On further thought I recently bought the Harleene graphic novel before I went to see the movie yesterday in honor of it though I havn’t read it yet, the first page had a her shot of her in costume & what’s really missing the for the character here is that distinctive color scheme. The red & black or red & dark-blue.
I don’t mind if they don’t use the jester outfit as long as they still use that clear color scheme. Because Harley just looks so muted here with the platinum blond hair & extremly light clothing. It’s kinda hard to visiualize her in my head as a result compared to say the Injustice games or Telltales games of her which still use the color scheme.
Of course Batman The Brave & The Bold has a flapper girl done entirely in black & grey which is also pretty memorable.
Edited by slimcoder on Feb 12th 2020 at 2:34:10 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I love her style in this movie but see how some people think she looks muted, even in comparison to the other characters, including Cassandra Cain (in name only?) who just dresses like any tomboyish kid whose guardians don’t care how they dress.
I don’t envy the costume designers trying to balance an outlandish look that’s believable, looks practical for fighting, iconic, but not overly cartoonish. I think outfits inspired by the roller derby scene are a great direction to go in. I wouldn’t mind seeing a modern take on the outfits from the GLOW-era of female wrestlers either.
What I liked about the outfits and made them work for me was that I think of her as intending to be suited in most scenes. It was mostly her just dressing to go out and finding herself in sticky situations. The lack of intentional suiting up like in the Suicide Squad made it easier to accept the outfits for me because she wasn’t declaring any of them to be her default costumed look.
Here's my review of the movie.
https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2020/02/harley-quinn-and-birds-of-prey-review.html
I gave it a 9/10 despite its flaws. Weirdly, I had more issues with Huntress' depiction and casting than I did anyone else (which is to say any at all).
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
And other sources say the budget was as low as $82 million. Plus, those earnings are only current through Thursday.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is about the least Sicilian-looking woman in the world.
Also, Helena Bertinelli is a odd choice to be the shy awkward trained murder hobo one. It's kind of like they substituted Cassandra Caine's backstory for the Huntress.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Edited by alliterator on Feb 14th 2020 at 11:10:21 AM
Still, their backstories are not at all similar. Movie Huntress and Comic Huntress have pretty much the same backstory, too. It's just a case of Reality Ensues — if you've been raised almost your whole life to enact vengeance for your family, you are going to be socially awkward.
Edited by alliterator on Feb 14th 2020 at 11:32:36 AM
Fun fact: The movie has a 54% male audience because men love Harley Quinn and sexy ladies kicking ass.
https://screenrant.com/birds-prey-harley-quinn-movie-audience-men-women/
It was women who didn't show up in the numbers they did for other films.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.![]()
Captain Marvel was tied to the MCU, which in itself is a money making juggernaut.
You need something to support the "female hero". The MCU will do that. A Suicide Squad sequel, or reboots of franchises that have exhausted all public goodwill will not. This was a pseudo-sequel to SS with no Joker, no Will Smith, and a lot of talk about male gaze which is poison to audiences.
Edited by Beatman1 on Feb 14th 2020 at 10:40:23 AM
Except most MCU movies don't make a billion. Ant-Man and the Wasp, the first film to come after Infinity War, made $622.7 million, far less than the $1.128 billion Captain Marvel made. So it couldn't have simply been "Oh, it's the MCU" that did it.
Edited by alliterator on Feb 14th 2020 at 8:17:28 AM
That’s the truth. I’m just saying without it, what was there wouldn’t sell the film on its own.
Especially since more men did see the film than women, which means it was less about feminine vs masculine and more about no one wanted a Harley Quinn story without Joker.
Edited by Beatman1 on Feb 14th 2020 at 11:27:20 AM

It’s the “skintight spandex” part that’s the problem in live action, plus the iconic pattern design being difficult to keep perfect in action, hard to move in a frenetic way in without harming the costume.
Animation can easily make that work in a way that doesn’t look like a gimp suit, to the point where the form fitting outfit is iconically considered the least sexual outfit she has. Live action has a few more problems with it.
You’d have to do something like how Captain Marvel did Carol’s costume, and even that’s designed more like armor. Across mediums, it took CW’s Flash forever to think up a costume that was workable and also fully retained the comic-style look.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 12th 2020 at 2:03:09 AM