written by : HARSH KUMAR
Runtime: 109 minutes
Genre: Action/Superhero
Film Language: English
Director: Cathy Yan
Margot Robbie's mischievous Harley Quinn returned to the theatres set to dazzle sportingly with her fresh look for the Birds of Prey. With Joaquin Phoenix exploding the box office with Joker, Warner Bros. couldn't gain a more suitable time to remind the viewers of another supervillain franchise film in making.
The trailer opens with Harley and Cassandra Cain strolling down a road. The vibrant colouring in the opening shot with substantial use of pink and purple and blue hues on the steam is also the recurring colour pallet of the entire trailer. Harley pronounces 'A harlequin's role is to serve' and the voice-over unites with the shots of different characters. With every dissolve, we move closer to each character. Now a harlequin as exactly Harley speaks is best known as a comic servant in Italian Comedy, who rise by serving their lord and then leaps up to be their own master.
The trailer finds Harley Quinn dealing with her breakup with Joker, and the director Cathy Yan sets the mood for the same right from Harley's first question. Throughout the trailer, we hear a lovely French song Hymne A Lámour by Edith Piaf. It has become a sort of a ritual for DC to feature an action-packed trailer with a serene musical composition. Without all those heavy drums and bass, we get an offbeat texture of the trailer altogether. Also, on playing closer attention to the lyrics, it talks about an obsessively devoted lover who dyes her blond hair and speaks of stealing for her lover which obviously Harley Quinn did for Joker. In the trailer, she is casting off this attachment by chopping off her blue ponytail.
Black Canary, often known for her sonic scream is seen singing in Black Mask's club. Set design has done some outstanding work here by creating a giant finger structure, with eyes in the center, in the middle of which Black Canary is standing. This could be a visible representation of the oppression by Black Mask. The quiver of the Martini Glass is a famous recall of her canary cry, part of her sonic scream abilities. The DC logo follows a similar colour pallet of blue, purple and pink, with a chaotic blurry face in the background which has eyes of Harley and the smirk of the Joker. The trailer itself has so many clues and callbacks for the Joker that it looks like DC has prepared a big revelation for the character in this film.
In subsequent shots, the audience is introduced to Reene Montoya, a gritty cop of the Gotham City. However, in the scene, it looks like she is the one out of the law while everyone is clapping, the reason for which is unclear. Then we meet the focal point of the TV show Birds of Prey which is the Huntress. Huntress is the daughter of a mafia family who was killed by a rival gang, it looks like the Black Mask is connected to this murder in some sort of way and she is seeking vengeance.
Finally, we get a full glimpse of Black Mask played by Ewan McGregor. Unlike the character from the comics, we see that the antagonist here wears no black mask, and instead, there is a black glove on his hands. In the interaction of Black Mask with Victor Zsasz, we see that Victor has a lot of scars on his body, one for every person he has killed. The jump cuts of Black Mask wearing a T-shirt with the pattern of his face, rapidly shows that he is suffering from some kind of psychic breakdown. On the wall behind, we see black mask sort of figure subjugating a normal being which might be the actual situation he is going through currently.
With the introduction of Harley Quinn into the DC comics, she has always been accompanied by two Hyenas, Bud and Lou. We see the same Hyenas as her superpower in DC games. We finally see that she gets at least one of them for this film and the way they are sharing the noodles precisely reflects the craziness of Harley. The diamond pattern repetitively highlighted on Harley's clothes, her pillow covers, her tattoos is the traditional Italian harlequin design. Similar to Black Mask she also obsessively wears a T-shirt reading 'Harley effing Quin'.
The captivation of Harley in Black Mask's club is followed by an unclear dream sequence, in which she is seen imitating Marilyn Monroe's iconic performance in Gentlemen prefer Blondes. The first look of 'Birds of Prey' came at the end of the IT Chapter 2, in which all the characters were involved in a fight sequence with people from black mask society. We get to this sequence in the Booby Trap, where we get to see the Birds of Prey girl gang all together. It is unclear what 'The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn' has to do with designing the title of the film, but the writer Christina Hudson says that this addition opens up a lot of possibilities to explore the film from different perspectives.
The last scene of the trailer is a funny addition which features Harley and Cassandra who are handcuffed together, perhaps escaping. The trailer revolves around four ladies who are trying to protect Cassandra, while Black Mask is trying to abduct her for some reason. In the last shot with the cast name, Harley is walking away from an exploding building which is surprisingly the Ace Chemicals. It is the same plant in Gotham City where Joker fell, and also in the suicide squad where he took Harley back to test her love and transformed her as well. Harley might have set this building on fire herself forcing herself to move on from Joker.
The film is part of the extended DC universe and is a standalone film like 'Joker'. Although the film is tied to Suicide Squad and there are frequent callbacks for Joker, it doesn't seem like any major characters from the previous film will have any role here.
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