Topic: That Harley Quinn movie

[idunnosomename]

Why the fuck did they give it that daft name in the first fucking place

[Bad Ambassador]

I think they're trying to emphasise that Harley Quinn's in the film to get more people in.

[Shameless Custard]

Joker is a DC fillum, just not part of the main DCU continuity. Thankfully. 'tis one of their films, though

LET EM HAVE ONE GOOD THING

[phantom_power]

Why the fuck did they give it that daft name in the first fucking place

I imagine to distance itself from the grimdark Suicide Squad and to emphasise the glittery, irreverent nature of the film

[Shameless Custard]

Aye, they're definitely trying to distance it from the previous films. They've seemingly totally dumped Jared Lego at this point. He wasn't even offered a cameo in this. Though it probably doesn't help that Margot Robbie apparently hates him and never wants to work with him again!

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

There was definitely a hope that it would be rubbish before it came out, partly because of the subject matter (pity the poor white man) and partly because of dumb things the director said. That it turned out to be popular and gain Oscar acceptance is by the by

A hope by 3-5 people on Twitter who are paid to write clickbait for Slate like “The 15 Best Sandwiches from the Silver Screen that Will Make Your Tummy Jealous!”
 

[Goldentony]

I see the title is changed to COME AND HAVE A GO OF HARLEY QUINNS FARTER FOR FREE

[Famous Mortimer]

Due to its weak opening, American chains are changing the title to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

https://batman-news.com/2020/02/10/birds-of-prey-changing-title/

Good, cos that title was dogshit.

[Glebe]

Again, mulling over seeing this tonight but again, I'm fucking knackered.

[Mister Six]

Wonder Woman, Shazam, and Joker are all decent, I reckon

Still not sat down to watch Aquaman. Watched it standing up, though. Boom tish!

Shazam is the only properly great DC film, I think. Wonder Woman in second place, but the second act sags and the ending completely undermines the themes it's going for. Nice to see Spud from Trainspotting in a big FX extravaganza though.

Joker looks great but is hamstrung by a half-arsed script, as I went on about at far too much length in the relevant thread.

Aquaman has a really fun 40 minutes or so where it turns into a Romancing the Stone-type 80s adventure movie throwback, but that's bookended by turgid nonsense that seems to think squeezing an entire George RR Martin novel's worth of arcane backstory into a single film is a good idea.

Probably going to watch Bird of Prey next week if it's still on, even though I didn't much like her in Suicide Squad. Although that film was absolute shite.

[Head Gardener]

Again, mulling over seeing this tonight but again, I'm fucking knackered.

yeah I nearly went tonight too but ended up watching Wolf Creek season 2 finale, ah well

[Sin Agog]

Shazam is the only properly great DC film, I think. Wonder Woman in second place, but the second act sags and the ending completely undermines the themes it's going for. Nice to see Spud from Trainspotting in a big FX extravaganza though.

Joker looks great but is hamstrung by a half-arsed script, as I went on about at far too much length in the relevant thread.

Aquaman has a really fun 40 minutes or so where it turns into a Romancing the Stone-type 80s adventure movie throwback, but that's bookended by turgid nonsense that seems to think squeezing an entire George RR Martin novel's worth of arcane backstory into a single film is a good idea.

Probably going to watch Bird of Prey next week if it's still on, even though I didn't much like her in Suicide Squad. Although that film was absolute shite.

Kinda surprised how much DC have blanked the Vertigo imprint, at least when it comes to movies.

[Mister Six]

Most Vertigo stuff is creator-owned, so WB don't automatically get the rights.[1] Of the stuff that is, Hellblazer is probably the most accessible, and indeed got made into a movie and a TV series (and Constantine is now in Legends of Tomorrow).

Everything else is probably too weird for film and better served by TV. Swamp Thing's DC TV show got cancelled due to a tax fuckup, but (the ace) Doom Patrol is coming back this year. Lucifer got turned into a shit, barely-connected-to-the-comic TV series too.

