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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

WTF??? Birds of Prey???

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

12:28 / 10.07.02

While watching Smallville on my TiVo the other night a saw a commercial that opened with a pan through a major city.
What if the Hero
(Shot of Batman looking out over the city)
And the Criminal
(Catwoman doing catwomany stuff)
Shared a secret...a daughter!
(Lots of shots of a dark angel knock off looking girl flipping out and kicking ass)
This Fall, Birds of Prey

this looks really, hmmm.
CLICK ME

12:47 / 10.07.02

Found this little bit about it on the sci-fi channel site -

The WB announced that it will air Birds of Prey in the fall, a new hourlong superhero drama based on the DC Comics series, Variety reported. Dina Meyer, Ashley Scott and Rachel Skarsten star.

12:49 / 10.07.02

Yeah, it's based on DC's book of the same name with Huntress (i.e. The Daughter), Black Canary and Oracle as a crime-fighting unit. Also features Dr. Harleen Quinzell, aka Harley Quinn, played by Sherilyn Fenn. The long preview I saw had Fenn in an Arkham basement plotting evil machinations, or something. I'm hoping for a Fenn-maddened villian of the week approach.

But they are using the "Killing Joke" chronology, with footage of the Joker in the doorway shooting Barbara, flashbacks of her in the Batgirl suit, the whole thing. I forget who plays the Joker, but I did read that he's voiced by a different actor - Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker in the animated series.

Will prolly be shite, but I think I'll watch a few, out of curiosity.

12:55 / 10.07.02

Here's a review from someone on imdb -

Hopefully some hunter will catch this prey

I just saw the pilot and this show is exactly why comic books get a bad rap by mainstream audiences. It's a godawful campy mess that seems more appropriate for some Saturday afternoon syndicated time slot than Wed. at 9 for the WB. The tone wildly jumps from lame jokes to melodrama. The three leads (Meyer, Scott, and Rachel something) have just as many good moments as bad, and might be fine with better writing, ditto Shemar Moore as the cop. But Sherilyn Fenn turns in her worst performance ever as Harley Quinn and Seinfeld's Mr. Pitt plays Alfred as if he were John Waters recovering from a stroke.

Also, since it is significantly different from the comic on which it's based, the title makes no sense anymore. Dinah is no longer Black Canary, so why are they referred to as Birds of Prey? None of them are birds or have bird names? And while changing it a lot from the comic, they actually made the series more entrenched in comic mythology than the actual comic is(Batman and Catwoman have a kid here, Harley Quinn being Joker's sidekick). That was a real smart move in adapting it for another medium.

This is just bad. Unfunny, bad CGI, lame dialogue, and the worst representations of Batman and Joker ever on screen. Just picture the Schumacher's Batman & Robin, Charmed, and All My Children thrown into a blender (and having none of the fun cheesy joys of Charmed or All My Children). Hopefully it will be canceled fast.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0312098

Sounds good

15:02 / 10.07.02

I watched it last night (buddy of mine downloaded it from somewhere). The actors were all likeable enough. Dina Meyers does a pretty good Barbara Gordon. But they really went in the wrong direction, and I'll tell you why....

SPOILERS
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*****
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Barbara Gordon is a crappy detective who can't figure out the most obvious mystery. Huntress isn't a detective at all. And she's not even a decent cat burglar. Plus, for reasons I can't imagine, they went crazy making people metahumans. I knew Dinah was going to the have the precognition powers that bless at least one cute girl on every prime time show these days (Angel, Smallville, Farscape, Roswell, etc.). But why Huntress???? Huntress is a metahuman that can leap from building to building, probably super strength and dexterity at the least. Plus she can make cat noises (god save us). Even the Joker seemed to have metahuman powers for reasons

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

16:29 / 10.07.02

wow, so it IS DCs answer to MUTANT X

17:02 / 10.07.02

pretty much.... although at least the dark haired girl on mutant x has started to grow on me....

17:22 / 10.07.02

Our hero and fighter for the good fight, Batman, has casual sex with a criminal. That's totally putting out of the wrong kinds of message.

19:30 / 10.07.02

Yeah, true. Bats should have used a condom.

A

08:34 / 11.07.02

You'd think he'd carry one in his utility belt, for fuck's sake.

20:09 / 11.07.02

well, this is the same universe where Batman gets so upset about the joker winning that he packs up his bags and runs away from Gotham City never to return again, so forgetting the batcondom when he's pating down the perps is hardly the worst of his problems....

