The Geek Beat: The Girls of Summer 2008
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Family Films, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, The Geek Beat
With the end of summer drawing near, it's now time to begin the season's autopsy on the Beat. If you're totally burned out on discussing or reading anything to do with summer blockbusters, you may want to skip the next few columns – though I'd be terribly hurt if you did.
This week, I want to discuss the girls of summer geekdom. At the beginning of the season, I complained about the lack of superheroines in film, a trend that not even the summer flicks seem to be reversing. (Unless it's a Top Cow property – it looks as though we will get Witchblade and Magdalena before we ever see Wonder Woman or Black Widow.) Nevertheless, women weren't a complete nonentity in the franchises this year -- some were quite interesting, some were merely bland, and a few were complete failures. I think it's important that we recognize the good and the bad, and with that, let's tally up the scorecard and hand out the prizes.
This week, I want to discuss the girls of summer geekdom. At the beginning of the season, I complained about the lack of superheroines in film, a trend that not even the summer flicks seem to be reversing. (Unless it's a Top Cow property – it looks as though we will get Witchblade and Magdalena before we ever see Wonder Woman or Black Widow.) Nevertheless, women weren't a complete nonentity in the franchises this year -- some were quite interesting, some were merely bland, and a few were complete failures. I think it's important that we recognize the good and the bad, and with that, let's tally up the scorecard and hand out the prizes.
Shall we talk failures, first? It's better to get them out of the way quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid. The worst heroines of the summer season were, oddly, the ones most "established" in their franchise mythology, the ones most beloved by girl geeks everywhere. I'm talking about Marion Ravenwood, Agent/Dr. Dana Scully, and Evelyn "Evey" O'Connell. (Calling her beloved is a bit of a stretch, but I always held her in fond regard for being a brainy librarian with fabulous shoes.) All of them were dull, uninspired versions of their previous incarnations. It was hard to believe Marion had ever survived a hard-scrabble existence in Nepal, drank Nazi sympathizers under the table, or sparred with Indiana Jones. I detect the hand of George Lucas in her empty barbs and lost expression, it's like watching a pregnant Amidala all over again. I've said it before – one thing I've always admired about Steven Spielberg is that he wrote engaging mothers, women who handled their children's announcement of extraterrestrial pals with realistic skepticism and humor. Just because they had children, and just because they were often stuck raising them single-handedly, didn't mean they were stupid. Sadly, he didn't extend his knack to Marion Ravenwood, who just seemed lost and irresponsible.
Was motherhood what brought down Agent Scully, too? I want to believe that an FBI Agent as ruthlessly brilliant and tough as Scully wouldn't become a humorless cipher once returned to civilian life. I want to believe she wouldn't let Mulder run around in a grungy beard when she berated him for leaving the toliet seat up in Arcadia. And I want to believe that she wouldn't have to Google medical treatments! (It brings to mind a MAD Magazine spoof I read eons ago, where Mulder asked how she had found time to go to medical school and become an FBI Agent – and she replied that it was cheaper and easier to just buy the scrubs.) Thank goodness I still have Temperance Brennan to be my guiding light. Young girls, look to her! (You know, when it comes to cool chicks, television has the lion's share from The Sarah Connor Chronicles to Battlestar Galactica.)
I'm not sure what happened to Evey O'Connell. She had begun to degenerate into a silly sexpot by The Mummy Returns, so it's not surprising that come the third installment and a casting change, she gave up Egyptology for penning romance novels. Now, I think this could have been a cute quirk alongside a career as a studious professor or museum curator, but it's bitterly disappointing to see her shove aside her Bembridge ambitions for bodice rippers. (I now sense half of my professors reading this and thinking about the brilliant career I gave up hunting scraps of Anglo-Saxon. Cest'la vie.)
And now, on to the successes. While her dialogue was clunky, and she seems to be the only non-floozy female in Gotham City, I found Rachel Dawes to be a very reassuring presence in The Dark Knight. There were opportunities galore to sex her up, and flake away her brains, but Christopher Nolan didn't take it. Instead, she's a capable career woman, who dresses smartly (love that blue dress of hers), and holds her own against Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent. I can see why both men love her, because frankly, I kind of do too. As the brainy girl oft passed up for the flashier model, I like that the smart girl gets the studliest guys in Gotham – and isn't dependent on either one of them. (Someone will knock me here for judging Dawes by her attractiveness to men, but perhaps I can temper it by saying that I especially admire Dawes' emotional fortitude in her darkest hour?)
