Yesterday we got our first look at DC’s upcoming Birds of Prey movie, and while the movie is going to be another Harley Quinn team up movie, the trailer for focused pretty much exclusively on her. We saw lots of cool comic book movie action, but the trailer also gave us a tease of something very different that will apparently be part of Birds of Prey. A musical number inspired by Marilyn Monroe.
While the context of the shots in the trailer are not clear, as seen in the image above, we see Margot Robbie’s Harley apparently singing and dancing. She dressed elegantly, not Harley’s usual style, and has backup dancers, who look like comic book villain thugs, of course. If the shots in the Birds of Prey trailer looked familiar, it’s likely because you’ve seen the sequence that inspired them, from Marilyn Monroe’s performance in 1953’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Check that out below.
Even if you’ve never seen Gentlemen Prefer Blondes you’re likely familiar with “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.” It’s right up there with the white dress over the grate scene from The Seven Year Itch, as one of the most iconic moments in the actresses career. It’s been parodied and referenced numerous times before, including in Madonna’s “Material Girl” music video.
There isn’t much of an explanation in the trailer as to how this sequence fits into the larger story. We see Harley Quinn, apparently being beat-up, likely tortured for information, drop her head, and then we see her raise her head in her Marilyn Monroe inspired outfit. If these two shots really are in sequence in the film, and not just in the trailer, then the musical number could be a sort of mental escape for Quinn since she doesn’t like the place where she is in real life.
Since Harley Quinn is supposed to be “crazy” we could potentially see multiple moments like this where the character’s reality and fantasy get more than a little blurry. Will this musical interlude just be a dive into Harley’s psyche that includes a dance number or is there more going on here? That we certainly can’t tell from the trailer, but give it a look if you want to check it out again.
Based on the early reaction, people seems to love the new trailer for Birds of Prey and are that much more excited to see the movie now. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn certainly looks great once again. Although, I, for one, am certainly looking forward to seeing more about the other Birds of Prey characters.
They weren’t give much time to shine in trailer number one. Of course, there’s plenty of time before the movie actually hits theaters and so we’re sure to get at least one more trailer before the film arrives in theaters.
Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn) hits theaters February 7, 2020.