Charlie's Angels: Film Review
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Elizabeth Banks, Ella Balinska, Patrick StewartDirector: Elizabeth Banks
"I think women can do anything," Kristen Stewart's bewigged spy says at the start of the 2019 franchise reboot, seducing a potential fly in the web before launching into a curtain-inspired take on asphyxiation.
It's an obvious and overt meta comment to both the audience and critics of the intentions of the new Charlie's Angels, just moments before it launched into a montage of everyday women doing every day things, and simply, as the song says, putting their hands up.
Yet, it's also symptomatic of why the new popcorn blockbuster doesn't quite fly as it could, regardless of whether you're a male or female audience member.
Granted, for all the independent women out there, the story of a systems engineer (played with wide-eyed innocence by Aladdin's Naomi Scott) who finds herself ensconsced in the spy world when she discovers the technology she's developing is flawed and potentially life-ending is nothing new.
Even peppered with Banks' trademark zing and the light touch as director and writer, the film still flounders with some of its would-be peppier lines failing to hit any target and clanking to the ground.
Meta discussions about whether Ben Affleck truly is Batman raise nary a titter, and reek of a push to bring contemporary themes to the fore, just to give the film an edge, and its writer a "we can do this too" voice.
A continuing "gag" about men underappreciating and underestimating women just seems to grate (there's no bitterness on this male reviewer's point of view) rather than scythe through the ongoing chatter like it should. And most of the men within the movie are treated more as bad guys than anything more three dimensional, adding to a feeling this film, rightly so, is all about the sisters and sisterhood rather than the script.
Within the Angels themselves, Brit newcomer Ballinska stumbles occasionally, floundering with any emotional delivery of basic dialogue but kicking ass when needed. More successful is Aladdin's Scott, who gives the her newbie the innocence she needs and some life to the arc she's been dished out with.
And easily the MVP of the piece is Stewart, even if there's a feeling that she's been held back by a script that doesn't allow her comedy chops to cut loose. Though disappointingly, hints of who she may be are confined to a look in one shot, and give a feel of a withering uncertainty to mark her sexual place in the film. Had the script afforded her a greater chance to lean more into the quips and beefed them up, she would easily have scorched the cinema screen.
But that's symptomatic of where Charlie's Angels goes wrong; it feels underwritten and undercooked.
From the lack of real energy and chemistry between this team of angels to a story that's almost irrelevant to proceedings, the movie flails and fails to find a voice of its own, even if there are touches that make the all-female led reboot worthy of some of your time and money.
Its message of sisterhood bleeds unfortunately too heavily from the screen, watering down its action movie roots, and giving you a sense that there could have been more. While the two Stewarts (Patrick and Kristen) deliver much comedy and ham, it's not enough of a frisson on screen to connect, even if the film's DNA is infused with some touches of feminism and some welcome subversions of what's transpired before.
Some diverting stunt sequences (particularly in a quarry) may distract from the weaker and confused action scenes, but this Charlie's Angels lacks the punch and pace of the reboots a few decades ago. On this outing alone, it seems unlikely these Angels will be taking flight again - despite the good intentions of all those involved.
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