And maybe I can further temper the "studly" remark by my commendation of Virginia "Pepper" Potts in Iron Man. I love that she so coolly resisted the suave charms of Tony Stark. She had a few wobbly moments in the middle of the film, but hey, not every personal assistant can handle corporate espionage and her boss in a robot suit. Plus her verbal volley towards Stark's "Remember that night?" made up for it. She could have easily hopped into bed with him at any point of the movie – investigative journalists did, with nary a care – but Potts knew she deserved better.
But the prize for the most kickass female of summer belongs to a little iPod lookalike named EVE. She's rebellious (her free flight after being dropped off on Earth speaks volumes), she packs firepower, and she takes her directive so seriously that no boy, not even one as cute and attentive as WALL-E, can dissuade her. There was something vaguely Princess Leia-like about her that I couldn't put my finger on – maybe it was her coloring, maybe it was her blaster, but when she proved to be a co-savior of Earth, I wasn't surprised. Frankly, the emotion tucked into her repeated "Plant!" packed more punch than most of the lines given to any of summer's love interests. Way to go EVE – it's a sad state of affairs when you're more complex and interesting than half your human counterparts. Let's hope Summer 2009 fares better in this regard. (I'm looking at you, Terminator: Salvation, Star Trek, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Don't let me down. Give me someone to rival Elizabeth Swann, at least.)
That concludes my scorecard on the girls of summer. There's two I left off because I haven't seen the films yet (I know, I know – I devoted more time to piracy than movies) and that's Liv Tyler as the latest Betty Ross in The Incredible Hulk, and Selma Blair's Liz Sherman in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. So please, tell me where you think they should rank! And do the same with any chicks I've missed, or chastise me for the ones I've ranked. And lest you think this column is becoming too girly, if all goes according to plan, we'll do one about the heroic boys later in the month. And I'll try not to use the word studly.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-12-2008 @ 1:47PM
Mike said...
Imagine my surprise when I Googled "Sexy+woman+geek+beat+off" that it returned a smartly written, non-shallow, eloquent article. Well done Elisabeth. Not what I've come to expect from a "I'd-fuck-a-stair-rail-if-Megan-Fox-had-touched-it" blog.
Seriously. Thanks. And no, I did not really Google that.
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8-12-2008 @ 2:49PM
scott said...
I agree with you for the most part... i do wish Marion had more of that old spunk in her, but at the same time it was great just seeing her again.
Liz/Selma was decent, but i thought the character was better used in the first movie.
Betty/Liv was also good, but very underused - i think both she and Bruce Banner lost a lot of character development in lieu of action sequences. hopefully there'll be a directors cut DVD.
And Pepper/Gwyneth definitely gets my vote for the kickass female of the summer!
(EVE was cool too...)
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8-12-2008 @ 2:49PM
Moo said...
Great column! I actually really liked Tyler as Ross in Hulk. She wasn't really "kick ass" but she had some very nice moments with the Hulk...of course they feel like King Kong (as all Hulk stories do) but truthfully they were more poignant than anything Peter Jackson acheived in his latest re-make of Kong.
Blair was overshadowed, I think, by all of the crazy creatures in Hellboy...including Hellboy himself. She did kinda kick ass, but I'm having trouble remembering her much in the film at all. Perhaps I've simply destroyed my short term memory with alcohol...
I really liked Potts in Iron Man. But then I'm an Iron Man nerd so it probably goes without saying.
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8-12-2008 @ 5:41PM
V.M.L. said...
Liz (Blair) kicked more ass in the HELLBOY sequel than in the first one. It made her seem like a whiny person in the first movie! Unfortunately, she didn't have enough screentime in the sequel. Of course, there's also drama between her and Hellboy. I'm not going to spoil anything for you.
I do agree that EVE totally kicked ass! She IS superheroine!
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8-12-2008 @ 7:57PM
AJ Wiley said...
I could not disagree more on Marion Ravenwood. I loved her just as much as I did in Raiders.
Then again, I thought the movie was fantastic, so clearly I'm in the minority.
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8-12-2008 @ 11:38PM
Jack Sparrow said...
I'm sorry I thought Rachel Dawes was a useless character since the first movie. In this one she wasn't really that necessary exept to act as a catalyst for the creation of Two-Face. I thought Pepper Potts was tons better. And EVE kicked butt too...
