Boffin Elena Houghlin (Naomi Scott) becomes a whistle-blower when she realises that the product she has been helping to develop has a serious flaw. Angels Sabina (Kristen Stewart) and Jane (Ella Balinska) investigate and learn that the invention -- a revolutionary new power source -- has the potential to be weaponised. Even worse, the prototypes have been stolen and are being offered to the highest bidder.
McG's two Charlie's Angels movies embraced the silliness of the whole concept, going for big dumb fun (albeit a bit too dumb in Full Throttle). In contrast, this feminist revision of the franchise attempts to be sassy, sophisticated, smart and stylish, with a massive dose of girl power designed to appeal to a woke #metoo audience.
Gender politics aside, it still ends up being dumb, but not much fun, thanks to a terrible script, clumsy execution, and humour that falls flat on its ass.
To be fair, I found the three main girls to be both attractive and likeable (even Kristin Stewart wasn't as irritating as I thought she might be), but affable eye-candy only gets you so far when virtually everything else about the film stinks. Writer/director Elizabeth Banks has thrown together a mess of clichés and bad gags for her script and clearly has no idea how to construct a film involving guns, fast cars and martial arts, making the movie a two-hour long exercise in action awfulness.
At the end of the film, Elena is recruited and trained as an angel, thereby paving the way for a sequel... one that I imagine will never happen given the general response to this massive misfire.
McG's two Charlie's Angels movies embraced the silliness of the whole concept, going for big dumb fun (albeit a bit too dumb in Full Throttle). In contrast, this feminist revision of the franchise attempts to be sassy, sophisticated, smart and stylish, with a massive dose of girl power designed to appeal to a woke #metoo audience.
Gender politics aside, it still ends up being dumb, but not much fun, thanks to a terrible script, clumsy execution, and humour that falls flat on its ass.
To be fair, I found the three main girls to be both attractive and likeable (even Kristin Stewart wasn't as irritating as I thought she might be), but affable eye-candy only gets you so far when virtually everything else about the film stinks. Writer/director Elizabeth Banks has thrown together a mess of clichés and bad gags for her script and clearly has no idea how to construct a film involving guns, fast cars and martial arts, making the movie a two-hour long exercise in action awfulness.
At the end of the film, Elena is recruited and trained as an angel, thereby paving the way for a sequel... one that I imagine will never happen given the general response to this massive misfire.