In 2019, "Joker" directed by Todd Phillips grossed $1.074 billion worldwide at a cost of $55 million, making it the most profitable comic book in film history.
He received 11 nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards and finally brought home 2 little golden men.
At this point, DC, who always fell behind with Marvel, finally raised his eyebrows this time, and here inevitably a question arises:
Is DC really going to rise?
We can glimpse some traces from the 2020 year-old DC blockbuster, which is:
Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey Squad
This crime action film produced by DC Entertainment has been released in the United States on February 7, 2020.
In fact, before the super hot "Joker" in 2019, the "Joker Girl" performed very brightly in 2016's "Suicide Squad" and attracted the attention of many people.
Therefore, Margot Robbie, who plays "Clown Girl", took the initiative to ask for help and began to promote the shooting of the "Clown Girl" big movie.
In addition to starring and producing "Birds of Prey," Robbie insisted that Warner Bros. hire a female director for the film.
After that, I found Yan Yuqian, the Chinese director of Robbie's favorite movie "Floating City on the Sea", and the screenwriter was also written by Christina Hossen ("Bumblebee"), a woman of Chinese descent.
The main creative team can be said to be full of female strength, so what story does the film tell?
The film mainly tells the story of the "Clown Girl" who made up her mind to cut off the Clown, she did a lot of evil without the protection of the Clown, and gotham City's sworn enemies who were groomed by her came to her to seek revenge.
Later, she is involved in the Hunt for Diamonds, the leader of the Gotham Gang, Black Mask, so Kassandra Cain, the girl carrying the diamond, the Second Generation Of Serious Crime Unit Agents, the Second Generation Black Canary in the Bar, and the Vengeful Female Hunter are all involved.
In the end, the "Birds of Prey Squad" led by Harley Quinn finally defeated the Black Mask, and everyone was reborn.
As you can see, the story of the film is very simple, and it can be summarized in one sentence, the story of the superhero team led by the "Clown Girl" fighting criminals.
Then, before analyzing the gains and losses of the film, it is necessary to point out that the film has 2 outstanding features:
First, the strong and energetic female style grows in female aesthetics.
The film has a female director + female screenwriter + female lead + female producer + women's costume, which can basically be said to be a film created by pure women.
Therefore, the film can be seen in all aspects of its style design full of girlish power.
In terms of set and scene setting, the beginning of the film uses animation to simply show the causes and consequences of Harley's "clown mistaken for life at first sight".
Similar to the painting style of "The Flying Little Policewoman", it is cute and cute.
Among them, especially in several scenes in the film, Harley broke into the police station with a gun, and even the bullets fired were pink pink and green smoke and blingbling sequins.
In the final playground battle, blue and white tunnels, jumping beds with colorful balls, colorful murals of girls.
Fight the villains in the light bulb circle and stage a supermodel catwalk show for you every minute.
And the costume and makeup design is also gorgeous, playful punk rock drag show, double ponytail and retro wavy curls, velvety texture of red lips, sweet and saltable, pop and retro.
It is worth mentioning that the film specifically avoids the so-called "male gaze", and does not scratch the head and pose the "hungry body" clip, as if to say:
I just don't want to cater to you straight male aesthetics, lol!
Second, Harley Quinn's first-person narration runs through it, with plenty of flashbacks.
From the beginning of the animation narration to Harley's growth experience and emotional history, the voice of the heroine Margot Robbie runs through it.
Instead of Harley speaking out about her feelings and experiences, new characters in the film are constantly emerging, and their backgrounds and dilemmas are also introduced by Harley.
That is, Harley in the film gains an omniscient perspective, like a storyteller telling us a story.
Due to Harley's own slightly crazy and jumping thinking, the film also carries out continuous flashbacks and interpolations, from time to time to look directly at the camera, break the "fourth wall", and communicate with the audience.
Isn't this pattern a bit familiar?
That's right, the "Joker Girl" version of Deadpool is coming.
After talking about the above 2 features, does it feel OK?
In fact, its advantages and disadvantages are particularly obvious:
First of all, the film became Margot Robbie's one-man show, and the supporting roles dragged their feet.
