, then you might have noticed that Cassandra Cain’s backstory is completely altered and could easily have been a character with a different name. Instead of being raised by assassins and becoming Batgirl, we have a young foster kid who is known for pickpocketing Gotham citizens. Maybe we will see her character develop in future movies, but it is still unclear as to where they were going with her new comic-disregarded character.

As for the other three, we have very well-written badass female characters. Black Canary, Renee Montoya, and Huntress all come from different backgrounds, but they all seem to have faced the same struggle: the oppression of women. So, it isn’t too surprising when they find themselves together to form the Birds of Prey, to face the Black Mask. Black Mask is a villain in the DC universe known for cutting the faces off of his victims.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is the first rated R movie in the DCEU and resembles the style we saw in Marvel’s Deadpool. The movie is very progressive as it features a female-led diverse cast, who faces a whiny “I can’t do anything by myself,” male villain. While Harley Quinn is busy figuring out who she is without Joker, the other three women are breaking free from their own male-dominated lives.

If you’re looking for a funny, action-packed, woman-powered movie, this is the one. It’s colorful and vibrant and emphasizes the power struggle between men and women without overdoing it. It also sets up the Birds of Prey as a new DCEU team and shows us just how crazy Harley Quinn can be, even without Mr. J.