YMMV / Charlie's Angels (2019)

• Actor Shipping: Kristen Stewart and Naomi Scott got hit with a great deal of this after the film's release, largely due to Stewart's reputation and the two of them being very touchy-feely in interviews.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: The film was intended as a more diverse and feminist reboot of the original series, but it didn't pan out as intended at all. While the updated female-empowerment angle was welcomed by audiences, the film came across as driven solely by its shallow Anvilicious messaging, which many felt overshadowed the actual spy plot and action-genre thrills that made the original series and films enjoyable. Adding salt to the wound, the movie's plotline negatively stereotyped nearly all of its male characters (with the exception of a few very minor characters) as being either Straw Misogynist evil-for-evil's-sake antagonists or Too Dumb to Live. Furthermore, many were also put off by the comments in response to the film's performance made by director Elizabeth Banks that placed the responsibility of the movie's success or failure solely on men...despite it being entirely marketed towards women and young girls. This was an audience, speaking of which, that ended up ignoring the film due to a sheer lack of interest, as older women still see the franchise as "the Jiggle Show from the '70s" while most of the younger female crowd weren't even born when the Diaz/Barrymore/Liu films were released. Not helping matters was the fact that the previous attempt at a reboot in 2011 was a notorious flop that only lasted four episodes, or the fact that it was released up against Frozen II, which was one of the year's most anticipated films and one with a sizable female audience at that. The result of the movie's release was a major Box Office Bomb.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The opening "How It's Done" montage, which is entirely comprised of stock footage of active or powerful women and girls in action. It has nothing to do with the film beyond its feminist subtext.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: It shouldn't be much of a surprise to guess that Brok is a Corrupt Corporate Executive and one of the villains. His first scene alone indicates that he either didn't know or care who's the real brain for Callisto and only half-heartedly said thank you to Elena and the other scientists. And after the Angels infiltrated his building, a scene shows him pissed off after taking a call from someone.
• Complete Monster: John Bosley is Charlie's close friend and collaborator to the Angels who bitterly becomes an Arms Dealer after being forced to retire instead of taking over the agency. Bosley seeks to possess the energy-saving source Callisto so he can turn it into a biological weapon that can induce fatal seizures, which he plans to sell for his own profit, contacting terrorists and crime syndicates as potential buyers. Bosley hires the cold-blooded assassin Hodak to murder whistleblower and future Angel Elena Houghlin and ends up killing Edgar "Bosley" Dessange instead. Bosley then has Elena's boss Peter Flemming killed for not knowing how to work Callisto and attempts to kill Angels Sabina Wilson and Jane Kano by blowing up the agency; he also nearly kills former Angel Rebekah "Boz" by shooting her; and has Hodak threaten both Elena and Alexander Brock for access to Callisto, threatening Elena's friend and co-worker Langston when she refuses. Bosley then attempts to activate Callisto so he can leave Elena and Langston to die.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Jane is canonically paired with Langston, but next to no fans ship her with him. Instead, most fans ship her with her fellow angels Elena and Sabina, either individually or both at the same time, mainly due to them feeling that she has better chemistry with them.
• Fight Scene Failure: Most of the fight scenes aren't outright terrible, per se, but it's very obvious that Ella Balinska has extensive martial arts training, while Kristen Stewart doesn't have much, and Naomi Scott has even less (to be fair, Scott's character is meant not to have much training).
• Friendly Fandoms: Fans of this film tend to overlap heavily with fans of Power Rangers (2017) due to both films starring Naomi Scott and Elizabeth Banks. Many fans even like to create headcanons that the two tale place in the same universe and Elena is Kimberly's older sister and like to joke about the similarities between the Jane/Elena and Trini/Kimberly ships.
• Funny Moments:
  • Australian Johnny is trying to make his getaway after realizing his date with Sabina was a setup. Sabina isn't letting him get away that easily.
    Sabina: Oh baby, baby! You swiped right! I'm your girlfriend now! [headbutts him]
  • Jane shoves Sabina off a rooftop at their first meeting (Sabina is hooked up to a belaying rig), followed by Sabina appearing a few moments later, hanging out of the side of a helicopter and flipping Jane the bird.
  • Elena lights a candle, holds up a Brok-branded notecard to indicate she's preparing for a presentation, then decides to break out in Run DMC lyrics.
    Elena: This rhyme is my recital, I think it's very vital, to rock a rhyme that's right on time, "It's Tricky" is the-
    Fleming: Thank you, that's it, please move. He's coming.
  • Sabina's hilarious attempt to make her backstory seem edgy and raw, is immediately undercut by Jane.
    Sabina: I pretty much grew up on the corner of Powerless and Ashamed.
    Jane: You grew up on Park Avenue. Aren't you an heiress?
    Sabina: [stares at her, pause] Mo' money, mo' problems.
    • There's a Call-Back to this later in the film, where Elena asks Sabina how come she knows how to jump a horse:
      Sabina: Mo' money, mo' horses.
  • Sabina's gym bunny disguise, complete with an over-the-top dance, made funnier because seemingly nobody at the gym seems to take notice of her, least of all the random woman she stops to stare at slack-jawed on her way out.
  • Elena makes an impassioned speech to ask the others that she be allowed to join in the mission as a full partner. The others are not wildly impressed because they're way ahead of her.
    Elena: ... I've had a taste. I want more. I want in.
    Bosley: You know, I once saw a really fat baby giving Eskimo kisses to a kitten. And that was more adorable. Also, it's kind of implied that you're coming with us, cause you're in this briefing.
  • As the angels are traveling after a particularly intense fight scene, Sabina is fooling around by making funny faces towards a young Turkish girl who was looking at her and her friends in curiosity. The girl asks if Elena is dead, and Sabina offers to let her poke the unconscious woman in the face and see.
  • The Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure conversation when Bosley makes a reference to a Burt Lancaster movie, and none of the others have a clue what she's talking about.
    Bosley: Am I really the only one here who's heard of Burt Lancaster?
    Sabina: [as if this is an excuse] I'm concussed.
• Heartwarming Moments: After the opening scene ends, there are several shots of young girls around the world from every social class and ethnicity with an implication that this movie was made just for them.
• Les Yay: Sabina, with everyone (but especially Jane). It helps that the gender of her former fiancé is never specified and the most developed relationship in the film is between her and Jane. Being played by Kristen Stewart, who is openly bisexual, doesn't hurt, either.
• LGBT Fanbase: The film is popular amongst queer women, as Sabine is highly indicated to be lesbian or bi.
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: Famous actor Patrick Stewart gets five minutes of screentime before seemingly dipping out of the plot. Plot twist — he's the Big Bad.
• So Okay, It's Average: Essentially the reason why audiences didn't cotton to it. Reviews said that it wasn't a terrible film but it also wasn't anything spectacular, since it lacked the campiness that made the '70s series fun to watch or the kinetic tongue-in-cheek charm that the 2000s films were known for. While this version likewise has its positives, most reviews cited it as just another reboot of the The New '10s that took itself way too seriously.
• Special Effects Failure: To illustrate John Bosley's decades-long career in the agency, Patrick Stewart's face is photoshopped into numerous pictures from the original series and the previous two films during his retirement party. Sadly, the lighting and shadows never really fit, making the 'shops glaringly obvious fakes.

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