However, you didn't even MENTION The Fox from Wanted. Jolie's character was cold and badass. She beat the living hell out of everyone on screen, and was stronger than the hero, himself. She'd definitely be my vote in place of Rachel Dawes. She's definitely the most quintessential action heroine since Uma Thurman as The Bride.
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8-13-2008 @ 3:42AM
Elisabeth said...
Oh crap...you're right! That practically undermines my entire piece.
That movie seems to have just filtered out of my brain in some way I can't explain.
8-13-2008 @ 11:01AM
Julie said...
Unfortunately, I haven't seen all these babes in action yet, but between Marion Ravenwood, Pepper Potts and Eve, Wall*E's girl wins hands down.
Marion was a real disappointment. She was never my favorite Indy girl, but she was one tough chick. Years and motherhood seemed to have turned her into a complete idiot.
Pepper Potts I liked a lot. While she was one helluva personal assistant, she never really kicks any ass. Eve came with beauty, brains and blaster. Way to go Wall*E.
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8-14-2008 @ 6:11AM
Anon said...
Are n't you all forgetting Cate Blanchett as Dr. Irina Spalko in Indy 4, SHE was the kick ass woman of the summer.
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8-15-2008 @ 4:31AM
Elisabeth said...
She was less realistic than EVE, so she didn't make the cut. ;)
8-17-2008 @ 11:02PM
Meredith said...
Liz Sherman was more kick-ass than she was in "Hellboy," but the bulk of her story was given, unsurprisingly, to a "chick flick"-type of story, which, while not negating her cool factor, did play into the cliche idea of what happens when a female character is written by a man who isn't sure how to write one.
Betty Ross was interesting in that she was the complete opposite of Helpless Superhero Girlfriend. She wheeped and wibbled a little, but after watching Ed Norton's tortured performance, I did as well.
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8-18-2008 @ 3:29PM
Caroline said...
The comment against Ex-Agent Dana Scully was harsh...not because the character was a tad too far from what we saw in the first seven seasons (but more in keeping with the last two) but because Gillian Anderson was getting pregnant and was pregnant during the film. Physically, she could not be as 'kick-ass' as the fans would have like. And, comparing her to 'Bones' Brennan is an insult to Chris Carter, Gillian Anderson, and the whole series. Scully could run circles around Bones, intellectually and personally. Chris Carter never 'sold out' on his character to the extent Kathy Reichs does.
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8-18-2008 @ 3:43PM
Elisabeth said...
Those are some fighting words! ;)
Scully was *never* a physically strong character, so that wasn't my problem. She was never kung-fu fighting, she occasionally used her gun, but more often her wits. She was always dry, but she had a sharp sense of humor or sarcasm that lightened her character up. She was just a cipher -- and one who had to Google medical info on top of it.
Insulting the character of Temperance Brennan does nothing to help Chris Carter's poor writing -- which, if it is so fantastic, should have been consistent with the Scully presented in the series. Anderson's pregnancy may have affected stunts but it shouldn't have affected the deeper layers of Scully's character. She simply drifted through the film.
Frankly, I think Scully and Brennan are more than intellectual equals, and should *both* be respected as strong, non-sexualized female characters on television. I'm not going to argue the merits of fictional characters, but they're equals in my mind -- I never once said one was better than the other, I only expressed gratitude there was still one kicking around.
8-18-2008 @ 8:58AM
vmarshmallow said...
I agree about Marion Ravenwood and your comment about Steven Spielberg's mother characters. I was so excited that Marion would be back in the film and I was a bit disappointed.
I don't agree about Agent Scully, though, as I loved her as much as ever in the movie. I did laugh, though, when she googled Stem Cells and her only notes on it were to write Stem Cells at the top of the page. Oh well.
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8-18-2008 @ 9:32AM
Sioux said...
Jack Sparrow you are absolutely so correct!
Angelina made Wanted worth watching right to the end! She rocked! She is just so perfect in action roles.
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8-18-2008 @ 1:31PM
Jesse said...
I'm with you on a lot of this. I didn't see X-Files so I don't know how Scully measures up this time out. As for Marion, I loved seeing her on screen again, but she was a little "less" than before, but still spunky. The interactions with her and Indy were the only good parts about the movie.
I was wondering how Charlize and Angelina got missed. I didn't expect anything from either one of those movies, and I thought they both delivered kick ass performances. Wanted and Hancock are the two movies this Summer I was least looking forward too and I ended up liking both a lot. More than Indy I'm sad to say.
