It doesn't work but it could have worked. The things I though were wrong from the trailer actually were fine.. and other stuff which I figured Elizabeth Banks would be able to do easy, she doesn't.
First up, the good stuff - only Kirsten Stewart of the girls is recognisable but the others are terrific. They are lively, different and personable. I believed them in the action stuff. Their character differences could have been played up - Naomi Scott could have been more nerdy, Ella Balinska could have been even more straight lacked - but there is inherent conflict in their types to give some progression to them getting along.
Also there was some talk "we didn't need a new reboot of Charlie's Angels". I would argue in a post Hilary Clinton defeat world, we did - this is a strongly feminist take, and that's why you make the film. There's lovely pro girl touches like little girls observing the Angels, the lecherous security guard doing body scanning, and the random-person-who-gives-information-in-the-second-act does work in the third world for female health.
The action scenes are very well done - especially the fights. It looks handsome. The cast is a good one.
But it still didn't work. For me, at any rate.
First up, the plot is needlessly confusing. The MacGuffin is some ball that makes clean energy but also kills people... and can be fixed via a bit more work... huh? And the guts of the plot has Scott call the Townsend agency because... she can't get through to the boss, is that right? That's why she hires detectives? "Shock" reveals like the head of the IT company being bad and a Bosley going rogue feel so stock that they may as well just have put them up the front of the movie... Who is paying the Townsend agency for looking after Scott? Why can they access pretty much every computer but not figure it out? It's all boring meat and potatoes plotting but it's skimmed over, and as a result you find yourself distracted by it, when you just want it deal with so you can focus on action.
The film's full of bits where you go "oh that's cool" but when you think about it doesn't make sense - like the reveal of all the angels at the end... that's cool... but what were they doing while Stewart and Balinska were fighting it out? Especially the secretary who gave Scott the card? She's an angel but she wasn't involved, is that right? Why not just have Scott write her memo, have people try to kill her, and then she goes to the agency?
There's glimpses of the really fun movie inside that make you frustrated this didn't go there - the character of Saint, played by Luis Gerando Mendez, who provides the girls with food platters, consensual back alignments, weapons, clothes and therapy (a lovely touch)... this is great 2019 female fantasy... kick arse, then come home to some nice clothes, food laid out, massage and therapy... More of this would have been great. But, hang on - isn't that the Bosley role? So there's an additional Bosley.
Because this version gives Bosleys too much to do. One turns bad, that's fine... but here we've got Djimon Honsou as a Bosley going on a mission and getting killed, and Elizabeth Banks going along on all the later missions. Bosley is meant to provide gear or stuff things up - the biggest mistake this movie makes I feel was putting too much attention on Bosley. Banks pulls focus from her cast. In part that's because she is a charismatic actor, but the focus should be on her angels, not frigging Bosley. And Banks keeps hanging around . I mean, the key confrontation at the end is between Banks and Patrick Stewart... like, who cares? It needed to be about the three girls - and if they wanted to expand that, then the angels. Everything the Honsou character could (and, I would argue, should) have been done by a Charlie's Angel - they take part in action, they get killed, makes more sense Balinska is wary about new team-members.
The idea of a franchises Townsend agency is wonderful but they don't really do anything with it. They could have livened up countless scenes by constantly running into other angels doing missions. The training camp at the end is really fun - but that's at the very end credits.
I feel the film could have done with more wish fulfilment - I loved Chris Pang's villain adoring Kirsten Stewart... why not do more of that? Or the nerd who loved Balinska - that felt like it needed another beat. And talk of Scott's dating life - I would have loved to have seen more of that. I guess, yes I am asking for more men in the movie, but wouldn't it serve the greater cause of a female fantasy? Even if it's say Scott has a deadshit boyfriend she kicks to the curb - just something dramatised.
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