Of the rest, Shade the Changing Man would make a fantastic TV show in the Legion vein. Books of Magic maybe, but everyone would scream about it ripping off Harry Potter despite predating it by decades. Animal Man probably the most mainstream of the Vertigo lot, but the best-known storyline is Grant Morrison's meta one, and that might look a bit played out after Deadpool and Birds of Prey.

1.	Something WB attempted to "fix" when they found out, leading to the departure of Vertigo founder and editing legend Karen Berger, the fucking idiot cunts.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Wasn't there some talk of Guillermo Del Toro making a Justice League spin off, with John Constantine in it, a few years ago? Then again, Del Toro talks about making a lot of films.

[Mister Six]

Wasn't there some talk of Guillermo Del Toro making a Justice League spin off, with John Constantine in it, a few years ago? Then again, Del Toro talks about making a lot of films.

Yeah, Justice League Dark, from the comic of the same name.[1] He dropped out ages ago, but I think it's still on the back burner. IIRC Colin Farrell was tapped to play Constantine. Don't know if it's ever going to see the light of day though.

1.	Not a Vertigo title, mind you; it's from the New 52 reboot that folded a bunch of Vertigo characters back into mainstream DC  continuity.

[phantom_power]

A hope by 3-5 people on Twitter who are paid to write clickbait for Slate like “The 15 Best Sandwiches from the Silver Screen that Will Make Your Tummy Jealous!”
 

No, it was pretty widespread amongst women and POC who were tired of horrible white men being given sympathy because of various reasons. There is still a reasonably sized set of people who still think this now

[dissolute ocelot]

Why the fuck did they give it that daft name in the first fucking place

I guess they thought "people will go see a Harley Quinn film no matter what we call it because they love her so much" which significantly overestimates both the interest and intelligence of the viewing public. Especially when most cinema listings won't even have space for the full Quinn-terminated title: do they think people will get specially extended mobile phone screens just so they can be sure of not missing out on the latest half-arsed DC crap? Harley Quinn may have become a bit of a pop culture thing in some circles going by the popularity of the fancy dress costume, but you need more than a few fancy dress costume sales to open a $100m+ movie. Still, will probably watch it when it's streaming.

[Goldentony]

this isnt very good at all, its about the size of a cheaper ant man and the absolute bare minimum of enough bright colours and swearing and violence to remember there's still a film on through all thne montages of dubstep covers of 80s songs

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I see the title is changed to COME AND HAVE A GO OF HARLEY QUINNS FARTER FOR FREE

Hahahahaha

[samadriel]

This was a bit dull; I'd say the best thing about it was Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but maybe I just love her face from Scott Pilgrim. It would've been helped by less dull villains, Ewan McGregor's main tic was saying "ew" a lot, and Zsasz was just plain unintimidating. The R-rated aspects felt artificial and unnecessary - I got the feeling they wanted to be like Deadpool, but they really should have tried for a younger crowd and a younger rating, this was never going to be one of those R-rated breakout superhero movies, it's not as good as any of those.

[phantom_power]

I think Zsasz has been spoiled for other actors by how great he was portrayed in Gotham by Anthony Carrigan

[Spiteface]

Wasn't there some talk of Guillermo Del Toro making a Justice League spin off, with John Constantine in it, a few years ago? Then again, Del Toro talks about making a lot of films.

Still wish he did the Pacific Rim sequel. Would have been better than what we got, the first one was a massive homage to all the moster movies & mecha anime of yore and I felt none of that in Uprising.
That was off-topic of me.
I hated Harley Quinn even before the Suicide Squad movie. Pretty much anything beyond the 1992 Animated Series and she got old FAST, and then picked up by a bunch of people who saw her and Joker as "Relationship Goals" thus completely missing the point of the character.
Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad was everything I came to hate about the character and the trailers for this... thing did not convince me she'd changed.
I liked most of the DC shared universe stuff (Whatever the actual term for those is now), this is the first one I'm skipping.