Pepper was strong and solid. I liked that and the interaction between her and Downey Jr. was great. Maggie out shined Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes by lightyears.
As for Maria Bello as Evie, it was a very obvious difference, but I liked how they transitioned to her. Yes they kind of faded her out a bit in favor of having Alex be the "smart one." Sort of. I did miss Rachel Weis a lot. But Maria was not a bad replacement. At least they didn't just kill off the character.
But my favorite by far has to be Selma Blair in Hellboy 2. I'm not a Hellboy fanboy per se, as I've never read the comics, (shame on me I know) but I loved the first one, and this one was a lot more fun to watch. The most fun I had at the movies all summer. She was strong, kick ass, funny, and beautiful. And she can make things burn. I think she has a firm grasp on the roll, and hope that a 3rd movie will come about with all the main actors (after del Torro finishes the Hobbit movies of course.)
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8-18-2008 @ 4:20PM
suzi said...
Evaluating the women in films aimed at teenage boys is a worthless endeavor -- the stronger they are (Rachel in DARK KNIGHT), the more likely it is they will get killed off. Despite the brilliance of DARK KNIGHT (primarily because of director Nolan), it is still a studio product. And, studio execs desperately curry the favor of teenagers and fanboys. The likelihood of getting strong female characters who survive in these films is low; the last thing young males who are still afraid of the opposite sex want is strong females in their fantasy-based films.
The Pepper character in IRON MAN was passive and without passion. Her catty remarks to the female reporter at the beginning of the film about "taking out the trash" was a low point. The depiction of the female reporter should have made women everywhere cringe. She had a legitimate point to make to Tony Stark about his weapons getting in the wrong hands, but her credibility (and therefore her point of view) was ruined when she "fell" for Stark's adolescent behavior and slept with him. To have "good girl" Pepper legitimize this by further humiliating the reporter with her "trash" remark disgusted me. I think female stars like Paltrow who are getting edged out of films because the studios cater to adolescent boys are forced into taking parts that make them cringe in order to remain box-office worthy. What a shame!
A few weeks ago, I watched ALL ABOUT EVE, a classic film from the Golden Age with Bette Davis. Davis as Margo Channing could wipe the floor with any of the women characters in the films mentioned in you article.
Screenwriters, directors, and studio execs ought to be ashamed of the way women characters are depicted in their films, and women viewers should complain loudly.
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8-18-2008 @ 6:35PM
Apathygrrl said...
I disagree with your comments about Scully. Most of the real reason her character was so emotionally distraught throughout the whole movie is the fact that she still misses their son, William. She's obviously deeply troubled about losing him and then when she forms an attachment to another dying child, Christian, it must have felt like losing a son all over again. No wonder she always seemed like her attention was elsewhere. I can't even begin to imagine what that must feel like to be in that sort of situation. She seemed so wounded the whole movie. She's definately not the little firecracker she used to be. Poor Scully :-(
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8-18-2008 @ 7:36PM
frogers said...
I missed Rachel Weiscz in "The Mummy" movie. She played Evey with a comic dottiness that made an otherwise okay love interest type of character memorable. Maria Bello is better in her indie movies.
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8-19-2008 @ 1:17PM
Veronica Sawyer said...
This is a great piece. I totally agree with the way many female characters have been watered down -- the part where Scully googles surgery techniques is one of the lowest points in a pretty awful film (and yes, I AM a big X-Files fan, which is why I found the film so horrible.)
But I also agree with Suzi that the situation is even more bleak than this piece makes it out to be. Suzi sums up how I felt about Pepper Potts and the female reporter perfectly -- I was so annoyed with those scenes! And I'm sorry, but Rachel Dawes was terribly written. Yes, she's *coded* to be a smart career woman (ie she wears a suit and interrogates a prisoner), which is nice, but her dialogue makes her extremely dumb -- I mean, it took her half the movie to realize that Harvey Dent's coin was two-sided! -- and a cipher for the creation of the Two Face character. Yes, she's brave when confronted with the Joker... and then gets tossed out a window. I love Maggie Gyllanhall as an actress, but the character was just as dull and pointless as when Katie Holmes played her. I'd actually rather see a film that didn't even bother having a female character (for example, There Will Be Blood, which I loved) than see a half-hearted attempt to write a boring, lifeless female character.
While it's nice to see women in suits that are not bathing suits -- and not even Scully escaped that fate! -- I'm still looking for a lot more from the movies.
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