By Elizabeth Scalzo
Entertainment Editor
“Charlie’s Angels” had a huge amount of hype surrounding the new movie, but did it live up to the audience’s expectations?
The movie was released on Nov. 15 and was set to be an action and adventure film. Director Elizabeth Banks, better known for her acting as a guest star on “Modern Family”, can be credited for seeking out a vision where Charlie’s Angels are powerful women who can handle themselves. It does not focus strictly on the sexualization of the women in the movie.
The cast of the movie includes Kristen Stewart, who is best know as Bella from “Twilight”, as Sabina Wilson. Naomi Scott who can be recognized from the recent Disney live action remake of “Aladdin” where she starred as Princess Jasmine, however in “Charlie’s Angels” she plays the scientist who needs the angels help, Elena. The movie also included director Banks as Bosley and notable actor Patrick Stewart as John Bosley. In addition, the movie included Ella Balinska, who is known for her appearances on many TV shows such as “The Athena”, as Jane.
The plot of “Charlie’s Angels” jumped right into the action. Elena expresses to her boss that the new energy source they have been working on, known as Calisto, could cause extreme harm to humans because of a defect that could easily be found by the average hacker. When her report is buried, Elena decides to meet with the first Bosley to give him a copy of her reports and to try and stop Calisto from going to market.
During this meeting it becomes apparent to Jane, one of the angels, that they are being listened to which leads to the first action-packed fight scene of the movie and the first death. However, the angels keep Elena safe and get her to the next Bosley, which is then explained to her that Bosley is a rank in their organization, and not an actual name.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the movie that John Bosley retires from the organization, but will later on become a key character toward the ending.
As the plot progresses the team tries to get Calisto from the company by all dressing the same to create a distraction, but someone already beat them to it. At this point the team puts a tracker on Elena’s boss and finds him landing in Istanbul and they follow him there. A few action-packed fight scenes later, and the audience is left confused as to who is actually on the angels’ side. While the ending of the movie is exactly what the audience would expect, as it goes with most action movies, it took quite some time to get to the actual ending.
Even though the movie was categorized as action many of the fight scenes were drawn out to the point where it was no longer suspenseful and the audience became bored. Also, any scenes where any bit of flirting commenced were extremely painful to sit through and it took the meaning of awkward to a whole new level. It was apparent that the actors had not worked on their intimacy and this made the scenes seem forced.
The movie also had more comedic moments than expected which was a nice relief, but there was not enough tension in many parts to justify the comedic relief. Many people expected to be on the edge of their seat, like when watching a movie from the “Fast and Furious” franchise, but “Charlie’s Angels” simply did not have that effect on the audience.
The movie has a nice story line of female empowerment which has been a large theme on the big screen throughout 2019 and will most likely continue into 2020, but the overall plot and suspense of the movie left the audience wanting more.
Sabina and Jane with Bosley after the final fight scene. EW
