The first trailer for Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was very promising. The second trailer has now arrived, and Birds of Prey still looks awesome. This trailer is doing everything right, from the excellent song choice to roller derby Harley to showing Harley blowing up the Joker’s home base. Are we to assume that Harley has murdered Jared Leto’s Joker? I don’t just mean literally, I mean is Harley blowing up the Joker’s hideout symbolic of the DC movies cutting ties with the third worst—now like, sixth worst—Joker? I SURE HOPE SO.
This is the explainer trailer, where the main character spells out the premise, and with Harley’s narration it has a kind of fun, 80s comedy vibe. We get a decent look at both bad guys played by Chris Messina and Ewan McGregor, though we don’t get to see a whole lot of the actual Birds of Prey interacting. The trailer introduces them, but we only get a couple short clips of real interaction. That’s okay, as the tone of those interactions is spot on. I really like the vibe between Harley and Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), in particular. I am super into Harley forming a girl gang and making friends and tearing sh-t up with her new friend group—Let Female Superheroes Have Friends 2020. Like can Wonder Woman come hang out with the Birds? Diana needs some girlfriends.
I also feel like, freed from playing a sexpot, Margot Robbie has found a new frequency for Harley, and I can’t wait to see the whole performance. Even that bonkers—Brooklyn?—accent is working better here than it did in Suicide Squad, where she mostly just sounded like a ditz. Harley can be flighty, but she isn’t stupid, and making Robbie play a chaos ditz dumbed down the best version of Harley Quinn. This trailer is giving us glimpses of that best version, where Harley is still a rattled and batty criminal, but her roots as an insightful, analytical doctor show through enough to remind us she is more than just the Joker’s moll. Margot Robbie was the best part of Suicide Squad and that was playing a bad take on Harley Quinn. What can Robbie do with a GOOD take on Harley?
