Thomas Kim The film, “Charlie’s Angels” was a visually motivated movie. This film fit under the genre of action/comedy. The action and camera work moved the story forward while keeping the audience attentive. The primary characters were Dylan, a rebellious tomboy, Natalie, a ditzy encyclopedia, Alex, a no nonsense achiever and Eric Nox, a criminal mastermind.
Dylan, Natalie and Alex are the main protagonists who work as detectives for a mysterious figure known as Charlie. Dylan’s motivation is her yearning to have a father figure, which ultimately leads her to protect her boss, Charlie. Natalie and Alex’s motivations are tied to Dylan’s while Natalie is also searching for love and Alex is trying to open up to her boyfriend. Eric Nox’s motivation is to have revenge for the death of his father. Our three heroines, Alex, Dylan and Natalie are highly trained super detectives who are hired to find a missing voice recognition computer program and the program’s creator, Eric Nox. The three girls determine through some detective work that their main suspect is Nox’s main competitor, Redstar Communications. The three go undercover and plant a link to Redstar’s main computer network. They soon discover that they have been double crossed by Eric Nox who only used the girls to gain access to Redstar’s communication satellites which he will use in conjunction with his voice recognition program to locate the elusive Charlie whom he blames for the death of his father. Bosley, the liaison between the girls and Charlie, is kidnapped in order to locate Charlie. The girls must now find Bosley and Eric Nox and prevent Eric from locating Charlie. The girls free Bosley but Eric Nox has already located Charlie and flies to kill him in an attack helicopter.
Alex, Dylan and Natalie manage to get aboard the helicopter and reprogram the missile, which Eric Nox is planning on using to kill Charlie. The missile instead of destroying Charlie is diverted and kills Eric Nox instead. Charlie is saved and the girls go on vacation. The primary source of conflict is that the girls are pressed for time in locating Eric Nox before he locates Charlie. The need to protect Charlie is the main drive in the girls’ actions. The characters were exposed through situations which revealed their inner beings. Dylan’s mother died when she was young and she never had a chance to meet her father. The lack of a father figure creates a need for Dylan to protect the one father figure she has in Charlie. Natalie wants to find a good man who she can love. When she meets a man who understanding and supportive she wants everything to work out. Alex has not been completely honest with her boyfriend and she wants to open up to him. Eric Nox’s father was killed while he was serving in the army. He believes that Charlie, who was best friends with Eric’s father, killed him. Now he wants revenge.
The action scenes were like eye candy. Through the use of slow motion, stop motion and intricate choreography the fight scenes are reminiscent of the antigravity duels in “The Matrix”. The witty lines in the script, undoubtedly credited towards scribe, Ed Solomon, helped to alleviate the ridiculousness of the action scenes. Overall the movie’s main goal is to entertain the eyes with a feast of special effects and chop-socky battles between the characters and the movie delivers with a flash-poppy eye candy film.