It's open season on Harley Quinn when her explosive breakup with the Joker puts a big fat target on her back. Unprotected and on the run, Quinn faces the wrath of narcissistic crime boss Black Mask, his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz, and every other thug in the city. But things soon even out for Harley when she becomes unexpected allies with three deadly women -- Huntress, Black Canary and Renee Montoya.
After the recent successes of 'Joker', I was really excited to hear about Harley Quinn's latest adventures within the DC universe and to see whether the successes of that film would replicate themselves with this film or not. I was really glad to see Margot Robbie as the star here because I think she's fantastic as Harley Quinn and really seems to transform into the character at a really great level. I was also excited to see whether this film had a similar theme in terms of telling a story of where the character came from too, in order to give us a better view of the character. The film is definitely a weird one though, and follows Harley's story as she progresses through the criminal underworld without her iconic sidekick, the Joker, and instead, going alone! The main question here though, does the film put the 'fun' in funeral or is it more of a flop? Here are my thoughts.
Films like this which have a massive following typically fall into the trap of assuming that audiences know exactly who the characters are and that they will understand the general storyline, this film, in short, does not fall for that trap at all, and if anything, starts off perfectly. The film introduces Harley Quinn using the awesome narrative that is used throughout, but the introduction not only provides a really in-depth insight into who she is as a character, but it also gives us an insight into the storyline as well as the various characters and relationships that they may have, through a cool looking cartoon piece. This is actually really key, because not only does it help to provide new insights into her character for fans, but it also gives a simplistic yet detailed insight into the character in a way that newcomers can understand too, which means that the film can be enjoyed by all.
I won't lie, I love the way in which the film immerses us within it - through the really exciting and fun parties at the start which not only help to give the film an exciting start, but they also help to grab our attention too and to give the film a positive and energetic vibe from the start, which gives the film a great and fun start. As well as this, the film uses an excellent series of effects which also contribute to giving it that immersive feeling too, the use of narrative is used a lot throughout the film, but is absolutely key to providing context and information, and the informal and jokey tone of it is great. Not only does the narrative help to really personify what is going on in the various characters heads, but it also helps to answer common questions we may have, and to describe the emotions and feelings of the various characters, it isn't constant, but it is used and implemented enough to have a really positive effect. I thought that the narrative was great, not only did it provide some laughs but it just felt really good for the emotion and purpose that the film was trying to put across, by giving it a weird vibe, and it does that perfectly.
As well as this though, the film does really well to establish itself as a unique and fresh film, sure it will be compared to 'Joker', but this film works hard to add a unique and fresh twist onto it, using things like Harley creating her own type of scene from the Joker blowing up the hospital in The Dark Knight, as well as Harley's cool and informal narrative which creates a personal kind of feeling to her helps to establish this film as its own. It uses a similar type of violence and creativity as the other films in the DC universe, but I really like how creative this film feels, scenes, where Harley snorts some Cocaine and then goes crazy fighting her enemies, is a really exciting and funny take on the character, whilst shedding light on her as a person too. This is further supported by the fighting and battle scenes, typically you'd expect there to be a lot of them where she is beating up person after person, but once again, the film uses its really creative sense to bring these scenes to life. A great example of this is when she shoots up the police station using paint and smoke guns, its a really fresh and fun scene, and this level of creativity is key to giving the audience the intended emotions of "she's a bit crazy, but likeable" and enjoying the film. These fight scenes are great though, they're energetic, they combine slow-motion and standard speed quite well, which gives a cool new insight into some of the battles. Most importantly though, they aren't too much or OTT. They do last for a little while, but they have meaning because of the story feeling the film gives us, and it combines this with a variety of immersive and exciting locations which also adds a cool little twist onto some of these too.
Another cool feature which this film does well is to provide context relating to flashbacks and stories, through the use of flashbacks not only does the film really help us to get excited about the events of the film, but it essentially gets us involved within it too by providing context and actually giving us the tools to understand the emotions of the characters too which is really helpful. These flashbacks aren't short either, some of them last a few minutes, and they are key in some areas to help to provide the film with a great sense of direction and story and this left me completely understanding everything that was going on, as well as its purpose and the characters emotions too.
