Charlie's Angels

This review may contain spoilers!

It wouldn't be Charlie's Angels if it wasn't a fun action blockbuster with a convoluted plot. I would give Charlie's Angels a 5.5/10.

Charlie's Angels is a soft reboot of the famous action series that follows our heroines from the Charles Townsend Agency as they take on the latest high profile criminal threat. In this film, seasoned Angels, Sabina and Jane, have to protect a promising recruit, Elena, who has developed a device that has the potential to be weaponised on a mass scale. The film really benefits from knowing what it wants to achieve, the end product is a positive tone as the entire feature has such strong messages about positivity and empowerment for women. There is also a real sense of fun and humour with this feature, multiple characters will treat you to dialogue you wish the original films had dreamt of having and I certainly had some scenes that left me laughing. The score for the film is a high energy romp, yet the compiled soundtrack for the film is the real triumph; Charlie's Angels hosts a number of tracks from upcoming young female musicians and it really highlighted the way in which the film attempts to raise women up.

Naomi Scott, who played Elena Houghlin, was a lot of fun as the new trainee Angel; Scott was this really unskilled yet highly excitable up and comer who the audience got to see the thrill of the Angels' world through. Ella Balinska, who played Jane Kano, was the certifiable badass of the group; Balinska had a tough, no nonsense attitude and barrelled into fights like a one woman militia. Patrick Stewart, who played John Bosley, seemed to be having a fair bit of fun portraying one of the admittedly classic camp Charlie's Angels villains; Stewart's smug demeanour and sense of superiority over his enemies made him a good foil for the protagonists.

However, the best performance came from Kristen Stewart, who played Sabina Wilson. Sabina was a complete wild card onscreen, you never knew exactly what she was capable of doing in a scene but it was often guaranteed to be hilarious or exhilarating. Stewart entered scenes like a whirlwind, she felt entirely present at any given moment and never dropped tempo once. The result was this role who had boundless energy, that you absolutely felt was the most charismatic of the team and who had a charming reckless streak. Stewart was flirty and daring like the old Angels but brought a confidence in her own self-worth that highlighted what an Angel written in 2019 would look like. This performance wasn't merely good, it stole the show and has me excited for Kristen Stewart's future performances.

This film is a lot of fun and has some great take away messages but the overall story has a number of issues that let it down. The first act initiates the plot by relying on a really strong heavy handling of the features themes, there's no subtlety and the entire introduction to Elena comes across as quite forced because of this. The entire film becomes a big long pursuit of acquiring one particular item that is just juggled back and forth between the bad guys and the good guys, it's not a very inspired or original storyline and it never tries to find a unique take on this. The moments in which the film does attempt to divert away from the main storyline you get these relatively unnecessary subplots tacked on like Jane's backstory in leaving MI6, Jane's romance with Langston or the intricate web of unnecessary antagonists squaring off against one another and the Angels to boot. There's also a big twist antagonist (to no one's great surprise) and the film plays this out for a little long too, snapping focus back from one surprise character to another. The cinematography utilised throughout the film needed some variety, a number of the close-ups or panning shots used were very repetitive and it wasn't often the film found a style all its own. The editing for the feature was relatively mild for a blockbuster feature too, slow cuts in a scene and some jarring transitions throughout that marred the pacing of the end product.

Elizabeth Banks, who played Bosley, felt like quite a detached mentor/guardian figure; Banks really didn't feel strongly engaged in her scenes, probably because of the split focus with directing, but the role suffered for this. Djimon Hounsou, who played Edgar Bosley, was very similar to Banks in that he came across as a stoic detached mentor figure; this meant that when Hounsou's death scene came around you didn't feel it as much as you should have. Sam Claflin, who played Alexander Brock, gave a very generic performance as the egocentric billionaire; Claflin switches this role to more of a bumbling villain at the end which is fun but it's a bit too little too late. Jonathan Tucker, who played Hodak, looks more like he wandered off the Terminator set than the Charlie's Angels one; Tucker has no emotions at all as the film's token henchman and so he doesn't leave much of an impression. Nat Faxon, who played Peter Fleming, lays on the misogynistic boss rather thick; there isn't a scene in this film where Faxon knows how to dial himself down and not play it over the top. Chris Pang, who played Jonny Smith, felt like a one off antagonist that could be goofy as a gag then the film would move on; in pulling Pang back for repeat scenes the character came off as cheap and an unnecessary element to the feature. Luis Gerardo Mendez, who played the Saint, was another role that was fun as a gag but wore in with repeat appearances; having a novelty 'mind,body, spirit' guru in every Angels HQ was fun until scenes focusing on this role wore on for too long. Noah Centineo, who played Langston, was awkwardly pushed into this film as a forgettable love interest; Centineo's chemistry with Balinska in non-existent onscreen and the whole role was a waste of time. Marie-Lou Sellem, who played Fatima Ahmed, felt like a role who practically appeared out of nowhere; the tense scenes of broken trust between her and Balinska felt like something out of an entirely different film.