Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) hit theaters this week and has already garnered a lot of praise for its joyfully action-packed scenes and great performances by Margot Robbie and the other titular Birds. The film has done so well with critics that it has unlocked the "Certified Fresh" Rotten Tomatoes seal, becoming the third modern-era to receive such a ranking after Wonder Woman and Shazam!. The film has already reached an 85 percent Tomatometer and an 88 percent Audience Score on its opening day.
But what does a film need to be "Certified Fresh"? For wide-release feature films like Birds of Prey, at least 80 professional critics have to give it a score of over 75 percent, and at least five of these reviews have to come from Top Critics. The films that earn the Certified Fresh seal will keep it unless their rating falls to under 70 percent.
Although Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises also were certified fresh in the Tomatometer, Christopher Nolan's trilogy is not a part of the modern DC era, which established DC's Extended Universe with Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), Wonder Woman (2017), Justice League (2017), Aquaman (2018), Shazam! (2019) and, finally, Birds of Prey (2020). Out of the eight films, only Wonder Woman, Shazam! and Birds of Prey have managed to secure the seal of approval, while the other five movies didn't quite gather the necessary critical praise to qualify as Certified Fresh, with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad earning extremely critical ratings.
Surprisingly, Birds of Prey was conceived as an offshoot of Suicide Squad, the film that united critics and general audiences for all the wrong reasons (the film garnered 27 percent rating for critics), However, one thing that everyone seemingly agreed on was the stellar performance of Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, the Arkham Assylum psychiatrist that falls in love with Jared Leto's neon punk-glam interpretation of the Joker. Actually, Harley Quinn was so likable and so well-championed by Margot Robbie, that a continuation for the character was announced in May 2016, several months before Suicide Squad premiered.
So what's the secret sauce that made Wonder Woman, Shazam! and Birds of Prey fresh, and that the other DC Extended Universe movies lacked? It's difficult to point at a single ingredient because even though they take place in the same universe, these three films are very different. Wonder Woman and Shazam! are origin stories, but Birds of Prey is more of an ensemble revenge circus. Shazam! and Birds of Prey deal with trauma, mental and physical illness and discrimination with a lot of lighthearted humor, but while the Zachary Levi-led film remains firmly in the PG rating, Birds of Prey features graphic violence. Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey are women-led productions, from filmmakers that had a very specific vision, aesthetic and story theme; Shazam! is, as many critics put it, Big meets Spider-Man. Furthermore, Birds of Prey and Shazam! feature lesser-known DC characters, but Wonder Woman is one of the pillars of the Justice League.
One possible theory is that these films were not considered important enough to suffer from excessive executive meddling, and traditional superhero directors did not covet them as much as they would have a keystone Batman or Superman film. Instead, they attracted fresh talent without any pre-conceived ideas of what a superhero (or, in the case of Birds of Prey, antihero) story was supposed to be, connecting with a public that might have grown tired of the gritty, tortured masculine hero with a blue-grey filter superimposed that Nolan already perfected and concluded with his Batman trilogy. The fact that Aquaman, which is also about a B-list DC character, got the highest acclaim after Birds of Prey, supports this theory.
The same phenomenon can be observed in DC's competition, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther were widely acclaimed for their originality and fresh takes on superheroes; Thor: Ragnarok is well on its way to becoming a cult classic among superhero films while Black Panther won three Oscars that year for its stunning wardrobe design, production design and soundtrack.
In any case, while everyone finds joy differently in films, it has started to feel like the superhero genre has been stuck in a rut for at least five years, signaling the end of the road for this particular era and its tropes. Birds of Prey, Shazam!, Wonder Woman, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther could be the spearheads of a new era of heroic storytelling that is more dynamic, diverse and relatable to everyone in the audience without losing any of the action-packed epic punches that make these films so enjoyable in the first place.
Directed by Cathy Yan from a script by Christina Hodson, Birds of Prey: And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn stars Margot Robbie, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosie Perez, Ewan McGregor, Ella Jay Basco, Steven Williams, Derek Wilson, Dana Lee, Francois Chau, Charlene Amoia, Chris Messina and Matthew Willig. The film is in theaters now.