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In the depress-athon that is 2017, there’s only been one unequivocal success story: Wonder Woman. The film came out, people saw it, and it conquered the box office. After a decade of naysayers (a.k.a. men) saying that female superheroes would never slay at the box office, Wonder Woman picked up her sword and shield and did the damn thing. It’s the biggest movie of the summer and the second biggest movie of 2017, bringing in $404 million domestically (coming in second only behind March’s Beauty and the Beast).
But not so fast, Wonder Woman! Your unequivocal success just got a little equivocal because James Cameron has a hot take! In an interview with The Guardian, the director of The Terminator, Titanic, Aliens, Avatar, and hypothetically four Avatar sequels decided to take Wonder Woman down a notch. Quiet, generations of women that finally experienced the awesome might of seeing a powerful female superhero inspire the world!
“All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided. She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing! I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards. 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!”
Yes, James Cameron just cited a James Cameron character as an example of how Hollywood should depict women. It’s a shame Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins decided to pursue her own vision instead of looking at the path laid out by James Cameron. A true feminist director would know that a man did a thing first and best!
There’s a lot of reductive nonsense in these quotes, the most glaring example being Cameron calling Wonder Woman an “objectified icon” and indirectly reducing Gal Gadot down to merely a “beauty icon.” First of all, James Cameron, you have a type.
Apparently if a female hero isn’t sweaty or sinewy, then they aren’t really a hero. Cameron gave us two action movies with uncompromising female protagonists (Aliens in 1986 and Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991) played by non-beauty icons (?) Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton. Cameron indirectly points to those two in the interview when he asked, “How many times do I have to demonstrate the same thing over again? I feel like I’m shouting in a wind tunnel!”
Well, James, you demonstrated it a handful of times 20-30 years ago, and then you decided to disappear into four Avatar sequels, only emerging to gripe about a current movie that’s doing the actual work.
Seriously, what’s different about Gal Gadot? Did she not get sweaty enough? Is he upset that she didn’t carry a big-ass gun? His baffling assumption that a female hero needs to be a screw up or cold or super serious in order to be a hero is ludicrous.
Wonder Woman is optimistic. Wonder Woman is inspirational and hopeful. She’s positive. She’s an ambassador and, until push comes to shove, a pacifist. She believes in the inherent goodness of man, even when man continues to let her down. And that, James Cameron, is her character flaw! Believe it or not, women can have character flaws that aren’t being “troubled” or “a terrible mother.” Wonder Woman is naive as hell in her movie, and even kinda gullible, and she has to grow push past that and reckon with the nuance of life in the truly heightened and horrible setting of World War I. Maybe Wonder Woman needed to talk about dealing with “humanity’s bullshit” while taking a drag off a cigarette in order for that to play to Cameron, but I think the rest of us got it.
As for Wonder Woman being a step backwards, I offer an eye roll and a groan. Wonder Woman is, I reiterate, the biggest movie of the summer and the second biggest movie of 2017. It’s the highest-grossing superhero origin film of all time, the highest-grossing DC extended universe movie, and the highest-grossing film directed by a woman. It’s the best-reviewed female superhero of all time, by a mile. People (a.k.a. men) place ridiculous barriers for entry when it comes to keeping women out of the sci-fi/superhero/action genres. Considering how horrible Catwoman and Elektra were a decade ago, Wonder Woman needed to be an overwhelming success in every way in order to be considered valid; it had to get great reviews and dominate theaters just so haters couldn’t nitpick its success. Wonder Woman did that, and now Mr. My Alien Ladies Need To Have Boobs is whining.
But honestly, the essential comeback to Cameron’s comments came from Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins, who did not mince words.
Thanks for the thoughts, James. We’ll see you in 20-whenever when (if?) Avatar 2 comes out.
