Fallen angels

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This article was published 16/11/2019 (2473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It seems doubtful anyone in recent memory has expressed a burning desire to see yet another Charlie’s Angels reboot. But, here we are.

The franchise was kicked off by the successful 1974 television series that ran for five seasons and starred the perfectly coiffed Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith. In 2000, Charlie returned, this time on the big screen in a blockbuster with a new set of angels: Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu (a much less popular sequel, Charlie’s Angels:  Full Throttle, was released in 2003).

The angels returned to television in 2011, but the show got canned seven episodes into its first season. You’d think that would be a hint to movie- and TV-makers the Charlie’s Angels franchise has likely run its course. However, actor/director/writer Elizabeth Banks has decided to take one last kick at the can with a new adaptation, which hit theatres this week.

The new film — starring Kristen Stewart (Sabina) and Ella Balinksa (Jane) as angels, with Naomi Scott (Elena) joining in later — is a globe-trotting smack in the face full of action, drama and comedy, all three of which are clumsily done. The Free Press sent its own trio of independent women, arts reporters Erin Lebar, Jen Zoratti and Eva Wasney, to see the film, and they have some thoughts.

 

Jen Zoratti: So, I’m going to say I appreciated the spirit of Charlie’s Angels…

Erin Lebar: I’d say that’s fair. I definitely didn’t hate it.

Eva Wasney: I didn’t hate it, either.

Jen Zoratti: I believe that Elizabeth Banks is a treasure who does very little wrong, but there were problems with it, and one that really stood out to me is it really punches you in the face with “girl power.” That opening sequence with the little girls, like, doing math and riding bikes and swimming and stuff?

Eva Wasney: It was almost like an advertisement.

Jen Zoratti: A Tampax ad.

Erin Lebar: Definite tampon vibes.

Jen Zoratti: I did feel the second half was much stronger, though it could have used an edit overall. This movie was a bit of a slog. And for the first… too long of an amount of time, I was very confused.

Eva Wasney: As was I. There was something missing between transitions, where they were going, why they were doing certain things.

Erin Lebar: In the first 10 minutes, they hit five different countries. Like, what is happening? You will never get anything done if you keep going to all these new places!

Eva Wasney: That was constantly the thing throughout the movie, I thought. They were in a place for two minutes, accomplished nothing and then moved on. And had an outfit change in between that.

Jen Zoratti: There were also too many doublecrosses in terms of who is a villain and who isn’t. We’re crissing, we’re crossing, we’re criss-cross apple saucing.

Erin Lebar: Criss-cross twice removed.

Jen Zoratti: And it wasn’t as funny as I was hoping it would be. It fell a bit flat and could have used some punching up.

Erin Lebar: What did we think of the actual performances of the actors?

Jen Zoratti: Naomi Scott (Elena), I liked her in Aladdin, but I found her character in this movie extremely grating, a little too honest, but then I can’t decide if that means she was good in that role?

Erin Lebar: I just felt everyone was really monotone, really flat. And for a movie like this, where it’s supposed to be so high-energy and action-packed with elements of comedy, even though there were a few funny parts, I found it to be dull.

Eva Wasney: The action was sporadic, and pretty much it was only Ella Balinksa (Jane) who was engaging in all of the fighting. Everyone else was standing back.

Jen Zoratti: I just figured out what my problem was with Naomi Scott: she felt like she was in a different movie. She was trying to do a bumbly comic thing I think, but it felt like that was out of place. The other gals seemed like they were more focused on being in an action movie. I don’t know if you guys felt the same, but I was shipping Kristen Stewart (Sabina) and Jane.

Erin Lebar: Oh, like make them a couple?

Jen Zoratti: Yes! I was disappointed they made Jane straight. Sabina’s sexuality is definitely ambiguous in the movie, but it really seemed like they were teeing up an interesting romantic relationship there and didn’t deliver.

Erin Lebar: I can’t help but compare this to the 2000 movie with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, who I felt were a much more dynamic trio, but maybe I just have nostalgia feelings for that movie because it was one of the first movies I saw with just my friends (no parents) as a kid? And, I mean, Independent Women by Destiny’s Child from the soundtrack was that generation’s female empowerment anthem.

Jen Zoratti: And the generation before that will, I think, have nostalgic feelings for Charlie’s Angels OG. I don’t really know who this film is for.

Erin Lebar: To me, the 2000 version, the movie and the soundtrack, everything was more fun.

Jen Zoratti: The 2000s one had the camp of the original one, this one was pretty camp free.

Eva Wasney: That’s what it’s been since the beginning, to try and turn it into this somewhat action, somewhat comedy, I don’t know if it fits.

Jen Zoratti: I think the problem is it tried to be all three things and ended up doing them all poorly.

Erin Lebar: I also think it’s a casualty of the culture’s narrative now. Maybe you can’t do a camp, female action-comedy right now because it can be taken as somehow disempowering women or slighting the current feminist movement or something.

Jen Zoratti: I think you’re right, that’s a really incisive point; the reason Charlie’s Angels had to be campy, at least in the ’70s, is because there’s that layer of, ‘Oh, we wouldn’t take a female spy or action star seriously anyway,’ so they really played to that comedy, which actually makes it a little more subversive than I think people give it credit for. Now you can’t really do that the same way.

Erin Lebar: No, you can’t, which is why I think they tried to make it more intense, more serious, more dark, but it just didn’t work. Even the soundtrack’s lead single is Don’t Call Me Angel, rejecting that previous stereotype. So I think what’s going to have to happen is that we just stop returning to this Charlie’s Angels story and franchise, and we write something else that does work for a 2019-2020 audience.

Jen Zoratti: We need to start telling new stories overall, which is another discussion for another day.

Erin Lebar: This is literally the fourth incarnation of Charlie’s Angels, nobody asked for this, nobody really wants this, so let’s move on and create something better.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca