Watching Madame Web just made me miss Birds of Prey

By James On May 2, 2024

I didn’t have many expectations when it arrived Mrs. Web, and it wasn’t really a surprise when the film didn’t encounter any of them. The kind-a-little-maybe?? Got Sony Spider-Verse tie-in absolutely terrible reviews and earned a modest $100 million at the worldwide box office. Now that it is on Blu-ray, 4K SteelBookAnd non-premium digital VODpeople might want to see it, if only out of morbid curiosity.

If I’m honest, it was little more than a morbid curiosity that led me to it Mrs. Web in the first place. When the movie hit theaters, I had a delusional moment about what the movie could accomplish. When I saw the three young heroines, masked and under the tutelage of an older woman, I thought maybe something good in this redundant Spider-adjacent film. I grew up watching magical girl shows, so any prospect of superheroes teaming up makes me excited!

Image: Sony Images

But Mrs. Web director SJ Clarkson does absolutely nothing with her four cool female characters, despite the mysterious circumstances that connect them. Sure, she tells us a lot about a tribe of strange Spider-People in the Amazon, but we never really find out Why the protagonists are all entangled in that web of fate. (Ha.)

One of the most frustrating parts of Mrs. Web teased Aña Corazón, Mattie Franklin and Julia Carpenter as superheroes in full spider glory. And yet, over the course of this film, they never gain any sort of superpowers. Even though we get a hint of their personalities and backstories, it’s all pushed aside by the baffling story choices, like main character Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson) taking these three endangered future superheroes under her wing and then promptly dumping them on her loved one. girlfriend Ben Parker for a week while she goes to the Amazon. (You know, where her mother was researching spiders right before she died.)

I left the theater thinking about what could have been. There is a notable lack of female leads in modern superhero films, and even less focus on interactions between the female members of superhero teams. The MCU continues to kill off its leading women. The miracles tried to compensate for this, but the take on a female team was too little too late, even if it’s quite a fun time. My interest in superhero movies has been waning for a while now, as we see the same kind of heroes and stories over and over again. Mrs. Web had the potential to finally fill that void. I foolishly allowed myself to hope; that hope was crumbled and thrown into a garbage bin.

But then I remembered that right there is a film that delivers on the promise of a superhero team-up. 2020s Birds of Prey (and the Fantastic Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) wasn’t exactly a box office hit when it came out – it grossed $205 million worldwidejust shy of what it had to break even. That’s a shame, because it set a bar for female-team blockbuster action that no other film has yet achieved.

Admittedly, that bar is still low. But by God, Birds of prey jumps over it while brandishing a giant, glittering sledgehammer. It was watching Mrs. Web to make me really appreciate it.

(L-r) MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD as Huntress, MARGOT ROBBIE as Harley Quinn, ROSIE PEREZ as Renee Montoya, ELLA JAY BASCO as Cassandra Cain and JURNEE SMOLLETT-BELL as Black Canary as they walk out of a funhouse tunnel together in BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN).

Directed by Cathy Yan, Birds of prey is a loose sequel to David Ayer’s 2016 film Suicide squad, in that Margot Robbie also plays Harley Quinn. (James Gunn’s 2021 feature film The suicide squad continued her run on the character.) But since the films’ continuity with each other is unclear, all you really need to know is that BoP‘s version of Harley has just broken up with the Joker and is trying to find himself. Harley narrates the film in voice-over, jumping happily from plot point to plot point and even narrating other characters’ scenes.

Ultimately, Harley becomes embroiled in a larger web of crime. She meets determined detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), jaded lounge singer turned getaway driver Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), vengeful archer Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and precocious pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco). All the women have fleshed out characters and motivations. On their own, they’re all compelling, but when they come together, their personalities bounce off each other with beautiful synergy.

MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD aims her crossbow as Huntress in Warner Bros. Pictures' “BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN).

(L-r) MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD stands in a doorway as Huntress while ROSIE PEREZ takes notes at a crime scene as Renee Montoya in Warner Bros. Pictures' “BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN).

In Mrs. WebMeanwhile, the characters’ personalities are barely hinted at, and their interactions are merely teased. The film is a slog, but what makes it so frustrating is that there are some glimpses of a halfway decent film in there. When Cassie leaves her three reluctant rescuers alone in the woods of New Jersey, the teens have an all-too-brief conversation that emphasizes their personalities and hints at the relationships they might have with each other onscreen. But the film quickly abandons that idea in favor of the next divergent plot point.

Birds of prey it’s doing well anyway. We get to know all five main characters and get a thorough insight into who they are and what drives them. That’s already a step above most superhero films, in which female characters feel obligated to complete a team. Don’t form meaningful relationships more than a chance to pose for a poster together. But the women of Birds of prey do not exist in such a vacuum. In just one film, they share a wide range of interactions, creating different iterations of their relationships in a way we just don’t see in big action films.

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain in Warner Bros. Pictures' “Birds of Prey (and the Fantastic Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

Helena is skilled with a bow and arrow, but she is incredibly clumsy and struggles to carry on a conversation when she finally meets the larger group. Cassandra immediately warms to Harley and thinks her dilapidated apartment is the coolest thing in the world. In the middle of the climactic battle, Harley throws Dinah a hair tie – because you can’t kick when your hair is in your face. All these little interactions fulfill my deep desire to see meaningful female relationships in a major superhero genre film. The first time I saw the movie, I couldn’t stop thinking Yes Yes Yes Through.

The brilliance of Birds of prey is that each character seemingly operates within her own genre. Renee is in a detective procedure. Dinah comes from a crime thriller. Helena stars in a bloody revenge flick, Harley in a feel-good post-breakup romp, and Cassandra in her own little, messy YA world. When they come together, the blurred lines between all those stories disappear and collide in glitter and neon. And it’s all enhanced by their little interactions, which turn the movie from a fun time to a memorable one.

There are a lot of little details that make it Birds of prey pleasure. All of Harley’s costumes are absolutely iconic, with sparkling gold overalls and a fringed jacket made from caution tape. (They fit a chaotic clown character more than her 2016 Suicide squad outfit that includes shorts and a crop top that reads “Daddy’s Little Monster.”) The villains, especially Ewan McGregor’s Roman Sionis (aka Black Mask), are goofy and dynamic, but they outshine the on-screen heroines not. The leading actresses deliver their performances.

But ultimately the reason Birds of prey is such a great superhero movie because it does a few simple things terribly Good. It includes not one, not two, but five cool female characters with different personalities. They are all capable and skilled in their own way they are the ones who save the day. And most importantly, by the end of the movie they are all friends.

Mrs. Web had all these individual pieces, and despite my low expectations going into it, I couldn’t help but see its potential. But Aña, Mattie and Julia aren’t even given powers, let alone a chance to master them. And any potential opportunity for them to build camaraderie or connect with Cassie is squandered as the film continues to focus instead on Cassie’s baffling origin story. Throughout the entire movie, I kept thinking about how good it would be if everything about it changed. Which made me realize that all I wanted to do was watch a movie that did well.

Birds of prey is a superhero team-up movie that really did well. It’s frustrating that it’s one of the few. But every time I walk away from yet another lackluster movie where the female characters are wasted, Birds of prey will be waiting for me in all its dirty, glittering glory.

Birds of prey is available to stream on Max and is available for rental on Google Play, AppleTVand other digital platforms. Mrs. Web is available for rental or purchase on the usual digital platforms, if you must. At least the 4K SteelBook cover illustration is quite striking.