Lamia Raafat
Before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic with this brutality, the movie "Birds of Prey" was shown around the world, and even the decision to close the cinemas made about $ 200 million, twice its budget, which ranged between 80 and 100 million.
And like most movies that were shown at the same time or before and did not get their full chance at the box office since last March 24, it started showing it on "Video on Demand" services, to give it a wider opportunity to watch and to achieve some additional revenue.
step forward
The movie "The Birds of Prey" or "Harley Quinn" as it became its name after changing it to theaters last February is considered the first step forward in the world of "DC Extended Universe", that American brand. Which symbolizes the movies and characters of the superheroes adapted from the comics.
Over the course of the film series, we have seen very failed works, whether on the public or critical level, such as "Superman v. Batman", "" The Justice Group ", or" Suicide Squad ", which are films with huge budgets, and the names of their characters are large, but they came apart, Its makers have been unable to use the wealth they already possess in the most important comics world and superheroes such as "Batman", "Superman", "Wonder Woman" and others.
Perhaps the only film to be praised is "Wonder Woman", which made him win a second part that was supposed to be shown during 2020, but was also postponed in films that were postponed due to Corona virus.
But the movie "Harley Quinn" really came as a serious step forward in this unpromising cinematic world. Harley's character successfully managed to get out of the cloak of the failed film, critically and publicly, "The Suicide Squad", which has a rating of 27% on the site of rotten tomatoes, to achieve the performance of Margo Ruby this miracle There was a near-public consensus to describe the film as a failure, but at the same time, Ruby's performance was extremely impressive.
Therefore, the decision to leave the character from the "suicide squad" and singing a movie for her alone came as the only logical decision made by the company responsible for the "DC" series.
Women are coming
So women are coming, so the films "Wonder Woman" and "Harley Quinn" achieved great success on both the critical and public levels among the works of "DC", as the first movie exceeded 90% on the site of rotten tomatoes, and "Harley Queen" got 73% on the site The same, and the two films also attracted the admiration of the masses.
The question now arises: Are female characters the password here?
The characters we are talking about - whether "Wonder Woman" or "Harley Quinn" - are really wealthy personalities who are exposed to challenges greater than just having a superpower trying to use them to do good or evil. For example, "Wonder Woman" all the time is confused between The world she came from and the human new world that she lives in, escaped from idealism to ugliness, but for some reason we discover with her she tended to the imperfect human world, and the Harley Quinn crises were closer to the realities of ordinary human lives, she is a woman who sacrificed so much for She loves, and the Joker has helped transform her from a successful psychiatrist into a painful criminal Alp its head, either from the police or even other criminals.
But after Quinn lost everything in order to keep her love for the Joker, she pronounced herself alone, and she has to face all her past mistakes alone without protecting him.
Another factor that brought together the two most successful films in the DC world is female directors. "Wonder Woman" directed by Patty Genghis, who was the first woman to direct superhero movie, and more director who has achieved revenues in the history of cinema, and the movie "Birds of Prey" Also directed by Cathy Yan in her second feature film, she is the first Asian woman to have produced a superhero movie as well.
Perhaps female directors in a very male cinematic world placed an additional burden on their shoulders to prove themselves, which they have already done. Both Patty and Cathy have managed to outpace veteran directors like Zack Snyder who made the worst DC movies ever.
But the gender of Cathy Yan is not the only point that draws attention in her directing the movie "Birds of Prey", but what is surprising also is the lack of practical experience in filmmaking that did not appear at all in the work, on the contrary, the film deserved admiration from critics and viewers, especially in action scenes. And her ideal use of the characters of the movie and female grace, to show these scenes different from other superhero films whose action scenes depend on strength only, not strength and lightness as we saw in the movie "Harley Quinn".
Perhaps if the movie "The Birds of Prey" continues in theaters more, it will set a new record, but the wind will come as ships do not desire, and the movie will come out like other box office race early as a result of the epidemic of Covid-19, but it will certainly remain one of the best superhero films in years. The last and strong point in the history of "DC" cinematography.