Watching this I get the feeling that it will get a really Even Better Sequel.
Like one of those cases where “The first one was alright but the second one will be fucking shacktastic amazing.”
And it logically should be. Now that introductions & set-ups are out of the way we can head straight into the action & hopefully give the rest of the Birds actual character arcs. And I can see some of the possibilities.
Cain would deal with her family issues in Lady Shiva, Canary puts to rest her feelings about her mother hopefully with the introduction of Wildcat as her past gets delved on, Renee can become Question and/or get a love interest, & then there’s possible new members, all to the backdrop of them fighting ninja assassins throug Shiva commanding the League of Shadows.
There’s a lot of potential here. The only issue is that it’s a lot of fucking potential. Too much potential one could say.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."One thing I'd love is if each sequel to this (if it gets any) focused on another character, which thanks to the change in perspective shifts the kind of narration and the genre of the humor.
Like, the next one focuses on Montoya's perspective, so it gets a lot of parody 80's cop action drama angles to it. Or from Huntress', so it turns into a Take That Us parody of tryhard dark action movies.
The only downside is of that is that Canary is the only one who isn't - on her own - funny. Which is to say that her character leans heavier on emotional weight than on humor compared to the rest of the cast, and when it comes to jokes she mostly responds to the others.
But then, I want Dinah in the Justice League, so I'm fine with her not getting her own movie if that happens. Or there being a Green Arrow family movie with her front and center.
The number one thing I always think of when I think of Black Canary is "led the Justice League," and I'd love to see this Canary grow into that kind of character over the course of several movies: go from this insecure person who isn't even sure she wants to do the right thing but can't resist when someone really needs her, to a determined and assured leader who can corral beings of galactic power to the right path through sheer force of will.
Also film crews don't control what media outlets title their articles.
I’m going to agree and disagree. The films you mentioned all had feminist themes but they never talked about things like "male gaze" and "representing misogyny" as the main themes. Star Wars is well...Star Wars and the concept of female characters wasn’t framed the way BOP did, Brave was a family film (something the R rated Harley Quinn was never meant to be) and Captain Marvel was a feminist film but the negative articles were mostly from the aforementioned dudebros. Same with Alita, banners over the 2020 Oscars aside. It became a cult hit because of circumstance, not advertising.
No, film crews don’t control what media outlets title their articles. But when the directors, the producers, and the actors are all saying the same thing, that this is a film about fighting the patriarchy and Ewan Mc Gregor is playing a misogynist, people get that idea that that’s what the film will be about. It’s not a movie for you, the same way Tim Miller said that Terminator Dark Fate would "terrify misogynists" (although I contend the woes of that film had to do with the Terminator franchise exhausting all of its brand goodwill years ago).
You’re right about the advertising at least. Harley is not Deadpool no matter how much DC tries to make her Deadpool. Mostly because Deadpool as a character can carry a story by himself while Harley needs an interesting crew to bounce off of. I guess if there was a way to separate the two, it’s that Deadpool stories have characters reacting to him, while Harley stories have her reacting to others (which is why she needs strong characters to bounce off of like Joker or Poison Ivy). And the Birds have no real casual market penetration (the last time the BOP were referred to as such was a Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode that didn’t get reran very often because of a fairly suggestive song and dance number).
I maintain it wasn’t just one thing that sank this movie, but a lot of things in unison. Now it’s up to word of mouth to give the film legs.
I agree that the R rating might be putting a dent in box office numbers on top of lingering Suicide Squad stink. Suicide Squad is the trash that got thrown onto Montoya and the R rating is the t-shirt she had to wear from lost and found. Or something.
Word of mouth and critical reception might give it a long tail and it’s doing good internationally.
Sequels with narration from Montoya (with everyone pointing out how cliche she’s being) and Huntress would be hilarious. Black Canary I imagine as more of the Straight Woman of the group with the humor she adds coming from reigning in and playing off Huntress and Montoya, both of whom probably assume they’re the Straight Women of the group.
I wonder what other meta humans they might bring in as members of the core group, recurring allies, or villains. One of my favorite things about the movie is how it had a terrifying villain in Black Mask but still leaves tons of room for escalation of stakes in future movies.
Part of the issue is they want to make Harley Quinn into the DC version of Deadpool.
Which was praised for its R-rating.
But Deadpool's fandom is pretty solidly 30+ year old comic book boys. Harleys is a lot more mixed due to the fact she's colorful and goofy as well as a violent antiheroine.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Feb 12th 2020 at 10:23:10 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.There were at least two families with kids during my screening (yes, really
), so maybe there was a teen and under demographic that was missed for this film. Marvel movie audiences tended to include kid, and Shazam's family-friendliness might've been how it circumvented being based on a lesser known hero.
Edited by Tuckerscreator on Feb 12th 2020 at 1:00:44 AM
Deadpool in the modern day is designed to appeal to the 18-34 male demo. Swearing antihero with a lot of guns, fourth wall humor, and usually when he's a guest on a more family friendly show he's being shown as purposefully held back so he doesn't kill or curse.
Harley is a lot more...confused. She's a key part of several kid friendly ad lines (DC Superhero Girls) yet has an adult cartoon and this movie. She's supposed to be this feminist icon, yet most of her iconic imagery is her with Joker. So the end result is a character that can’t carry a film with a brand that doesn’t have the loyalty Marvel does, for better or for worse, attempting to thrust a square peg into a round hole.
Sorry for the lateness of my reply, but now that you mention it, you're right. The Joker didn't even appear at all in Batman and Harley Quinn, and in that one, she wore the classic black and red costume of her own free will.
Come on! Let's bless them all until we get fershnickered!

Saw it, loved it. I really like the direction they took her style in for this movie and think the roller derby inspired looks were on point. I liked how outrageous they were while maintaining some 90s edginess to them. The way the movie played up her education and past as a psychiatrist was a nice touch and drove in how dangerous she can be under the wacky exterior.
Huntress was hilarious. The contrast between her competence as an assassin and her practicing her introduction was hilarious.
I couldn’t get enough Montoya. The whole team worked together and I hope we get more of them.