I saw Kick Ass last night (it was pretty damn awesome) and seeing how hard as nails a tween superhero girl is, and then looking at other women in superhero movies, I couldn’t help but think that these women are often there for reasons of attractiveness and to act as bait for the villains in these films; do we really need to see the damsel in distress still tied to the train tracks?
Unfortunately if these movies are to be believed, and we at thisfilmison always believe in movies, then the answer is yes.
I am not saying that the women in these films are purely victims, Rachel Dawes in The Dark Knight was confrontational but in the end she was still dangled off a building and tied to a chair. Same thing goes for Spiderman and Mary Jane who took the brunt of all the kidnap/peril situations in the three instalments. These parts as ‘the girlfriend who has no super powers’ inevitably means that they’ll be used in some manner by the villain to draw the superhero out. But what about the femmes with the powers?
Women superhero’s feature in the franchises for X-Men, Daredevil, Batman and The Fantastic Four. They play their parts well in films where the male counterparts are often front and centre. In these movies the woman are there to look hot in a leather outfit or serve as a love interest.
The superhero movies that themselves have been fronted by a woman (Catwoman and Electra) have not done well financially or critically, even when both these characters have shown great strength in the other films that they have appeared in. I’m not saying that an audience does not want to see a strong female superhero character, quite the opposite actually. If attention was given to other factors in these films beyond titillating costumes and looked at a wider audience then these films could be a success. As the Twilight franchise has shown, it’s not just teenage boys who are a desirable market and so by getting them on board a hit could be in the making.
Does TV show a stronger role for Women as Winners? Hell yeah it does. A female superhero/action star can be popular with series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alias running for multiple series. Jennifer Garner knows this all to well. As Sydney Bristow in Alias, fighting week in week out, she was huge. Her solo performance in Electra; A disaster. Sarah Michelle Geller’s career has gone from hardcore villain hunter to fodder, opting for parts in horror movies where she’s prey rather than predator. Whereas the female can reign supreme in these kinds of shows on TV, the results on the big screen are lackluster in comparison.
Not all hope should be lost though. It may have been a while since Ripley and Sarah Connor flew the flag of figures of female power but more recently Uma, as The Bride and Zoe Saldana, in both Star Trek (Uhura) and Avatar (Neytiri) showed they have the potential to be future action stars.
So what next? Will Wonder Woman ever come to fruition? And if so can it show that a female superhero can be both box office and critical gold? I’m just sad that Joss Whedon is no longer a part of it. I’m also intrigued as to how Scarlett Johansson will fair in this summers Iron Man sequel as the Black Widow or whether she will just be another bit part character. Judging by the latest poster, it’s not her acting that bagged her the role.
But back to Hit Girl, an eleven year old who is perhaps the most fearsome in the entire Kick Ass film. Schooling all before her on how to really bring the pain. Yes this is a superhero movie that doesn’t come from the usual canon and so could be seen as an anomaly, however it is quite refreshing to see a girl kick ass in such a manner.
Let’s hope that the young Hit Girl and Chloe Moretz can lead the charge for females to be more than just a pretty face and villain bait in waiting.