[FerriswheelBueller]

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

[dissolute ocelot]

I hated Harley Quinn even before the Suicide Squad movie. Pretty much anything beyond the 1992 Animated Series and she got old FAST, and then picked up by a bunch of people who saw her and Joker as "Relationship Goals" thus completely missing the point of the character.
Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad was everything I came to hate about the character and the trailers for this... thing did not convince me she'd changed.

This is exactly my feeling. It's incredibly annoying how Harley Quinn getting driven mad by the Joker seems to be the relationship role model for a certain kind of slightly edgy young woman who listens to Billie Eilish, scorns mainstream culture while watching superhero films, has a tentative interest in BDSM and writes letters to Charles Manson in jail. I'm hopeful with the signs that BOP is rolling this back though.

[Catalogue Trousers]

Mister Six wrote:

Shazam is the only properly great DC film, I think

and he is so, so right.

[SavageHedgehog]

I really liked about 50-60% of this, but the rest dragged. The action scenes are, to my taste, probably the best of any comic book movie from the last 10 years, and I do enjoy Robbie as Harley Quinn, and liked some of the quirky touches (particularly the opening animation) and McGregor hamming it up in a way I assumed was now illegal. But the exposition/flashback heavy narrative drags, and Perez and Smollett-Bell's characters are mostly dull here and take up way too much time for what they bring. Mary Elizabeth-Winstead's side character is kind of fun but suspicions rise that they're introducing her mainly for spin-off or sequel material, and of course at the end it becomes clear it's all pretty much a set-up for a potentially much more interesting film which now will probably never be made.

To end on a positive note though; OK I admit it, I'm the one who liked the title.

[H-O-W-L]

Harley has fuck all to do with the Birds of Prey except as a villain so what the fuck were these fucking massive poo balloons thinking? I know, blah blah, adaptations change, but by mixing the two groups you piss off Birds of Prey fans who would've seen a BoP movie and instead just get a slate full of Harley's Quim. Then, also, you piss off Harley Quim fans who wanted just a Harley Quim movie and instead have to sit through these bird people.

[Famous Mortimer]

Harley has fuck all to do with the Birds of Prey except as a villain so what the fuck were these fucking massive poo balloons thinking? I know, blah blah, adaptations change, but by mixing the two groups you piss off Birds of Prey fans who would've seen a BoP movie and instead just get a slate full of Harley's Quim. Then, also, you piss off Harley Quim fans who wanted just a Harley Quim movie and instead have to sit through these bird people.

Are there people who really like "Birds Of Prey" but don't like Ms Quinn?

[Mister Six]

Definitely a possibility (or probability). Birds of Prey - at least during the much-loved Gail Simone-penned era - had zero crossover with Harley, IIRC, and was angled more at female, slightly highbrow superhero readers (think of it as a prestige network action-drama). Harley's appeal among the comic book nerds seems to be more nerdy dudes or couples looking for cosplay ideas. As far as the films are concerned, Harley's popularity with her key demographic of basic white girls peaked with Halloween 2016 and doesn't look like it will come back.

I don't think the Birds of Prey comic audience would have been big enough to be worth worrying about if the film had any other momentum to assist it[1] but it's in a sargasso of audience ambivalence, and in that situation the lack of a hard core of comics fans who can boost its profile online and/or drag loved ones to see the film really hurts it.

1.

Ie. if Suicide Squad hadn't sucked, if Harley's appeal among the wider movie audience hadn't been so ephemeral, if the DCEU wasn't collapsing, if the Joker - even Leto's - were involved, if Batman features, if any of the other actresses were big stars or if the other characters were recognisable to the layman.

[Famous Mortimer]

From a very quick search, Harley Quinn has been a villain in "Birds of Prey" on more than one occasion, and she appeared in the TV show back in the early 2000s too. Doesn't mean fans of one have to be fans of the other, but...