02:48 / 12.07.02

Ye gods that looks so incredibly terrible. At first I thought it was another comercial for the damned Batman rollercoaster.

08:01 / 22.07.02

Terrible you say? It's only saving grace just left the show:

Now that was quick, quicker than Sherilyn Fenn could pack her bag, Mia Sara ("Ferris Buellers Day Off") has stepped into the role of Harley Quinn for the WB's "Birds of Prey". Fenn had done the pilot, but Sara will be re-filming those scenes. Co-incedentally, Sara is married to actor Jason Connery, who recently appeared in WB sister series "Smallville".

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:38 / 22.07.02

Is that Jason 'Robin, buh-du-bu-dum, The Hooded Man!' Connery?

17:46 / 25.07.02

I like Mia Sara. She was very good in... ahem... Timecop.

02:06 / 10.10.02

Dear god. Just saw this pile of fetid crap. Who the hell writes this shit? Or better asked, who the hell lets this shit make it to the airwaves? Ugh. So cheesy, so campy, so bad I don't know whether to retch or be angry for losing 70 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I feel dirty just by having been a fan of Bats now.

04:32 / 10.10.02

I thought it was great. It looked like Tim Burtons Batman but felt like the Superman movies. The only casting I liked was Dina Meyer and the idea of having Mark Hamill dubb the Joker voice was great. As for Harley Quinn im still not sure...I have to see her go all Harlequin before I render judgement.

As for Joker being a metahuman, I think the jolt of electricity was from a joy buzzer.

09:58 / 10.10.02

It was ok, but not something I'm going to go out of my way to see. I liked all the casting except for Dinah. She just seems a bit off.

12:50 / 10.10.02

spoilers

they made some interesting decisions when they revamped the pilot. Alfred's speech at the beginning, which I guess they addedd so that viewers wouldn't feel so lost. Making Barbara a schoolteacher, which I guess they did to humanize her, and make her not seem so obsessive. Also, I guess so that she can have romances and they can have storylines involving a different teenage metahumans each week (ala Smallville). Mia Sara actually seemed a lot more comfortable in her role than Sherilyn Fenn did, like it wasn't just a waste of her time being there.

I think they crossed their wires a few times with Helena's origins. They say Batman never knew he had a daughter, yet he was clearly still in contact with Catwoman if he was so broken up by her death. I find it hard to believe that Batman wouldn't have at least observed Catwoman and her daughter and put two and two together. He is some kind of detective afterall. And despite the fact that they say Batman never knew he had a daughter, Alfred feels free to offer her Wayne Mansion as her birthright. (Maybe the whole estate was left to him or something....)

And it bugged me that when Barbara was telling Dinah the story (distracting the innocent teenager whom she's sent into a dangerous part of the city that she knows for a fact is an ex-supervillian's lair), she was acting all secretive about who Helena's father was and who trained her, and then forgets about that game half way through and just starts calling him Batman. And Dinah doesn't even have a reaction to that, as though she'd seen through Barabara's transparent ruse from the beginning.

I reckon I'll give it a few more tries, but it's starting off on a bad foot.

15:43 / 10.10.02

As far as Huntress having powers, I read an article in which one of the writers said she was going for a pre-crisis/Burton's Catwoman sort of origin. In that the golden age Bats and Catwoman did have a daughter called The Huntress, and that the Burton Catwoman was strangely resurrected by cats, making her not quite human.

I'm annoyed with the choice of removing Black Canary's powers, and name, from the show. But as far as first episodes go, it was pretty standard. I'll have to wait and see if they get a better grasp on the characters or just leave them as cardboard cutouts.

I was a little mystified by the Batman not knowing his daughter schtick too. Guess we'll see.

Zoom.

13:40 / 11.10.02

more spoils

Apparently, there'll be an episode with Dinah's mom, who is the original Black Canary (complete with sonic scream).

18:49 / 17.10.02

Watched the second episode last night. Ouch, that was painful. I was really excited about the show before, but could barely watch it during. Sad, really. It looked promising, but I'm just not impressed. Though I'll probably watch it anyway for a bit.

19:54 / 17.10.02

well, I think the show was greatly improved by Huntress switching to the leather outfit. she is damned cute. now if only someone would write some lines for her.

I was disappointed that Slick had so little personality. Especially since he's the bargain basement version of a really great character. Inque from Batman Beyond.

It's looking like all the villians are going to be working for Harley, doesn't it? So, I guess that means none of them will have great big crazy personalities like Batman villians should?