Harley Quinn's Birds of Prey Is The Movie Suicide Squad Failed To Be

With Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), DC has finally achieved what it failed to do with Suicide Squad. The latest DC Extended Universe movie is essentially a solo outing for Harley Quinn, with the eponymous team forming in the background to her non-chronological breakup with the Joker. It is, essentially, a villain movie that pushes the heroes to the background.

Villains have always been an essential part of DC Comics adaptation, especially those involving their pride and joy. Batman 1966 relished in its revolving door of actors hamming it up, and the Burton/Schumacher era gave Jack Nicholson and Arnold Schwarzenegger top billing above their respective Bruce Waynes. It was as Joker that Heath Ledger won the superhero genre's to-date only acting Oscar (pending Joaquin Phoenix's win for the same role in Joker at the 92nd Academy Awards). Conversely, one major sticking point in the emergence of the MCU was its lack of truly impactful villains. If there was an undisputed advantage to DC, it was the baddies.

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before DC Films went all in and made a movie about the villains. That movie was Suicide Squad, an adaptation of the comics that forcibly unified villains (mostly from Batman's rogue's gallery) against some greater threat. Although it released to financial (and awards) success, it exists with a mostly tarnished legacy.

Now, four years later, DC has delivered on that promise. Joker, the standalone origin story for the character, transcended its position as a comic book adaptation to become the awards season's most divisive entry and going on to gross over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, a first for an R-rated film. And now Birds of Prey continues the journey of the standout character from Suicide Squad, in the process showing how to get it right.

What Was Suicide Squad Even Trying To Be?

Before looking at how Birds of Prey evolved, it's essential to take a step back and assess what Suicide Squad was trying to be. And, like the Joker's origin, the answer is multiple choice.

David Ayer's film came together as part of the burgeoning DCEU, releasing as the third entry of the Zack Snyder-led franchise after Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. At this point, the DC mood was one of dark realism, and the initial promise for Suicide Squad of something very much in the Snyderverse: as gritty and grimy as Superman, if perhaps not quite the same level of brooding. But the official trailers (as opposed to the SDCC First Look which only released online following Hall H leaks) shifted gears, with neon-glow footage meticulously-edited to Queen's pumping Bohemian Rhapsody and Sweet's raving Ballroom Blitz.

The finished film nakedly reflected the marketing's identity conflict, with the two styles hastily chopped between - and not by accident. As was slowly revealed in trade reports, the immensely positive reaction to the trailers (in contrast to the highly divisive release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that March) led to Warner Bros. offering Trailer Park an opportunity to provide a full edit of the film more in-line with the marketing's style than what was currently being worked on by the director. The result was a movie made to be one thing, retrofitted with a few reshoots and vicious editing into being something else entirely.

The extent to which Ayer's movie was or wasn't planned to be a tonal mashup is unclear, but the trailer narrative makes clear what Warner Bros. wanted when it dropped in August 2016. They wanted to have the zany-commercialist pop-punk sensibilities of Guardians of the Galaxy with an added edge to stand out further. The trick was to take a team of unlikable supporting characters and turn them into their own icons comparable to Rocket or Groot. Unfortunately, that was reduced to aggressive bickering and surface-level compassion.

It wasn't just about allowing audiences to embrace this one movie. What Suicide Squad was ultimately supposed to lead to was universe expansion: spinoffs, sequels and other studio buzzwords. In the lead-up and wake of its release, solo movies for the likes of Will Smith's Deadshot, Jai Courtney's Boomerang and Jared Leto's grilled Joker were all reportedly in early development. DC knew that villains were their strongest asset - especially as, by this point, Justice League was beginning its own movie-ruining retrofit - and they were going to go all-in. The problem, of course, was the weak foundations.

Birds of Prey Is A Suicide Squad Sequel... And Rejection

Harley Quinn destroys Ace Chemicals in Birds of Prey

Which brings us to Birds of Prey. It is, fundamentally, a Suicide Squad spinoff for Harley Quinn. The story picks up where the last film left off with her parting ways with Mr. J, makes multiple acknowledgments to the importance of her time in Task Force X and even drops reference to a couple of the key players.

Yet it's also a hard rejection of what that movie did. The gangsta Jared Leto Joker is replaced with a generic cartoon more in-line with the Batman: The Animated Series design and an obscured stand-in, leaving it very open for a straight-up recast in a future movie. More strikingly, the entire journey for Harley Quinn and the rest of the Birds refuting their status as sidekicks, their entire character defined by their relationships to men, in turn locking onto this movie's very status as a spinoff.

