20 Most WTF Moments In The DCEU (So Far)

Birds of Prey's R-rating allowed it to get away with the sort of edgy content Zack Snyder only wishes he could've put into any of his theatrically released DCEU movies.

By far the most disturbing scene in the film is one which also proved fairly controversial with audiences, who felt it tipped the balance into exploitation territory.

The scene sees Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) kicking off at his nightclub and deciding to embarrass a woman, Erika (Bojana Novakovic), who laughs at him.

He ends up forcing poor Erika to dance on top of a table at knifepoint, even having her dress ripped to reveal her underwear.

The scene certainly serves a thematic and character purpose in persuading Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) to quit working for Sionis, but for some it perhaps rang a little too true in what's primarily intended to be an escapist - if feminist-themed - superhero movie.

For her part, director Cathy Yan said:

"I'll be honest: We had to fight to keep that scene because it was uncomfortable...It was risky, and we had to fight to keep it at all. There are cuts of the movie without it. I think it's a huge turning point for Roman; it's a huge turning point for Canary, and the way that we shot it was hopefully not about the sexual violence upon the woman. It was more about Roman, what he's capable of and Canary seeing him for who he really is for the first time. Now, she can fully cut herself off from him, and I thought it was a really important scene. So, we fought for it."