As mentioned earlier, the heroine Robbie is indispensable to her from planning to execution, to some extent, it can be said that she is the soul of the film, and even the screenwriter Christina Hossen revealed:
"Margot Robbie is a great producer, she looks at everything herself, reads every choice, reads every draft."
Robbie, who debuted at the age of 18, is not yet 30 years old, and in 2013, "The Wolf of Wall Street" starring little plum won the "British Imperial Film Award" for best newcomer actress.
At the age of 24, she founded her own film production company LuckyChap Entertainment, which has been nominated for the Academy Awards twice, and can be said to be one of the most talked about actresses in Hollywood in recent years.
Therefore, you can see that the highlights of the whole movie are all focused on Harley's body, and it is not an exaggeration to say that she single-handedly supported a play.
For Harley, a violent and elusive, paranoid and slightly crazy woman, the requirements for the actor's body, language, and expression are very high.
In the film, Robbie stomps on the man's thigh bone, the exaggerated evil smile when he attacks the police with a gun, and the cuteness of picking up a white paper towel as a surrender when facing the gangsters besieging him.
Several fight scenes are also very hard, air flips, slalom kicks can be seen with effort, coupled with her vivid tone of narration, it can be said that Robbie's interpretation is very wonderful.
So, let's take a look at the other members of the Birds of Prey Squad.
The first is the second generation of black canary played by Junie Smallett, who we see in the comics with blonde hair and charming charm.
And in the movie, she became a black mixed-race woman with ordinary looks, and the black canary did not say that she was black!
The second is the second generation of questioners played by Rosie Perez, as the lover of the second generation of Batwoman Kane Kate, heroic and sassy.
In the movie, she becomes a middle-aged woman with a wrinkled face.
The third is the little girl Kassandra Cain played by Ella Jay Basco, the world's number one killer with a little cuteness in her agile cool handsome.
In the movie, he became a stocky squinting, rather stereotypical Asian face.
The fourth is a female hunter played by Mary Elizabeth Winsted, who is full of dangerous charm in the comics.
I believe that the audience who has watched "Twin Killers" has an impression of the heroine Winslade, and in the movie, she can be said to be the most beautiful character in the female supporting.
After seeing the appearances of the above four people, what rules have you found?
That is, you supporting actresses can't be more beautiful than Harley!
Kick out the oracle messenger, the core of the Raptor Squad, and avoid the "Phantom of the Song World" composed of Clown Woman, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy Woman?
No one can steal my limelight.
Robbie's intention to carry the flag alone is obvious, and no other character can overshadow her.
Therefore, it has caused Robbie to be dominant, and the supporting role is too weak or even drag his legs.
It can be said that the success is also in Margot Robbie, and the defeat is also in Margot Robbie.
And this is also a manifestation of Robbie's lack of confidence in the Joker Girl, and wants to rely on the other members of the Raptor Squad to gain popularity.
The result of the popularity brings the second problem of the film, the plot is shallow, the narrative is loose.
In a simple word, the core of the film is the black mask looking for diamonds, and the heroines set up a bird of prey squad to jointly defeat the villain because of self-preservation.
Here we have to say why "Joker" can achieve such a great success, a large reason is that it has a profound psychological analysis of the clown, combined with the social class background to see the big picture, express the rebellious ideas of the anti-government.
Well, in "Joker Girl", it becomes a story of introducing a few women in a shallow way, and then knocking down an insignificant villain and solving a crisis.
Casual access to the supermarket is not hindered, the police station is like entering no man's land, easily betraying Harley's Taiwanese grandfather, everything relies on the screenwriter's gold finger to promote the progress of the plot.
The Birds of Prey squad is reluctantly brought together, a team with little centripetal force.
In terms of intention and setting, it is too simple to see the ending series at a glance.
The third problem, men become paper people, are all misogynists.
Look at our villain, who wears a skull-patterned black mask on his face in the comics, and is one of the most feared gang bosses in Gotham City.
In the movie, he becomes a neurotic and gay playboy, anger and evil are superficial, and Ivan McGregor is really script limited and acting frivolously.
And the female policewoman was robbed of credit by colleagues, the female hunter was killed by the villain, the little girl was the pain of the original family, and the men in the film were either stupid or bad, and everyone had to force women to go to the end of the road.
