Ocean's Twelve
This might not be the perfect time or whatever to talk about it but I've been doing my homework and I'd really like to play a more central role this time around.
I consider this film's prequel as close as you can get to a perfect film. Ocean's Eleven is a movie that knew exactly what its goal was—to be as relentlessly and easily entertaining and pleasurable as possible—and succeeds in doing so more than any other movie with similar ambitions. The sequel to such an endeavor has an inherently impossible task ahead of it.
I held off on watching this for a long time. Partially because it seemed unnecessary; why would I watch a sequel when I could just watch the original again? And partially because it is poorly reviewed, in the same way many of Soderbergh's works are. The phrase self-satisfied and bizarrely sloppy comes up a lot in reviews of his early-aughts output.
I think it's fair to be upset. The heist in this movie is, to a certain extent, on us, the viewer, for sitting down and thinking that we were getting treated to a heist movie when instead what Soderbergh wants to give us is two hours' time in the companionship of people who are effortlessly beautiful and charming.
This film is filled with metatext: the Julia Roberts bit, Clooney's age, Matt Damon trying to become a leader. You can accuse some of the smaller bits as rehash, and I agree with the central complaint that a plot twist which invalidates everything we've seen for the preceding hour is unsatisfying.
And yet!
At the end of the day, I didn't care that much because I enjoyed watching my buddies having fun. It is a lesser film; it still succeeds in its goals, with grace and panache.
One more thing: this movie hints at creating a slightly larger mythos, in the same way John Wick eventually created an extended universe unto itself. While part of me would have loved to see six more of these films, I think the key to their enduring charm is that they are a snapshot in wide frame. The warmest and happiest scenes involve as many people as possible, whereas the formula of John Wick really only requires a single protagonist and an endless barrage of faceless, unnamed fodder.