I must say though Margot Robbie feels 100% perfect to do this role, not only does she really give a creepy vibe to Harley here, but just the way that she feels sinister and the jokes that she tells, it just all gives off such a great and immersive feeling to the character. Her comedic timing is perfect and her action scenes are bone crunchingly badass! That being said she did a MUCH better job on the character work in this film than Suicide Squad. Margot definitely had more freedom to be the fun and silly Harley we all know and love, without being objectified. As well as this though, I genuinely think that all of the characters felt great, I liked how the film established the sinister nature of Black Mask very early on, through the use of some seriously gory action - this was great though because it drilled fear into our heads, and really powerfully gave the character a strong and emotionless characteristic which was effective. The background characters are great, they don't completely get in the way of the film, but they definitely have their own purposes and they fit into the overall plot really nicely and help to add value to the film whether its comedy, action or just plain and simple being badass!
The plot is great though, not only do I love how the story is told essentially in phases but as I mentioned, the use of flashbacks is seriously helpful for providing context and information to us - and as it progresses, each of these phases allow the film to flow really smoothly, by connecting to each other well through references and a variety of cool editing and CGI such as the explosion of the house and the hyena being blown up - it just gives a really cool and exciting insight into Harley as a character whilst she shops and buys groceries (which feels super weird) and then stealing them, this films unique point is that it delves into a character which I didn't think was possible to do! I do want to add though, that the film carefully takes into consideration the variety of emotions which is evoked, not only are these carefully chosen but they are very effective too, sure the film will use humour through her jokes and through the Hyena, but it also makes us feel very uneasy, especially the scene where Roman forces the woman to first stand on a table, and then dance, and then take her clothes off, all whilst everyone is watching in silence and she is sobbing - it's a really powerful and scary scene which I think probably had the same effect for everyone, where I felt really bad for the character, even though we had only just met her, but the film does definitely implement in a dark side which we come to expect, but through a variety of different other emotions too. I love this film, I really do - it's fun, it's exciting, it's edgy and it really has an exciting set of characters which genuinely feel enjoyable and interesting, add this to the exciting story like plot, and you've got yourself a seriously quality film.
The overall film is great, but it does have a few small problems which I want to discuss, Roman's character really wasn't very good. Sure, he was scary, but I just didn't feel like he was delved into enough to really give us a fully rounded impression of how he became Gotham's mafia king, it just seemed to be there because it was scripted that way, I didn't really find any interesting detail to his character which was a bit of a shame. I also wanted more from some of the side characters too, Helena's family were brutally murdered, and it told the story of her escape, but this felt like a missed opportunity for me, it would have been great to see her training more and to really see the emotional impact that it had on her as a character, apart from the vengeance killing, it didn't feel too realistic. As well as this, I thought that the plot main story of retrieving a stolen diamond feels way too cliche and boring, it just didn't add much to the overall excitement and intensity value of the film, because it followed the story and plot well, but the main part of it just didn't feel very creative or unique, it doesn't majorly affect the film, but it is noticeable for sure.
Overall, I would give this film a 9. I really enjoyed it, not only are the visuals amazing but the story is exciting, the characters feel immersive and realistic and the overall film just feels really creative and well-executed with a lot of attention to detail. Things like Harley's psychiatrist quotes and insights like "revenge often doesn't provide the closure we look for" make her feel super realistic, whilst immersive and just overall exciting too. The film feels creative and definitely puts its own spin on the franchise, helping to make this film one to enjoy for sure! Sure, it has a few faults, but if you can overlook these then you have a quality film on your hands for sure. Would I recommend it? Yes, definitely, not only is it fun for DC fans but it's also an exciting and enjoyable for people who aren't fans of the series, and probably even so for people who haven't heard of it before because of its excitement and enjoyable value.
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did watching the film and writing this review, I hope you have a lovely day! If you would like to check out my Official Facebook page where you can see sneak previous and more film insights then please consider checking out the link below!
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