S.A.T-WHAT.

Warning: For those who hasn't watched SATC 2, do not scroll down. I may just spoil everything for you :p

And so we watched SATC2 earlier today. Only 3 words. WHAT.THE.HELL.

So the clothes were gorgeous, at least some of them. I still don't understand why Carrie had that hideous, hideous, utterly hideous hat/crown/hat? on her head at the gay wedding. Also, why does she have to enunciate every word like we're too dumb to understand, and the exaggeration of her Carrie character, blew me away. Not in a good way.

In the first movie, Carrie was searching for love and was so ready to settle down. The whole movie depicted the kind of dude Big was: non-commital, freaking old, non-socializing and loves her very very much. That's why he gave in to marriage in the first place. So the whole movie was about Carrie getting Big back in the sack and yay, they're happy. So basically, she has achieved the upmost level of happiness she could ever imagine.

In the second movie, it started by portraying how in love they were but Carrie was suddenly hit by this imaginary cannon ball and realized how her marriage with Big might turn them into one of those boring couples who rarely go out and socialize, but instead watch television on a weeknight and order take outs (as she obviously doesn't cook). And you had this epiphany after two freaking years being married to him? It took you that long to realize this? And what was with all the comments on "No, you're going out with me. I'm not letting you eat anything that's put into a take-out bag". For someone who writes about finding love and falling in love, she sounds a bit contradicting. From a character I once kinda liked, she turned into this whole shallow person, who well, basically sucks.

The focus of the story was more on what happened in Abu Dhabi (which btw was not even shot in Abu Dhabi as the crew was not allowed to shoot those kind of movies there. It was instead, Morocco). They try so hard to show audience how all four of them typical Americans, realize in the end how Arab women are not that much different from the westerners at all because, they eat French fries (although covered in their Burqa), they wear the spring collection under their Arbayya', etc etc. Hello? Not everything is revolved around your non-existent sex/fashion loving culture. The director definitely was not at all well-informed much about culture or chose not to dig deeply into it, to actually depict a better understanding about the Arab culture. In my opinion, the movie would be a much better one if they were to instead, focus more on how those 4 girls (women) try to adapt to the Arab culture, instead of mocking it beforehand. It is a given that people who are not accustomed to some cultures would make a preemptive judgment in their mind. However, I don't see how the Abu Dhabi part of the movie benefited anyone at all. It portrays the westerners as being shallow and the Arabs as being conservative. These are stereotypes. You are not fooling the audience. You are fooling yourself.

Also, these girls don't live in caves. Their characters are well-learned people, having successful and high prolific jobs. Especially Carrie, being a writer, shouldn't she be well informed about how the Arabs are, and not wait to be brought to Abu Dhabi to know about it? It's fine if they are overwhelmed and slightly taken aback by how different the life is. But their dialogues in the movie during the Abu Dhabi shoot were so, not funny and not very intelligent. "Oh my god, how do you think she's going to eat the fries?". Bodohnya. Macam mana lagi la kan.

Yes, I do know that this isn't a documentary about Abu Dhabi and yes, it is a movie about four fashionable girls, living in New York who would probably not even survive taxi if they were placed in coach rather than first class. However, we as learned audiences expect something more than just the stereotypical way of portraying these four women. If you had wanted to make the movie really just about sex and the city, don't include Abu Dhabi in it. Include maybe Africa or something, if you wanted a vast difference of culture, without touching the boundaries of religion. I find it funny how in the movie, the Azan blasted from the speakers, and Carrie asked "Oh, is that the call for prayers?". And that was it. As much as I'm proud to have the Azan being used in the movie, I find it totally irrelevant as there was no elaboration on that at all. Macam hangat hangat tahi ayam sikit.

All in all, it was an enjoyable movie despite my elaborated complaints. I mean, who won't love nice clothes, gorgeous guys and beautiful hotels right? But that's just it. It's not a phenomenon like what we expected it to be. Even the first one was better. It can easily blend in with all the other mediocre movies. So if that's what the director was aiming at, then well done. Although this is just my humble 2 cents which probably isn't worth anything.