Oh how I hated the trailers for the new Charlie’s Angels. So much about it made me think of some kind of half-assed 90s idea of Grrl Power from a male producer. Closets full of clothes, blatantly sexist men to beat up, dance sequences, and a generic pop song sung by a female singer whose name probably wouldn’t mean anything to me if anyone told me who it was. Why did I opt to go see it anyway? Morbid curiosity and I do get three tickets a week with my AMC Stubbs Pass.
Well, good news: while most of the stuff I saw in the trailers were there, the trailers weren’t exactly indicative of how the actual movie went. No, instead the movie was something of a basic spy movie with three women at the center of the story. Four if you count writer/director Elizabeth Banks’ Bosley.
Programmer Elena (Naomi Scott) is concerned that a clean energy project she’s been working on could be weaponized to kill people. She’s contacted by the Townsend Agency, particularly Angels Jane (Ella Balinska) and Sabina (Kristen Stewart) and a local Bosley played by Djimon Hounsou (Bosley here is a title in the Townsend Agency, not a name). But not long into the meeting, an assassin shows up to kill either Elena or the Angels. It isn’t clear.
Meeting up later with a different Bosley (Banks this time), the women have a job to do: grab the new power source and fix it so it can’t be weaponized. That leads to globetrotting, disguises, and action scenes as the Angels try to figure out who’s behind the whole thing.
Much of what was on display here wasn’t overly special. There are some nods to indicate this Charlie’s Angels is set in the same universe as every other incarnation of this franchise. Likewise, there are a few nods towards empowering girls, an important message, but the sexist attitudes here are all fairly blatant by men who either outright look down on women or at least go the gaslighting option. Banks’ direction is decent enough, but there’s not much special about her Bosley. The same is true for Balinska’s Jane and Scott’s Elena, basically the tough woman who can fight and the uncertain rookie, respectively. As for Hounsou, I don’t think I’ve seen him this wasted in a movie since his MCU appearances.
But then there were two (unrelated) Stewarts. I had heard Kristen Stewart showed a lot more talent since the Twlight series ended, but hadn’t had the opportunity to see it for myself. Well, now I have, and dang was she showing some real chops here as the cheerful oddball Sabina. Banks’ script has a lot of comedy scenes, most of which are only so-so if they don’t come from Stewart. She is genuinely the best thing in the movie.
But the second best comes from old pro Patrick Stewart as the original Bosley. Sure, it’s probably the kind of performance Sir Patrick Stewart could give in his sleep, but he’s good at it, so I won’t be complaining.
So, two good performances in an otherwise so-so spy movie. I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would from the trailers, but I likewise wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it either.
Grade: C
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