Following the 2016 Suicide Squad movie, one of the most popular characters to emerge from that was Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie). Thus, we’re getting Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) which is not only starring Margot in the titular role but she’s also one of the movie’s producers.
Based on the ongoing comic-book series, Birds of Prey will see Harley Quinn teaming up with several female superheroes. Though it’s set to release next year, a trailer for it was released a few days ago with some amusing reactions made by the Internet.
Grace Randolph
In the comic-book industry, there aren’t as many female writers compared to male ones. So, for exceptions like Grace Randolph, who has written for popular comics like Justice League Unlimited, everyone pays attention to her regardless if they support her or not.
This is especially the case when it comes to trailers, as Grace herself ran a YouTube channel called Beyond the Trailer which discusses the movie industry as a whole. She even makes tweets about the latest films or teasers she’s seen with Birds of Prey among the latter. But, according to a rumor on Reddit, she deleted the above tweet regarding upcoming news about Birds of Prey where she predicts the reaction will be mixed.
WonkaJoker
As the backlash against the Ghostbusters remake demonstrated, not everyone is receptive to the idea of a movie that has an ensemble cast of female leads. Yet that hasn’t stopped the release of movies like Ocean’s 8 and Annihilation, which respectively did well financially and critically.
So, Birds of Prey is arguably going to be the superhero equivalent to these films, though it may not have come to fruition if it wasn’t for Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel. But, as this parody of the Birds of Prey poster shows, there are still people out there that find an all-female lead film so repulsive that they would replace the actress’ faces with male over-exposed celebrities like Guy Fieri, among others.
Black Mask
Much like female leads, how people in the queer community are represented in film can lead to different reactions. Though, in this case, it’s a reaction meme to a rumor regarding the interpretation of Black Mask in the upcoming Birds of Prey film.
Said to be the main villain of the movie, Black Mask is based on a DC Comics character who’s been a long-time adversary of Batman and was never identified as gay in terms of his sexual orientation. Therefore, this rumor becomes significant, as it changes the character and may be interpreted as a negative portrayal of gay people. However, the meme states that one shouldn’t take this rumor for granted until Birds of Prey comes out.
Blondes
One of the highlights in the Birds of Prey trailer is a scene where Harley is wearing a pink dress with several men surrounding her. As many people have pointed out online, this is an obvious homage to a similar scene in the Marilyn Monroe film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
A musical comedy from the 1950s that was based on a broadway show of the same name, the scene-in-question involves Marilyn singing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” which became a hit song. This scene was also referenced in the music video of Madonna’s “Material Girl” song, so it could be a nostalgic nod or tie into Birds of Prey’s plot, as claimed by Looper.
Reaction Archives
When the teaser and subsequent trailer for Birds of Prey came out, many people posted their reactions on YouTube. Yet one can arguably judge a lot based on the thumbnail of a reaction as opposed to watching the video itself. For instance, this thumbnail suggests that the viewer is... well, definitely confused.
Though most reactions seem to be positive, which matches the early test screenings of the movie earlier this year. But, while audiences seemed to really like the film, such was apparently not the case with the Warner Brothers executives that were present. This got many people worried that they might interfere with the final cut for Birds of Prey as they did with Justice League.
Long Titles
Because we live in an age where a lot of information is presented to us simultaneously, our attention spans can only take in so much. Thus, it is generally preferred that the title of any given work should be relatively short for easy memorability though there are exceptions to this. One such example is the Harry Potter books/films which have long titles, yet, they’re still memorable.
But, otherwise, it’s not common to release movies with long titles which makes the Birds of Prey movie unique, hence this joking comment that pokes fun at the so-called monopoly that Harry Potter has when it comes to long titles.
General Sionis
Following the announcement that Ewan McGregor would be playing Black Mask in Birds of Prey, the Internet reacted with a series of memes such as this one. Taking a scene from Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi has his final confrontation with General Grievous, it replaces the characters’ faces with Black Mask and Ben Affleck’s Batman, respectively.
The humor in this comes from the fact that McGregor is mostly known for his role as Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels, and having Affleck’s Batman in the role of Grievous. It not only indicates the irony of McGregor’s upcoming Birds of Prey role, but also that some people didn’t like Affleck’s version of Batman.
Reshoots
While it’s not unusual for a movie to undergo reshoots prior to its release, they seem to be more frequent lately when it comes to major franchise-based films. Birds of Prey, for example, is undergoing significant reshooting for various reasons including the supposed removal of a controversial plot element.
Yet, when these kinds of things happen, people will try to leak the information out as this post attempted to do with stills from the Birds of Prey reshoots. Unfortunately, as the lack of visible stills show, the copyright holders managed to claim the images and had them automatically removed from the post itself.
Comic Fans
Like most fanbases on the Internet these days, the comic-book fans have become a lot more vocal about their opinions regarding recent film adaptations of popular comic-books. In fact, they partially contributed to the negative reviews of Batman V Superman, which borrowed some elements from The Dark Knight Returns comic-book series.
Though because comic-book fans care a great deal about how the characters look in relation to their comic-book counterparts, this meme predicts they’ll react to the Birds of Prey trailer in a confused manner. Aside from Margot’s Harley Quinn, none of the other characters that were present in the trailer looked close to the way they do in the comics.
Teaser Reaction
When it comes to reactions to different movies, the genre of the movie itself can make a big difference. For instance, these two shots of one man’s reactions to two upcoming movies clearly indicate how he feels but they make sense if one is familiar with the movies’ content.
Take the first movie, Black Christmas, which is a remake of a 1970s Christmas-themed slasher film that’s not as well-known compared to others like Silent Night, Deadly Night. By contrast, Birds of Prey is based on a comic-book series featuring several popular female superheroes and antiheroes from the DC Universe. So, that might explain the man’s confusion and happiness respectively with the Black Christmas and Birds of Prey trailers.