Sex, the city, and the redownfall of womenkind.

Yesterday I was forced by a close friend to see the recently released film 'Sex and the City 2', partially because the time we were both available to see a film was after 10 at night. I have never watched the TV show before, nor have I seen the first movie, but i was assured that it wouldn't matter. I researched the characters on Wikipedia before beforehand to give myself a vague idea of what was to come. At no point did I expect it to be good.

I was right.
The film follows the four gal-pals from the show as they go to Abu Dhabi on what seems to be a business trip, although at no point during the trip does anything work-related take place. During the trip, the main character, Carrie, frets about her marriage because her husband likes to watch TV and have relaxing nights in as opposed to dressing up and going to galas with her, Charlotte frets about her husband ogling the nanny instead of just talking to him about it, and Samantha, a woman on the verge of menopause, oversteps the boundaries of the Arabic culture and it's relation to sex, in the only plot line that appears to have a message. Sadly, it doesn't, and the closest it gets to a pro-feminist message is singing I Am Woman in a karaoke bar.

The critics strongly agree with my dislike of the film. At the moment it holds a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, which whilst not being the worst rating I've seen, truly isn't a good one.  None of the plotlines in the movie are favourable towards the characters at all, and none of them appear to change, nor make any impact on the world around them. When they mentioned going to the Middle East, I wondered if they were going to make an anti-burqa statement, which they tried to do, but by choosing Abu Dhabi, they removed any impact the film could have had. In Abu Dhabi, women don't have to wear a burqa, and can simply dress modestly, as the men are also supposed to do. In the UAE, wearing the garb is a personal choice, not something strictly enforced, as it is in Afghanistan.

The main problem I had with the movie, however, was the characters. Having never seen anything else Sex and the City related, I don't know if that's how they always act, but I sincerely hope it's not. The main character is two years married to a guy who truly cares about her and tries to build a life together, but she continually pushes him away by telling him that she doesn't want to become a 'boring old couple' and needing him to come out to parties after he's had a bad day at work, which she could easily go to with her friends. The film seems to be trying to put forth a pro-woman statement, but fails miserably, instead making me mutter 'bitch' as the main character says she'd rather have some piece of jewellery solely for herself than an expensive flatscreen TV to snuggle up beside with her husband.
The other characters were just as awful, but the one I disliked the most was Samantha, who had absolutely no respect for the culture at all. Any message they were trying to bring across about sexuality in the Middle East was devoid of emotional backing, and any respect I could have retained for Samantha was lost when she started waving condoms at a group of religious men. It's like if I started waving a picture of Jesus on the toilet at a bunch of Christians.

All in all, the movie was awful, no intriguing plots, no likable characters, and often sloppy camerawork combine to create a film I suggest you avoid.

* - One star out of five

 - The Gimboid