#ivy what kind of apocalypse? you ask because you are a good and considerate person

[ivymarquis]

one of my favorite tropes is the pregnant woman in an apocalypse scenario and the worms are wriggling

[arkhamcitysirens]

my thoughts on the batman and harley quinn movie

so i’ve just finished watching the latest dc animated movie, batman and harley quinn, and you’ve probably already heard it’s a pretty polarising movie. when it was over i didn’t really know how to feel. overall i’d say it wasn’t great and from a critical perspective it was absolutely awful, but personally i still enjoyed certain aspects... i made some notes???

the good

the animated series art style looked really nice here, especially since high definition has made it look a lot more refined and smooth (the coloring for harley’s shiny lipstick was one small thing that i thought looked super duper cool)

kevin conroy is, as always, a fantastic batman, and i also quite liked the new voice actress for ivy, paget brewster

the few jokes which are actually funny are REALLY funny- in particular, i loved the booster gold phone call scene and harley’s breakdown over the ‘veggie apocalypse’

harley’s characterisation is pretty decent, and i appreciated that she got to stand up for herself and show that she can be smart and strategic whilst also being ridiculous most of the time... she gets to complain about how she’s been treated before too and how oversexualised she often is, which is a nice touch, although it doesn’t really make sense in the context of this particular film where she’s oversexualised anyway

there are some nice character building moments for harley, like when she discusses how difficult it’s been for her to reform and ‘go straight’ because nobody actually wants to help her be better. i loved that the film took into consideration what life would actually be like if harley really did try to turn her life around.

the opening credits are absolutely ADORABLE and god i love them so much... they’re the best part of the entire film which is unfortunate but like they’re so good!!!

plenty of easter eggs pop up throughout the film, mostly related to the animated dc universe, which is cool for dedicated fans to see!

harley goes through a few awesome costume changes, including a new 52-style dress, a really cute coat with her hair in bunches, and the classic jester costume which looks great (except the collar looks a little off sometimes)- i was so happy to see the blonde pigtails back because they are SO GOOD

there’s no explicit mention of harlivy here (of course) but there’s also no joker whatsoever, except for one brilliant passing line where harley mentions the “only good thing I ever got from that asshat” was joker venom. also the ending features a very sweet reconciliation between harley and ivy that i thought was wonderful!

the bad

melissa rauch is... a truly awful harley quinn... she doesn’t make the role FUN. she says everything in a snarky, oversaturated, whiney brooklyn accent and she’s missing that sing-songy sound that makes harley HARLEY, so we’re left with a character who’s supposed to be the life of the party that instead just sounds permanently pissed

the animation looks BAD. characters don’t blink, and they usually don’t move unless they’re talking either, plus background characters are almost always motionless- when characters are moving, it looks stiff and awkward, and a lot worse than even the 90s show this film is paying tribute to, which is a real shame

as for the storyline, the btas episode ‘harlequinade’ did it so much better, and this is essentially a very drawn-out version of that plot line, replacing the villain of joker with poison ivy instead

there are a lot of issues with the tone of the movie- it jumps around from stupid, flamboyant comedy, to serious and mature, to choppy action movie. it doesn’t sit well in any genre or with any audience. i think dc tried to please every type of batman/harley fan here and it results in a serious mishmash that i don’t think really pleases anybody.

the film is super short, clocking in at barely seventy minutes, and yet it’s still jam packed with filler content. i recall one bizarrely long segment where random people off the street were asked of harley’s whereabouts, all giving fairly generic replies and all saying “no”, and this scene went for at least an entire minute

most of the humour is frankly unfunny. i’m jotting down the worst line in the whole movie as the line “it’s not bad... smells like discipline”, spoken by batman when harley farts. it’s childish humour which doesn’t even make sense- an extended scene where harley farts! that’s the entire joke! it’s stupid and pathetic, and it makes it even more polarising when one minute the humour is bathroom jokes for toddlers, then the next it’s crass comedy about how nightwing got a boner. yep, that’s another joke that actually happens.

nightwing and harley sleep together and it’s not exactly non-consensual, but it also didn’t come off as a very positive thing ever because nightwing kind of agreed but not really and it just wasn’t great and also it’s just classic bruce timm again feeling the need to make random characters from your childhood have sex so he can get himself off i guess

even though harley gets to talk about how guys are always taking advantage of her body, which is cool, this movie pulls out all the stops on oversexualising her anyway! think many, MANY shots of her ass, plenty of focus on the fact she does in fact have boobs, and of course bruce timm’s insistence that she randomly straddle nightwing so they can have sex

swamp thing appears at the end and i felt like i was missing a big joke the entire time. was this a reference to something? was it some kind of humour i didn’t understand? honestly, i just think it was supposed to be funny that he appeared out of the blue, but it wasn’t?

the strange and uncertain

harley sings ‘hanging on the telephone’ by blondie? for no apparent reason? it’s clearly filler, and it sounds fucking awful (thanks melissa rauch), but somehow i still thought it was kinda cool even though it felt extremely out of place and really served... no purpose whatsoever

actually most of the bar scene is really weird, harley gets her random musical number but so do some other c-grade villains from other dc shows you’ll spot if you’re a huge fan of the animated universe, it’s filler again but i think people will appreciate the little easter eggs in what is mostly an okay, fun scene

harley works at ‘superbabes’, which is pretty much the dc universe equivalent of hooters but instead the waitresses all dress up skimpily like female superheroes... at first i thought that was just more bruce timm bullshit but when they delved into WHY harley couldn’t get a decent job, i appreciated this scene a lot more

i don’t know how to feel about ivy’s overall characterisation in this because she was very restricted by jason woodrue, and she also had SERIOUS punch up with her GIRLFRIEND hhh... but the fight was justified i guess and the resolution is really nice... i’m very torn over ivy’s portrayal really and i think it’s something everyone will react to differently (she did use a lot of language i don’t think pam would use e/g i can’t imagine her saying ‘crap’ and ‘we’re screwed’ but she does anyway... not sure why but it just really doesn’t sound right for her?)

loren lester is supposed to be the Iconic nightwing but he sounds stupid in comparison to melissa rauch as harley, especially since his voice takes you back to the 90s and most of this film is fairly rooted in the now. i love that this movie is such a throwback to btas but in this case, i’m not sure loren lester was the best fit

the ending is extremely abrupt and mostly played for laughs, which a lot of people don’t like, but i actually didn’t mind it? i thought it was really funny and cute and a pretty fair resolution to the problem (basically harley just suggests they take the easy way out and set the Floronic Man on fire, because hey, he’s made out of leaves right?) the aftercredits scene was the bigger problem imo because it had no connection to anything in the film, wasn’t all that funny and didn’t seem to have any purpose (although i could say that about most of this movie tbh)

ultimately for some reason i still enjoyed this movie, and i’d probably watch it again, but it had a lot of issues and i wish it could have been the movie harley deserves. also i never want to hear melissa rauch as harley again. if you’re a big harley fan, i’d recommend giving this a watch, because there are some cool moments, but otherwise, give it a miss.