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| Description | It is that time of the year where I crave spooky movies. This is a movie about witches that has no magic to it. I appriciated how the movie tried to update and pay homage to the original. Right from the opening credits, the movie is full of nods, winks, and plenty of fan services. It knows where it came from, but it just didn't know where to go next. In the original The Craft, each of the four girls has her own story and development. They are three dimensional characters each on their own trajectory, which happens to bring them together. The orginal works because there is no big bad villian. Instead, each character carries her own trauma and is trying to live with it. Being teens, none of them are self-aware or doing too well with coping. The teenage experience is rife with fear of rejection, trying to fit in, feelings of powerless, and a desperate need to assert your own agency when everything feels out of reach. In other words, it is a universal experience and why so many people relate to it. The fantasy element is what happens if you gave a friend group magic powers? Bad coping only gets worse. But there was a joy in watching the fearsome four come into their friendships, their powers, and their asserting over their situations. And like a lot of teen groups, some people go too far, some people go along, everyone get's hurt. Puberty is the villian. In Legacy, we insert a creepy big bad. The girls immediatly jump from chanting to Marvel Universe super powers, complete with blasting special effects. I appriciate the more inclusive characters and trying to maintain a certain feminist manifesto along the way; but it never gets past the two dimensions. The three friends are barely more than stand-ins. The friendship group breaks apart at the slightest issue. Then rejoins through the power of sisterhood just as inexpelicably. There is no sense of self-discovery or growth from anyone. A swing and a miss. |