← Back to Directory
Charlie's Angels
Movie

Charlie's Angels

2000 • Unknown

Woke Score
3.2
out of 10

Plot

The captivating crime-fighting trio who are masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts are back! When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy individual privacy, the Angels, aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley, set out to bring down the bad guys. But when a terrible secret is revealed, it makes the Angels targets for assassination.

Overall Series Review

Charlie's Angels (2000) functions primarily as a lighthearted, hyper-stylized action-comedy designed as a 'girl-power' vehicle. The plot involves the trio attempting to stop a disgruntled software genius who faked his own kidnapping to gain access to a voice-recognition satellite system and kill their mysterious boss. The central theme revolves around the Angels' effortless competence, camaraderie, and superior skill in a field typically dominated by men. The movie consistently portrays its female leads as brilliant, physically perfect, and capable of overcoming any challenge, usually at the expense of the male characters. The villains are exclusively men, and the Angels' love interests are tangential to their lives, serving mostly as comic relief or plot devices. The film's atmosphere is one of secular escapism and aestheticized 'third-wave' feminism, where physical attractiveness and action prowess are equally celebrated as forms of power.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics4/10

The casting features a White, a White/Latina-passing, and an Asian-American lead, marking a clear move for diversity in the remake of the historically all-white series. This 'Adaptational Diversity' is present without a deep political lecture on race or intersectional hierarchy. The narrative is focused on corporate espionage and personal revenge, not systemic oppression. One character calls out a mild race-based joke, but the film does not dwell on the politics of identity.

Oikophobia2/10

The central conflict is a high-tech crime involving the theft of a voice-recognition program and a personal revenge plot against the Angels' employer. The narrative contains no critique of American or Western institutions, culture, or ancestors. The goal is to restore order and protect individual privacy from a megalomaniacal corporate criminal.

Feminism8/10

The movie is a pure celebration of the 'Girl Boss' trope, where the three female leads are instantly perfect, brilliant, and physically superior to nearly every man they encounter. The explicit philosophy is summed up by the line, 'Never send a man to do a woman's job'. The main villain and his subordinates are all men who are systematically defeated. The supporting male characters, including Bosley and the Angels' boyfriends, are generally incompetent, bumbling, or serve as comic relief, which emasculates the male role in the story. The women's careers and friendship are their primary sources of fulfillment.

LGBTQ+1/10

The main characters' romantic interests are all male, adhering to a traditional male-female pairing in their personal lives. The narrative contains no explicit presentation of alternative sexualities, gender ideology, or deconstruction of the nuclear family. The sexual content is driven by the Angels embracing their sexuality as a tool for their spy work, which is a heterosexual, post-feminist take on 'sex positivity'.

Anti-Theism1/10

The film is a light-hearted, secular action-comedy with a focus on high-tech gadgets, martial arts, and global espionage. Religion, spirituality, and morality beyond the binary of 'good spies vs. bad criminals' are completely absent from the plot and character motivations. The morality is entirely subjective to the mission without a transcendent moral framework.