Ocean's 8

We live in a society nowadays that seems big on the strong female protagonist (much to the chagrin of the average internet beta). While we've seen some fabulous female main characters pop up over the past few years (such as Rey from Star Wars or Lady Bird from...Lady Bird), we've also seen some pretty bad examples of this cashing in. Those usually come from the idea of remaking films or doing long awaited sequels for films with an all female cast.

Before you swarm to DM me and tell me that I'm, "part of the problem," allow me to reiterate. I'm actually all for new, stronger female characters in media. The reason why films like Ghostbusters 2016 flopped wasn't because of the female protagonists, but because of the writing and direction of the movies. It's not the girls' fault. It just seems to be a cautious tale that moviemakers expect to ride the all-female buzz alone and let the rest of the movie go by itself, but that isn't really how these things work.

And unfortunately for us, the same goes for Ocean's 8.

The concept was phenomenal, if you ask me. An Ocean's sequel that replaces the all-male cast of brilliant contemporary actors with those of the opposite gender. You've got some real great powerhouse actors here too, like Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and others, giving some particularly brilliant and funny performances. But it's undercut by pretty much everything else going on, unfortunately.

The story is bland, for one, it seems just so toned down in comparison with other Ocean's films. It's really, at the end of it, a basic jewel heist with a little bit of extra glitz and glamour poured around it by the sake of its setting of the met gala. It also doesn't help that the screenwriting hosts none of that pizazz that made the former movies fun to watch. The film feels cold and lifeless. A one and done type ordeal.

The only thing that ultimately saves this movie from its untimely demise at the hands of my review is some halfway decent directing, which seems to do its best to mimic Steven Soderbergh as greatly as possible. Add into that a pretty poppy soundtrack that's not unusual for the franchise, and you've got a pretty good feast for the eyes and ears if nothing else. The best idea when watching this film is finding a version where the dialogue is completely cut out, and you could honestly get the same experience.

But honestly, as a whole, Ocean's 8 just does not carry the same torch its predecessors held, and it's not the fault of anyone but the people in charge of making this movie happen. It needs more charm, more...flair than it has, and adding it all together plus the few things that work, I think it's best earned a 5.3/10. Not really the jackpot we were all hoping for, sadly.