It looks like James Cameron took the time out of making his “10 plus year in the making” sequel of Avatar to comment on the hype of Wonder Woman, and what he stated confirmed one thing, he should go back to worrying about those blue people. In a new interview with The Guardian, Cameron claims “all of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided.” He stated that the film was, “male Hollywood doing the same old thing” on account of the fact that he feels Wonder Woman as a character is “an objectified icon. I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards.”
In regards to the leading lady, he compared her to Terminator’s Sarah Connor, saying “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!”
With those very controversial comments, it’s not surprising that Patty Jenkins has responded. Jenkins stated,
“James Cameron’s inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising as, though he is a great filmmaker, he is not a woman,” Jenkins wrote in a note she posted to Twitter. “Strong women are great. His praise of my film Monster, and our portrayal of a strong yet damaged woman was so appreciated. But if women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong, and we aren’t free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven’t come very far have we. I believe women can and should be EVERYTHING just like male lead characters should be. There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman. And the massive female audience who made the film a hit it is, can surely choose to judge their own icons of progress.”
One has to wonder what Cameron was thinking of knocking on the most successful female directed and lead film in history.
