Birds Of Prey - 10 Reasons To Be Excited

So an 'R' Rating hasn't been officially confirmed for this film, and likely won't be until the finished cut is sent to the Motion Picture Association of America for approval, but there are a lot of indications that it will be the case. The film was originally pitched as such by Margot Robbie; Cathy Yan has asserted as much in interviews, and the trailer does tease a particular level of violence and crudity.

Why is this good news for Birds of Prey? Because this is the type of film that has to take liberties to work.

The film is built around Harley Quinn's emancipation and an 'R' rating is needed to fulfil the violent delights that come with it. Additionally, Huntress is a heroine in the comics that is renowned for being too violent for Batman - at least at first - and a crossbow is not the kind of weapon that you play lightly with.

Violence aside, the R rating will hopefully enhance the darkly humoured screenplay and direction in the same way that it did for Deadpool when it debuted in the same February spot nearly four years ago. It's amazing that despite the success of Deadpool and Logan, that the studios haven't been doing more to capitalise on this portion of the market, but if Joker and Birds of Prey are anything to go on, this could be the start of a more diverse DC Extended Universe.