Off the bat, I want to make clear that there's a good movie inside Ocean's 8... it's just too bad that they decided it was necessary to tie it into the Ocean's Universe. I think that had this movie been made as an original heist movie, I'd probably view it more favorably. Unfortunately, Ocean's 8 doesn't work for me because it felt like a bad cosplay of the original (remake) of Ocean's 11. And that's unfortunate, because this cast deserved better than what they were given to work with.
From the very first moment of this film, Ocean's 8 feels like a poor woman's copy of Ocean's 11. Sandra Bullock plays Debbie Ocean, the also incarcerated sister of George Clooney's Danny Ocean. We meet her on her last day of a 5 year prison sentence, where she uses her cunning and skill to convince the parole board that she's a changed woman (hmmmm, where have we seen this before???). Not so shortly after getting out, Ocean is immediately back to her old ways. Sandra Bullock gives it her all. There's a sequence of scenes very early in this movie that are an absolute delight, where we see Bullock's character con her way into a stay at the Plaza hotel in NYC. From there, she immediately hatches a scheme to rob the Met Gala and puts together a team of criminals to pull of the heist of the century (again, nothing new to see here). The rest of the film just feels like a copy of Ocean's 11 with a few tweaks to update the story and location.
In my opinion, there are three reasons why this film failed. The first (and biggest) is that these characters are never really developed. We get a brief introduction to each character, but they all left me wanting more. Each character has a personality, but these personalities aren't different enough to distinguish them from the other characters. Ocean's 11 wisely took its time to give each character a distinct personality that when put together in a team setting could shine as an individual and contribute to the team as a whole. I kept forgetting what each character was supposed to do in Ocean's 8. I wanted to see more of Mindy Kaling's jewel thief. Cate Blanchett was basically doing an impression of Brad Pitt's Ocean's character. Sarah Paulson was given an interesting backstory of a criminal gone suburban that needed a few more callbacks to be fully realized. Anne Hathaway, while great as a vapid actress, makes an almost unbelievable turn in this one that ruins her character. I could go on and on through each character and come up with the same conclusion. It's like they took the first draft of the script and went with it.
Speaking of script, the second reason why this film failed was because of it. This film was hampered by forcing it into the Ocean's Universe. Major plot points were just copy and pasted into this film. Bullock's character wanted to get revenge on the person who put her in jail. In fact, there was an almost word for word remake of the scene were Brad Pitt's character confronts Clooney's character over his motivations in this one. There's also a visit from an original cast member that completely ruins the vibe of this film for me. These actors and characters deserved more than what was written on the page for them.
My final reason for the failure of Ocean's 8 is that while the idea of a heist of the Met Gala was a cool idea, the stakes never really felt that high. Ocean's 11 was so great because there were many moments throughout the heist where you thought the characters were doomed. Every time there was a moment like this in Ocean's 8, there was a quick and easy fix waiting around the corner to fix it. Even the big reveal fell flat because there was never a moment were you felt like the gang was truly in over their heads.
Overall, Ocean's 8 was a bad start to the continuation of the Ocean's franchise. If they do make a sequel (and it's a big if), I hope they take the time to flesh the characters out and up the stakes to something a little more perilous. I'm still convinced that the film was hurt by tying it into existing intellectual property rather than making an original, female-led, heist film. The creators of this one played it too safe, and if we've learned anything from heist movies, playing it safe is never very much fun.
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