Since it is a superhero movie, the above three points all revolve around a bullseye key question:
How exactly do you prove that women are strong?
The Way birds of prey is by defeating a stupid man.
And the way to defeat is to rely on the woman with thin arms and legs to knock down the big man with her fist, which reflects the reluctance and untrustworthiness everywhere.
In the film, although the heroines fight very hard, the real fist is hard and rigid, and they casually break through the macho encirclement.
With a lion roar, it was actually able to roar the various big men to the ground.
The villain's handling of reducing intelligence and reducing combat strength not only fails to make the audience feel that women are strong, but instead falls into a certain comical situation.
It's easy to think of the new 2019 version of "Thunderbolt Baby", and both films are caught in the same strange circle.
It can be said that the movie "Birds of Prey Squad" must solve three major doubts!
First, how do women play really look good?
Benchmarking the "anti-German drama" "Wonder Woman" directed by female directors under the DC Universe is better, setting the heroine Diana as a god and first solving the problem of explosive combat effectiveness.
After that, the focus is on the inner growth of the female heroine from simple naivety to maturity, and the great love of the male protagonist who sacrifices his life for righteousness is mutually influenced.
With anti-war ideas as the center, while not avoiding the beauty and sexiness of women, the combination of large perspectives and small characters takes care of the tastes of male and female audiences.
In this regard, "Birds of Prey Squad" is not only a bit overcorrected, but also easily kills an insignificant minion to prove the strength of women, which is inevitably a bit self-deprecating and childish.
Second, do you really think the "clown girl" is strong enough?
In terms of the presentation effect of the film, Harley is crazy and has less soul.
At the end of the day, we like "Clown Girl" in large part because of her perverted love for the Clown, who is desperately ill.
Obey the joker, take pleasure in the joker's happiness, and take a sulfuric acid bath in the chemical factory?
Between abuse and masochism, Harley's entire personality is attached to the Joker.
Therefore, if you want to establish a sequel, show What Harley calls the awakening of female independent consciousness and get rid of personal attachment.
That would be tantamount to letting the "clown girl" have no prefix "clown" and only a "female" word, that is, to abandon her most unique features.
Therefore, how to make everyone like to see Harley without the "clown" prefix should be the biggest difficulty of the sequel.
Here , Birds of Prey takes a shortcut , skipping harley's breakup with the Joker and wanting to show her independence.
However, this step of breaking up is the most difficult and painful first step in the process of Harley breaking the cocoon into a butterfly, and if this step that can be called a "qualitative leap" is omitted, then the so-called "awakened" Harley appears to be very suspended.
Third, what should Harley do after independence?
In fact, Harley, who has been clamoring for independence, has in some way become a runaway Nala, and the second step of growth should focus on how to solve the problem after the exodus.
Damn, Birds of Prey lazily omits step 1, and step 2 doesn't catch the point.
Determined to break up with the Joker, thinking about eating sandwiches, how to survive in this "simple gotta city" with countless enemies.
The film avoids this question, first sending the Five Scum Black Masks to engage in an innocuous battle, achieving an illusory peace.
From this point of view, Harley, who has basically not grown in psychology and combat strength, is like a young girl who ran away from home in the rebellious period, and after finding that the world was dangerous and she could not survive, she ran back home in ashes.
If there is a sequel, there may be another scene of shaking Harley in the face of the Joker's uncontrollable love and leaving the plastic sisterhood of the Birds of Prey.
In the final analysis, behind the clamor for independence, there is actually no psychological independence at all, and it is also the root cause of the difficulty of convincing the public.
Overall, the positioning of this feminist + minority + comedy film makes a 180-degree reversal of the dark seriousness and introspection of "Joker".
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > anarchist convivial psychedelic, but without its profundity. </h1>
Spent 109 minutes to solve nothing, quite a consumer IP suspect, DC you wake up, your pursuit is popcorn blockbuster?
At a cost of $84.5 million, the film currently grosses well below expectations at 189 million, as if to highlight:
People who have souls, regardless of men and women, are not attractive.
Bluestone Film Editorial Office | Morning
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