The first trailer for the Margot Robbie-starring DC flick, Birds of Prey, has dropped and it’s… actually pretty damn good. Far better than those so-bad-its-good posters they released earlier.
In just two minutes, we get an explanation as to where Jared Leto’s Joker is (he and Harley Quinn broke up), badarse introductions to the rest of the Birds of Prey (Huntress, Black Canary, Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain), Ewan McGregor hamming it up as Black Mask (who doesn’t wear a black mask) and several fist-pumping moments (“I’m Harley-frigging-Quinn!”).
It’s a goddamn riot and those 120 seconds are already an immense improvement over the dumpster fire that was Suicide Squad.
But perhaps the most interesting revelation in the new Birds of Prey trailer is the film’s actual big bad, which also seemingly forms the thematic foundation for the movie: toxic men.
Right off the bat we see Harley celebrating her freedom after getting out of the horrendously toxic relationship with Joker and is seeking to help other women who are in a similar position as she was to find their own emancipation from the toxic men in their lives.
Edith Piaf’s ‘Hyme à l’amour’ (which translates to ‘The Hymn to Love’) plays throughout the trailer and if you look at the English translation of the lyrics – it’s basically a love song where Edith expresses how she’ll do anything for love, including that – it’s pretty clear that the song is being used ironically to drive home the toxic men theme in Birds of Prey.
All this is about as subtle as a smack in the face with Harley Quinn’s baseball bat but it all works to showcase how Birds of Prey is going to be quite different to the rest of the DC films that have been released.
When Birds of Prey drops on February 7, 2020, you can be damn sure we’re going for Margot Robbie, Huntress, Black Canary, Renee Montoya, Cassandra Cain and Ewan McGregor but staying for the expected epic takedown on the toxic men of the world.