I was reluctant to watch Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). My reluctance to watch this film was due to the fallout of Suicide Squad and my hunch that this film would have the same faults. Although I had my doubts, I went into the movie with an open mind and was happily surprised by my feelings toward this intense and vibrant action film.

Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn was the best thing to come out of Suicide Squad. Her mannerisms, stunts, and dialogue are uncanny and I can’t see a better fit for the role. There were three aspects of Birds of Prey that stood out in particular: colour, characterization, and creativity.

The colour palette in this film was incredibly tasteful and, in my opinion, it has to go down as one of the most visually pleasing DC films of all time. It was a colour trip of all sorts and left me satisfied and inspired.

The colouring scheme and bright elements carried over to the pure creativity of the scenes in the film. The fight scenes were so inventive and not drawn out to the point of boredom, like in several other comic book movies. They were truly imaginative and departed completely from overdone fight scene tropes, leaving me feeling curious as to what would happen next.

This movie wouldn’t be truly impeccable without the stellar Harley Quinn herself. We see her develop to be independent from the Joker after their fresh breakup, which gives us a taste of Harley finally being a liberated entity. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but throughout the DC universe, Harley is always dependent on the Joker. With his protection and (unhealthy) affection gone from her life, we see an evolved and enlightened Harley Quinn.

While it is fascinating and beautiful to see her character development, a side effect of spending so much time on Harley’s growth is the inevitable shortchanging of the rest of the Birds of Prey crew. The characters Huntress, Black Canary, Cassandra Cain, and Renee Montoya were such strong female characters alongside Harley, yet we only get a surface level view of them. If you go into the movie expecting even coverage of all the female leads, you will be disappointed— this is truly Harley Quinn’s movie. Even though the villain, Black Mask, is entertaining, his motivations aren’t truly conceptualized further than his hatred for Harley. While these characters weren’t given more time to shine, the decision not to fully dissect them could be a clever way to give us a taste of this enigma of a cast and set up more DC films for the Birds of Prey crew in the future.

This riot of a film deserves a solid 7.5/10 in my opinion, and it restored my faith in DC films one colour filled, jaw-dropping glitter bomb at a time. When it comes to DC films, I feel like they always take two steps back and one step forward; Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was a leap forward in the right direction for DC.