Birds Of Prey Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs...

3. The Totally Forgettable Plot

By far the worst thing about Birds of Prey, as is the case with many superhero movies, is the actual core narrative itself.

It's clear that so much effort has been put into the film's stylish action and selling the focal characters to audiences, yet the story is for the most part totally generic - if not entirely forgettable.

Without giving too much away - though there's not much to spoil, honestly - the bulk of the plot focuses on Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) trying to re-acquire a precious diamond MacGuffin which has been stolen by young pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco).

Though the script tries to spice things up a little by unfolding much of the narrative in non-linear fashion, it doesn't much disguise how low-effort the story really is.

Again, this is compensated for substantially by the film's overall charm offensive, though it's still a shame that writer Christina Hodson didn't put more thought into crafting an outwardly compelling narrative.