It’s a shame that the latest iteration of Charlie’s Angels didn’t gain any wings at the box-office because this actually did the franchise justice – mainly due to a crazily likeable turn from The Twilight Saga star Kristen Stewart.
This will more than likely have to end up being a teenage girls favourite DVD for a Saturday night sleepover in the future – because it has literally ‘bombed’ despite generally favourable reviews (which this is here).
This isn’t a complete reboot (more a ‘soft’ reimagining) as it continues on from the generally successful Cameron Diaz 2000-set original film – based on the popular seventies Farrah Fawcett-led TV series (Jaclyn Smith actually cameos in this) – but maybe the terrible 2003 Full Throttle sequel proved to be enough to ‘kill off’ the franchise.
Stewart and British star Ella Balinska portray kick-ass angels duo Sabina and Jane, who are under the tutelage of various ‘Bosley’ team leaders – including Patrick Stewart, Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) and Elizabeth Banks (who also directs after having success with the Pitch Perfect series).
They then have to defend/keep safe ‘nerdy’ tech expert Elena (played by Aladdin star Naomi Scott) when she’s targeted for attempting to reveal the ‘unsafe nature’ of a new energy technology called Calisto (looking a bit like a ‘Ghost device’ from the Destiny video game series) before it goes to market via Alexander Brock’s (The Hunger Games series’ Sam Claflin) entrepreneurial corporation – which could potentially malfunction and kill whoever is near it when it does.
This then leads to a game of ‘cat and mouse’ across multiple locales as various terrorists look to weaponise the device, with some tidy set pieces, decent plot twists and turns and plenty of sassy comedic relief from Stewart (as in Kristen, not Patrick) – who hits more than she misses. And Balinska and Scott prove amiable support too.
It’s just quite depressing for the trio – and director/star Banks – that this somehow missed an audience, because it is in fact the best out of the three Angel’s movies.
It was actually scandalous how poor the marketing was because this is actually… crazy, sexy, cool.
ESP Rating: 3/5
Gavin Miller
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinska, Naomi Scott, Elizabeth Banks, Djimon Hounsou, Sam Claflin, Jonathan Tucker, Nat Faxon, Chris Pang, Noah Centineo, Luis Gerado Mendez, David Schutter & Patrick Stewart
Running Time: 1 Hr 58 Mins
Director: Elizabeth Banks
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