Critics reviews

Under the film’s hyper-formatted style and impersonal action, there’s a pretty good movie straining to break out—which makes the waste of its creators’ earnest exertions all the more dismaying.

Ultimately, the plot is as messy as its central character, trotting around with one shoe and a bacon sandwich in hand, but it’s also a whole bunch of glittery, satisfying fun – especially the unkempt, cheerful, chaotic energy of Harley Quinn.

If easily sold kids and critics find this nonsense of interest, others need only notice its calculation and be appalled.

Birds of Prey is a noisy, lurid, pop-art number in the in-your-face meta-smartass mode of the Deadpool films.

The mood of antic, playful obnoxiousness feels forced rather than liberated, the result of careful note-taking during repeated viewings of “Deadpool.” The rapid-fire repartee is less than sparkling, as if the goal were to sound smart while still appealing to the dumbest or most distracted person in the audience.

A weirdly watchable supervillain comedy, a hyperactive aspartame overload written by Christina Hodson and directed by Cathy Yan.