It's an impressive balance. Birds of Prey ends up feeling like a cohesive part of the DCEU as originally defined, yet is entirely unbeholden to it; a deft storytelling balance that can appease all sides of the fandom while not hurting the film. In contrast to the aggressive course correction of Justice League or Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (which both spent more time not being their predecessors that defining their own story) or overly owed debt to the original as with Solo: A Star Wars Story or The Conjuring's Annabelle and The Nun, that's sadly a rare achievement.

Birds of Prey Completes Suicide Squad's Mission Four Years Later

Huntress Harley Quinn And Black Canary In Birds Of Prey

When taken on those terms, the Suicide Squad connections of interest in Birds of Prey are less the shared universe involvement and more the shared aims. Cathy Yan's movie is a grounded-yet-vibrant presentation of Gotham where colorful reimaginings of comic book characters fight through the world to a purpose-built pop soundtrack, ultimately hoping to jump off in a variety of yet-to-be-defined story directions. And, in contrast to what came before, it nails it.

Much of the success centers on Harley Quinn. Margot Robbie was a standout in Suicide Squad, but was suffocated between the Leto Joker clutter and an undefined team dynamic. Making her the lead of a Birds of Prey film may not be comic-accurate (and gives Oracle a real short shrift), but it allows for a clear primary focus that gives a strong throughline and grounding to the myriad of relationships in the ensemble. Goals and personality are clear, and each interaction plays off them, rather than a restrictive setup. It's conceivable for there to be a Birds of Prey 2 that uses Huntress, Black Canary and Renee Montoya in an adventure that sidesteps Harley Quinn for Batgirl or another icon.

There's even an exaggerated villain who slots in perfectly. Reimagining the Clown Prince of Crime as a grilled gangster, Suicide Squad pitched Joker as a wild card in the movie, but despite prominence in the marketing and a slew of method acting horror stories about Jared Leto in the trades, the role was ultimately chopped down to a Harley Quinn-powering cameo, making the off-type performance all the more frustrating. There's startling similarity to the camp of Ewan McGregor's Roman Silonis, expect in being the primary antagonist he's able to tie the whole story together (itself a stark contrast to Enchantress' limited connection to the Suicide Squad outside of Rick Flag).

This, in turn, enables a careful tonal balance. Birds of Prey is funny and irreverent but knows exactly when to be sincere or increase the threat. It's constantly aware of what it's trying to be, taking itself only as seriously as needed. Yan can have Harley Quinn winking at the camera or show the slow-motion destruction of a delectable breakfast sandwich, then step into emotional beats about coping with trauma or the sudden thrill of Dinah Lance using a Canary Cry. The fantasy and the real, the drama and the comedy - everything that frustrated with Suicide Squad feels purposeful and clear in Birds of Prey.

Birds of Prey Shows How DC Movies Have Changed Since 2016

The quality of the movie is just half of the package. Will Birds of Prey lead to the sub-franchise Suicide Squad was angling for? And the answer to that question is the key.

On its own, there's potential. Birds of Prey's box office projections have been slowly snaking upwards, and with a lower budget that makes its ultimate success a fair lock. Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is one of the DCEU's multiple perfect castings, and the question isn't if she'll return (she's already confirmed for The Suicide Squad in 2021) but which franchise title she'll be leading next (Gotham City Sirens, Birds of Prey 2 or a solo movie are all possible). And there's enough enthusiasm for the rest of the team to expand this nook of Gotham into its own thing.

But, in truth, what's next isn't dependent on Birds of Prey. Joker is already a big hit, next year sees James Gunn's soft reboot The Suicide Squad apply a Silver Age approach, 2021 ends with Dwayne Johnson finally becoming Black Adam, and Aquaman's The Trench are set to get a horror-tinged spinoff. DC's villain-as-lead future, that innate ideal of Suicide Squad, is already here. And that's what really allowed Birds of Prey to deliver.

The early DCEU was overshadowed by a sense that Warner Bros. had to catch up to Marvel, and both Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad were packed with canon considerations and sequel setup in the belief it would build audience connection to the point they weighed down the story; those weren't either film's fundamental flaw, but they made their failure's all the more seismic. Since then, the DC movies that have best performed are those without the weight of a studio's biggest franchise on their shoulders: Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam! were ostensibly standalone, and thus operated on a clearer, more focused manner. Birds of Prey joins those ranks, hitting the mark Suicide Squad missed by virtue of being able to be itself.

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