Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has broken up with the Joker and that means it’s open season for all of the people she has ever wronged to get their revenge. When The Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) sets his sights on her and some other women of Gotham they join forces to fight back.

I have really struggled to find the words to sum up my opinion of this film because it’s just so damn average and it’s really frustrating to say that when Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn should be so much more interesting. I find it very odd that given Harley is not really known for being a member of the Birds of Prey that the films main achievement seems to be to act as an origin story for that crime fighting group. Something borne out by the change in name that Warner Brothers directed cinemas to make in their film listings after one week of release and mediocre box office. Inserting Harley Quinn in front of Birds of Prey to try to make sure cinema goers knew what the film was about seems to suggest short sightedness on the film makers part.

The film features a very manic presentation style to match Harley’s personality, it has voiceover, flashbacks over flashbacks, a cartoon sequence and many fights that tend to feature slow motion sections. The main plot is mostly forgettable and simply ‘enough’ and the secondary characters are drawn thinly. In fact there were only two characters aside from Harley who stood out for me and they were Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s portrayal of Black Canary and Chris Messina’s Victor Zsasz. Both of which were able to give some charisma to thinly written material. Where as despite all of Ewan McGregor’s overblown camp bellowing he wasn’t able to make a memorable villain.

Hopefully if Margot Robbie gets another outing as Harley Quinn it will be worthy of her embodiment of the character. But for now the only thing really memorable about Birds of Prey is the egg sandwiches.