BIRDS OF PREY
***
Dir: Cathy Yan (15, 120 mins)
Margot Robbie’s exuberant Harley Quinn was the only highlight in the dire Suicide Squad film. And with dogged persistence and a baseball bat, she has returned to the character but on her own terms. The Joker has been jettisoned and this instalment is all about her “fantabulous emancipation”, as the full film title would have us believe. Said emancipation involves another team-up however with some other female DC characters: Huntress (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a dab hand with a bow and arrow; Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s martial artist/songstress Black Canary; and Rosie Perez’s tough, no-nonsense cop Renee Montoya. Together, they end up protecting a sassy kid (played by Ella Jay Basco) from the evil crime lord Roman Sionis and his henchman Victor Zsasz (Ewan MacGregor and Chris Messina, respectively). Though reluctant to work together initially, the ladies soon discover they have a similar set of skills and need each other. All are highly proficient at the old fisticuffs, but none of them have superpowers making this a far more down-and-dirty escapade, as they do battle against MacGregor and his crime gang. Stunts abound, and it’s fabulously female-led in most departments – from director Cathy Yan to writer Cristina Hodson, as well as its powerhouse cast, ensuring that this will be a superhero picture free from too much macho posturing. Get those mallets out!
Opens Feb 8
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