DC Movies

Guardians of the Galaxy was the point where the MCU brand had acquired brand loyalty, rather than just being individual franchises each film was basically advertising for the next. Great trailers and enormous word of mouth helped propel it into the Ensemble Dark Horse it became.

The DCEU hasn't quite achieved that yet, and they probably won't anytime soon because their Shared Universe elements have been downplayed due to early stumbles. Thus the movies have to rely on their own merits, including the marketing, rather than advertising each other.

But Birds of Prey is still good, right? Still worth going to see?

Apparently there’s rumors (key word rumors) that this has made DC skittish about a few future projects, Gotham City Sirens, a possible Harley vs Joker movie, and even Harley’s role in The Suicide Squad. The first two may be cancelled while the third may edit down her screen time in post-production. All rumors right now mind you.

I'd certainly say so, yeah! It's a brutal yet fun time.

Edited by 1upmushroom on Feb 10th 2020 at 2:38:17 AM

It’s got good critical reception & all the people who’ve seen it here say mostly good things about it.

Some consistent complaints are that it is the Harley show & Cassandra Cain’s portrayal is extremely In Name Only.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 10th 2020 at 2:39:42 AM

Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about Harley's role being reduced in the Suicide Squad. Margot Robbie's still popular and I think her performance as Harley is too well liked for the studio to start cutting her out of projects.

As for the potential Gotham City Sirens movie...well, yeah, ok, that one's a lot more uncertain, as much as I'd like to see it happen.

However, that Joker and Harley movie was probably dead in the water before Birds of Prey even entered production.

Edited by 1upmushroom on Feb 10th 2020 at 2:48:27 AM

Looks like Warner Brothers is changing Birds of Prey's title to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

There's some common stuff I've noticed from watching reactions in various places that can make or break the movie depending on the viewer.

It's Harley's movie. Margot does a really good job on the role.

Black Mask is a great villain and Ewan nails the part.

Cass is not Cass, the actress pulls what the script demands but she's not likely to win over existing fans.

Huntress gets consistent praise in the characterization department, but there's the caveat she's the Bird with the least screentime.

Not seen a whole lot of talk regarding Montoya and Canary, though apparently Canary's powers are so downplayed before the third act that some people are legit caught off guard.

As for the action, it's described as some of the best of the genre. But according to some it doesn't hold the level of quality all through, with the lesser stuff happening in the climax.

So there's a lot of moving parts to the movie, and if Harley isn't your thing, there might not be enough to sell the ticket.

Just call it Harley Quinn and be done with it.

Edited by MrSeyker on Feb 10th 2020 at 4:19:33 AM

I don’t think changing the title alone is going to sell the movie, because that banks on people being unaware it was a Harley movie when she was front and center of the advertising.

Once again I do believe it to be a case of two big things, of course if any of this seems off, let me know.

The marketing was really bad, and Harley Quinn is not Deadpool.

There was no big Super Bowl ad, there was no real attempt to make the film seem like it would be connected to other films (connecting it to The Suicide Squad might have given it a big boost) and Suicide Squad got a lot of promotion from the Fresh Prince of Gotham doing publicity, talking about the movie. Here a lot of the promo work was done by Ewan Mc Gregor talking about misogyny and being against the patriarchy and that probably turned more people off than it bought in, giving the expectation of a heavy handed, preachy film. Which from most reviews, it clearly wasn’t. So that set false expectations.

As for Harley not being Deadpool, as a character, Deadpool can work in a multitude of settings because he’s defined by his ability to break the fourth wall and the fact that he doesn’t care what other people think about him. So you can have him in R rated movies bouncing off stodgy X-Men one minute or doing a guest spot in an anime with a bunch of kids the next.

Harley Quinn meanwhile, is framed a lot by her relationships with others, Joker (who isn’t even in the film physically) and her support group, which as per the film, doesn’t have a ton of presence (or is just In Name Only. The cartoon writers realized such, given that Harley frequently has a lot of colorful characters to bounce off of among her core cast, including Poison Ivy and the Joker. She’s not as versatile, and when she lacks a group to work with, she isn’t as interesting.

Part of me gets why Poison Ivy isn’t in the film (budget for her plant powers) but considering how joined those two are at the hip in recent material, it seems like a huge omission. Without them, Harley as a character has to sell the film by herself, which for most folks means “I’ll wait till it’s available to stream”.

Edited by Beatman1 on Feb 11th 2020 at 9:15:24 AM

"The marketing was really bad, and Harley Quinn is not Deadpool. "

I will said she is, or a least she is closert thing.

I mean that have being haley direction when not playing the abuse victim angle, she is the wacky, amoral anti hero who do kra,kra,KRAZY stuff.

Hell in one of her comic she join and expy of deadpool, just selling the point home.

I've seen title changes for movies happen before. For example, Ghostbusters (2016) was renamed Ghostbusters: Answer the Call in marketing material, but nobody really noticed or cared.

I think people will just keep referring to this movie as Birds of Prey because that's what it was known for a long time. Okay, the full name was Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), but that's a bit of a mouthful to say in casual conversation.

So (SPOILERS) it looks like Harley will have her red-and-black hair in James Gunn's Suicide Squad.

Just saw Birds of Prey. It's really good. Strong characterization from all the leads and the villain, good camerawork, great action scenes (though I wish there was a fight scene with the hyena), and good character development for Harley. She is definitely the main character, and DC is definitely trying to make her into a Deadpool-type, which doesn't quite work as well for her as Deadpool, but it still does work.

You can tell this is a Margot Robbie passion project, just as much as Deadpool was a Ryan Reynalds passion project.

Apparently that one hyena used all their CG budget which is why there is only 1 instead of the normal 2 & how it didn’t do much.

Edited by slimcoder on Feb 11th 2020 at 7:25:38 AM

It did have a lot of hair. Fur is really damn tricky for CGI.

Still, works out anyway. The only other thing I can think of that would have required CGI would be if they chose to have Black Mask's mask welded to his face, but since they set him up as a Villain with Good Publicity who uses the mask as a Secret Identity instead that wouldn't have happened anyway.

Man though it’s a Goddamn shame Mask ended up dying. Sure his death was a good oh shit moment, but couldn’t they have just waited till he fell in the water for him to blow up?

I literally went "Daaamn, he ain't gonna be in Birds of Prey 2" in the theatre.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 11th 2020 at 9:24:08 AM

How often do you literally see the bad guy get blown up into chunks? Because Black Mask's fate came straight out of nowhere!

> Apparently that one hyena used all their CG budget which is why there is only 1 instead of the normal 2 & how it didn’t do much.

This is where you resort to practical effects because its cheaper (probably)

Edited by Ultimatum on Feb 12th 2020 at 9:59:28 AM

I really don't think they could bring in a live adult hyena on set and have Margot Robbie interact with it.

Ordinarily no,thats why you use camera trickery

How much would the hyena cost compared to the cgi ?

Practicals can often be more expensive and time-consuming than CG. Even the Force Awakens crew considered using a CG BB-8 instead of a prop because it'd be so much less hassle to build and maneuver around a crowded set.

A Google search tells me a zebra costs $1000 a day to rent, a wolf $750 a day. A hyena could possibly be around that range, or more because they're rarer, and at a higher cost if it has to do tricky things like hold still in an exploding set or sit in a car. And these are rentals for parties, not movie sets.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Feb 12th 2020 at 2:13:26 AM

So the YMMV page for Birds of Prey says the hyena looks like he walked right out of the Lion King remake. I prefer to think he escaped from it to be in a better movie.

I guess you always Serengeti what you pay for.