Ewan McGregor's $205 Million Superhero Flop Deserves Another Shot

Being a fan of DC Comics comes with its own crosses to bear: most of the movie adaptations simply aren’t very good. You do have occasional wins, such as The Dark Knight trilogy and 2017’s Wonder Woman. Hell, even James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad proved you could do incredible things with a bunch of B-listers if you put your mind to it. But some are so overwhelmingly bad that, even with big names like Viola Davis and Will Smith, there’s just no saving them.

However, much like die-hard Zack Snyder fans who wail that the Snyder Cut restored The Justice League to its intended greatness — spoiler: it did not — I also have my own hill I’m willing to die on. My hill is glittery, covered in yellow and pink grass, and stinking of hyena fur: Cathy Yan’s 2020 Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is not only one of the best DCU films, but it’s also a must-watch for fans of Ewan McGregor. In fact, if you want more McGregor after his heroic role in The End of Oak Street, you owe it to yourself to witness the actor channel his inner Darth Sidious and lean into a character whose utter madness and depravity are equally gleeful and disgusting to watch.

Birds of Prey follows Margot Robbie as the titular Harley Quinn shortly after her latest breakup with the Joker. Seeking to build a reputation of her own outside the Joker’s shadow, Harley draws the ire of every criminal in Gotham once they realize she’s no longer under the Joker’s protection. This forces her to team up with Roman Sionis (McGregor), the villainous Black Mask. Black Mask was first introduced in 1985 in Batman No. 386. Unlike Bruce Wayne, who came into his fortune after losing his parents to a senseless killing in an alleyway, Black Mask earned his fortune because he was tired of his parents giving his girlfriend lip, so he decided to shut them up… permanently. All in all, he’s not a great guy — which made McGregor being cast as this piece of work so surprising.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Throughout his career, McGregor has been primarily recognized for portraying the hero, most notably as Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas’s prequel trilogy from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Most of the characters McGregor has portrayed have a calming demeanor, an easy smile, and a presence that makes them trustworthy. Even his most recent role as Greg Platt, the struggling father in The End of Oak Street, is cheerful and charming.

Yet it’s McGregor’s reputation as a hero that makes his work as Black Mask so unsettling. Black Mask’s introduction in Birds of Prey paints him as an eccentric and out-of-touch guy, but there’s a sweetness to his chaos that feels almost intimate. It’s easy to see why, aside from the fortune he’s sitting on, people are drawn to Black Mask. That is, until they say one thing wrong or do something he doesn’t find attractive, and, like an animal with its leg in a trap, he lashes out with a feral fury that is terrifying to witness.

Photo: Claudette Barius/Warner Bros.

McGregor previously described in Men’s Journal that Black Mask was the perfect villain for “the time of Trump,” one who is an absolute narcissist who was “spoiled in his upbringing to the point of having no contact with what life or people are about, who has a skin this thin and wants nothing more than to be the center of attention.”

There have been many villains in DC. Some are highly intelligent gorillas, others are egomaniacal capitalist CEOs, and there’s that one guy who shoots ketchup at everyone while laughing maniacally. What they all want is simple: power. Black Mask is no different, and in Yan’s adaptation of the character, this hotheaded piece of work seems to thrive most on the power he exerts over women. There are no laser beams or plans for world domination. Black Mask wants to hurt those he deems beneath him because he can. It makes McGregor’s performance all the more chilling. It’s also a sobering reminder that, even in a world with superpowers, misogyny and sexual violence persist.

Photo: Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Pictures

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That’s why it feels like a breath of fresh air for the film to focus on Harley Quinn and the women she meets, teams up with, and even befriends in her quest for emancipation. As incredible as it was to see her once more in The Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey is, without a doubt, Robbie’s best movie as the Maid of Mischief and the one that grapples with Harley as a character rather than just a name.

Birds of Prey may have been a box office failure, but at a time when superhero movies feel like senseless noise and power-ranking comparisons, it was, without a doubt, a refreshing film with something interesting to say about the state of the world — one that, sadly, still seems awfully familiar.