The movie was the first official Rated – R movie in the DCEU
HBO Max was met with a lot of confusion and anger when they uploaded a censored version of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). As per a report by ComicBook, the subscribers who had tuned in to watch the movie were greeted with a message: “This film has been modified as follows from its original version: it has been edited for content.”
About the movie
Birds of Prey was a loose spin-off of 2016’s Suicide Squad, featuring Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), who was left on her own after the events of the last movie. She soon makes a new team with Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez). Together they had to fight the forces of Black Mask (Evan McGregor).
Despite the reviews being mostly positive, the movie earned only $201 million worldwide against a budget of $100 million. A number of factors were blamed, such as the film’s obscure title, the widespread shutdowns due to the pandemic, and the R rating. Barring Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice‘s Ultimate Edition, Birds of Prey was the first R rated movie from the DCEU.
Censoring
Many curse words in the film was dubbed over, Harley Quinn was showed giving a two-finger gesture instead of only the middle finger, and Renee Montoya’s “I shaved my balls for this” T-shirt was blurred out. What caused the surprise was because this version was only intended for the broadcast network TNT, while HBO Max’s site claimed it will be R rated.
But not to worry. A Warner Bros. spokesperson has reached out and confirmed that it had been an error and the original version of Birds of Prey will be available soon.
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