What's the Deal With Women Superheroes on Screen?

If you're a regular viewer of superhero movies, you probably would have noticed how poorly female superheroes are treated on screen. Some of the most loved female heroes have either been bumped to minor roles in comic book movies, or in worst cases headlined some of the worst movies over the past two decades.

Given the current crop of superhero movies, you would expect to see at least some films devoted to women superheroes. No such luck. If anything Hollywood seems to be deliberately avoiding making films based on female heroes. Take for instance Wonder Woman. One of the most beloved female DC characters of all time was caught in movie development hell for a long time. Even when DC had appeared to get the ball rolling for a Wonder Woman TV series, the show was cancelled after its pilot episode.

1) The X-Men franchise:

The X-Men have some of the most famous female superheroes. Yet we've barely seen anything from them on screen. Mutant goddess Storm was reduced to spending the entire two movies behind the controls of the X- Jet. Bryan Singer spent the entire second X-Men movie building up Jean Grey's split persona as the destructive Phoenix, for Brett Ratner to keep the character in silence for the whole of The Last Stand. It seems Fox are afraid to unleash the full potential of their female mutants, even if the mutant's power is an essential story device.

2) Fantastic 4:

Yet, another one of Fox's disaster movies. The Fantastic 4 members were terribly cast. With the exception of Chris Evans as The Human Torch, Loan Gruffudd, Michael Chiklis and Jessica Alba should stay clear of superhero films in the future. Perhaps the worst in the bunch was Alba as the Invisible Woman. Were the guys behind Fantastic 4 unsure of Alba's looks? As she was constantly changing contact lenses and hair colour in attempt to look more Barbie as the film progressed. Perhaps they should have focused less on making Alba undress in every F4 movie, and more so on character development.

3) Elektra and Catwoman:

Two of the most beloved female superheroes from Marvel and DC have had the misfortune of starring in perhaps two of the worst comic book movies to date. Despite impressing in Daredevil, Jennifer Garner was forced to endure a 2005 spinoff movie, with ridiculous plot lines and terrible acting. I though Garner was one of the only few highlights in Daredevil, showing that female heroes can have substance, yet all that was in pushed aside in Elektra, as Garner just became a device for action sequences.

Catwoman is a different beast all together. Halle Berry is awkwardly cast (and no it has nothing to do with her race) as she is stripped of any essence of the beloved DC character. This is not the Selina Kyle from the comics. No, Berry's Catwoman lacks any presence or motivation, and it's hard to believe why she takes up the mantle 0f Catwoman if it's just to get revenge on a few who wronged her. Did I mention the movie is ridiculed by terrible dialogue and CGI? I just hope Anne Hathaway restores Selina Kyle to cinematic glory and she isn't just in The Dark Knight Rises movie as someone for Bruce to bed.

I only have such a gripe with how women superheroes are portrayed on screen because it reflects how Hollywood is still living in the dark ages. There are tons of female characters from the comics that deserve movies. I'm sure audiences would have preferred a Wonder Woman or Black Canary movie far more than the recent DC flop Jonah Hex. If Marvel and DC continue to portrayal female heroes this bad, then I expect future movies such as Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow to be box office flops.

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What's Next For Batman in Film?

Next year Christopher Nolan will bring an end to what promises to be the greatest superhero movie trilogy of all time. The man behind Batman's on screen resurrection has constantly assured fans that The Dark Knight Rises will be his last outing as director of the bat franchise. Whilst I'm sure Batman's on screen future depends on the success of Marvel's Avengers, as DC will look to get the ball rolling for their own Justice League movie, I'm not so sure a Batman reboot it the way forward for the Caped Crusader.

After all, how do you top a franchise, which has arguably set the standard for comic book movies? Reboots like The Amazing Spider-Man and Superman: Man of Steel I understand, but rebooting a franchise of such high quality that still oozes potential makes little sense to me. If Batman isn't going to be played by Christian Bale in the next bat flick I'm not interested. Enter Dick Grayson.

I've already done a post on how Robin could factor into The Dark Knight Rises, but I doubt that's going to happen given filming is underway and there's no sign of any casting for the Boy Wonder. That doesn't mean there's no possibility of seeing Dick Grayson is some film capacity in the near future. I suggest going the Kick-Ass route with a teenage Grayson, and have him decide to fight crime on his own, inspiring to be like the caped crusader. I doubt Batman's antics in the third film are likely to end crime in Gotham forever, so the city will be in need for a new hero.

Grayson is not like Batman though. Unlike Bruce, Dick did not feel responsible for his family's death. Whilst he wanted to avenge them, Dick has never quite the amount of anger Bruce had in his early years. If Grayson were to get his own film, his circus life and the death of his family would need to be dealt with early on. This way the rest of the film can be spent building up Grayson's character, as he attempts to mimic the actions set by Batman from the first three films. To make the character flawed and realistic, the film should showcase how Dick struggles to mimic the fighting style of the Dark Knight. After all, Bruce spent time training overseas to prepare him for his life fighting crime. To have Grayson become an expert crime fighter on his own would be unrealistic. Dick would need to develop his own fighting style suited to his past as an acrobat. Watching him develop his own style would be much more interesting and fluid considering how botched the cinematography was in Batman's movie fight scenes.

What's most important is that the character should not be looking for revenge; he should be looking for justice. If cinema is not ready to have Wayne and Grayson together in a film, then Dick should base his morals on the crime fighter he read and heard about. It's a much more modern take on the sidekick role. Also the character's costume should be a lot more amateur, with no cape. He is only an orphaned teenager after all. Lastly this is not a film about Robin, the Boy Wonder. Hearing the name Robin in cinema would likely bare a stigma from the famously flawed Batman & Robin film. Grayson should go through the film nameless until he catches the attention of Gotham's police force that refer to him as The Nightwing.

So there's my method how the Batman franchise should be continued. Would you prefer a Batman reboot after the last film hits cinemas next year? As always leave your comments below and let me know where you think the Batman franchise is heading.

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