Posted on 08/25/2017 7:50:39 AM PDT by EdnaMode
“Wonder Woman” may have received overwhelmingly positives notices, was a box office behemoth, and is even getting an Oscar push from Warner Bros., but it has one high-profile critic.
In an interview with the Guardian, James Cameron took on a different tone, taking aim at the way the iconic superhero, played by Gal Gadot, was portrayed.
“All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over ‘Wonder Woman’ has been so misguided,” he told the outlet in an interview to promote the “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” re-release. “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing!”
Cameron has been recognized for his female protagonists, including Rose (Kate Winslet) in “Titanic,” Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in “Avatar,” and perhaps most notably, Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) in “Terminator.”
“I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards,” he continued. “Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!”
While “Wonder Woman” has been generally praised for portraying its title character (and her fellow Amazonians) as a powerful, complex female figure, it’s received its fair share of criticism, too. Director Patty Jenkins addressed those concerns in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in May, telling the publication, “I get frustrated by people who think that they’re defending [Wonder Woman] by trying to make her lesser. When people get super critical about her outfit, who’s the one getting crazy about what a woman wears? That’s who she is; that’s Wonder Woman. I want her to look like my childhood fantasy.”
But, still Cameron makes it clear that he continues to be all for women being represented in film.
“There are many women in power in Hollywood and they do get to guide and shape what films get made,” Cameron said. “I think – no, I can’t account for it. Because how many times do I have to demonstrate the same thing over again? I feel like I’m shouting in a wind tunnel!”
Variety has reached out to Cameron’s camp for comment.
Agreed. I watched A Night to Remember a couple of years ago and thought it was much better than Cameron’s Titanic.
Must be Cameron's time of the month.
That's EXACTLY what he sounds like, as he wished he was director of this $800 million box office revenue hit.
Lol! It’s only a movie, kid.
James Cameron cheated on his wife at the time who played Sarah Connor.
Gal Gadot looks exceptionally athletic, and graceful, without being musclebound - essential for the role she plays. It’s hard to have those traits without also being beautiful.
She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!”
...
And terrible mothers, apparently.
This from the guy who did “Avatar,” which was simply Dances with Wolves with the Indians blue, the wolves flying, and the US military a group of psychotic racists and murderers. Get lost, James.
Uh...ya...new concept in Hollywood....
“She’s an objectified icon”
He’s kind of full of crap. The rebuttal from the WW director is right. There’s no reason female heroes need to be anymore conflicted and troubled than male. I mean Sarah Connor is awesome, much like troubled male heroes can be awesome, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ll give him props on the backslapping part though, it was kind of pathetic how much of a victory lap Hollywood took for finally getting around to giving one of the most iconic superheroes ever a movie 17 years into the superhero movie boom. Glad they finally did it, but the amount of credit they took was pretty unsightly.
Actually at the time of the first movie his wife was Sharon Williams, he cheated on her with his Terminator producer Gale Ann Hurd (who’s a great producer), dumped her before T2 (but she has character creation co-credit so she gets a check for every T movie) and married Kathryn Bigelow, split with her and actually stayed unmarried for a while THEN finally married Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) for a couple of years. He’s actually been with his 5th Suzy Amis since 2000, which is kind of a miracle.
It is weird that many action movies make their heroine butch, as though she couldn’t be athletic and capable and still be feminine.
Additionally, many action movies make their heroine a man-hater, who is as negative towards her allies as she is towards her adversaries.
Having heroines that are feminine and have positive relationships with the guys on their side is great.
Hilarious! Cameron is an insufferable prig.
Exactly. So many of the Hollywood studio executives predicted a female lead female superhero movie would flop. Marvel took ages to finally green light Captain Marvel.
Thanks for that recommendation...I’ll check it out.
Have you seen any of his films? He constantly shows strong female action heroes.
Which if it wasn’t for the fact that Marvel can print money probably would flop. Not a very popular character in the books, but then neither were the Guardians, and I can’t keep track of how many comic lines Dr Strange has had canceled. So it will make money, in the end character gender doesn’t really matter, write it well, act it well, edit well, and the hero can be a guy, a girl or a freaking tree.
LOL
That was great. :D
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.