Reboots V: Femsurgence 2

Welcome to the long awaited 5th installment of The Reboot Chronicles, a series of interrelated posts on the topic of reboots. It’s basically a reboot about a pre existing post condemning reboots. In the past few posts of this series I’ve mainly been going over what’s wrong in the realm of reboots. We’ve over viewed the Reboot dilemma, discussed Disney’s live action cash grabs, went over feminism’s part in the reboot epidemic, and what makes a good reboot. Today we’ll be revisiting the topic of the Femsurgence and why it is that Hollywood keeps making these female reboots.

To put it simply, I think that Hollywood uses feminism as an excuse when a movie turns out bad. It was taken to the next level when Hollywood started just rebooting movies and throwing women in them for a quick buck. Before everyone loses their shit, I want to reiterate that I am not saying their shouldn’t be female led and written movies. I went into a whole shpiel about how women offer a different perspective in a primarily male dominated industry in the original Femsurgence post. I just feel that lately, Hollywood has been using feminism as a scapegoat when a movie flops.

Critics gave a female led movie 42%? This is clearly a sign of how prevelant sexism still is in society and does not at all reflect the quality of the movie. You should support it just to spite these sexist critics. It’s all a load of crap and I think the best example of using feminism as an excuse for a bad movie is Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel is a perfect example of a studio using femininity as an excuse for why a movie was received poorly. As a big comic nerd, I could confidently say that most Marvel fans did not enjoy Captain Marvel, myself included. I know that a lot of people online are saying people hated it because of the actress and because of the forced feminist ideals pushed in the movie. They say that since many superhero movie fans are men, they must be sexist and that’s bullshit. I, like most, hated the movie for a multitude of reasons. The plot was boring, the big reveal that the kree were the bad guys was not even a little surprising, the main character was unrelatable, the big climax fight was ridiculous, and Captain Marvel was far to overpowered to present any believable stakes within the movie. I won’t get into how ridiculous the way Nick Fury lost his eye was because this isn’t a movie review. The point is that people didn’t like that movie because it was bad. The feminist ideals pushed isn’t what made the movie bad. It being a female led superhero didn’t make it a bad movie. Bad writing made it a bad movie.

Do you want to know how I know that? Well let’s compare Captain Marvel with a good female led superhero movie, Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman was fucking fantastic. It had a compelling plot, a unique story, amazing action sequences, and great twists. It was a good movie with good writing. Did it inspire and empower women everywhere? Yes. Did that fact hinder it’s viewing or box office? Well let’s check the numbers. Wonder Woman had the highest box office for any superhero movie, it earned a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, had the best second week hold of any superhero film in 15 years, and was the top summer movie of Summer 2017. How did it achieve all of this? Not because it was female led but because it was a good movie. The male dominated superhero fandom had no problem with Wonder Woman because it was a good movie, it’s that simple.

Like I said in the last Femsurgence, women have a unique view that differs from men and offers a different perspective to create original content. Wonder Woman is a prime example of that and it was well received from men and women alike. Chalking up the bad reception that Captain Marvel got to sexism is just an excuse for a bad movie. Making excuses for mediocre female led movies is a hindrance to the progress of female made and led movies and belittles the achievements of female movies that are actually good. Don’t let the fear of being a sexist stop you from criticizing a bad move just like you wouldn’t condemn a movie for being female led. Criticizing movies is how we increase the quality of movies and giving passes to movies that play the gender card is a hindrance to progress.

I rest my case and let the hate mail come in.

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Click here to read Reboots I: Endless Reboots

Click here to read Reboots II: Desolation of Disney

Click here to read Reboots III: Femsurgence

Click here to read Reboots IV: A New Spider-Man