Just came back from X-Men: First Class.

[proteus_lives]

Greetings True Believers!

I just came back from X-Men: First Class. Here are my thoughts on the movie.

My opinion of it is...mixed.

WARNING!!!

AHEAD BE SPOILERS!!!

Comments

[myniamh]

5. January Jones had Emma Frost down pretty well

I couldn't see her as Emma Frost. At all. Unless, and I'm grabbing the idea with all my might, she was playing everyone for some personal motivation. There was just nothing there of comics!Emma, even the Wolverine: Origins Emma had more spine.

That really is my only complaint about the film. I loved the cameos!

[proteus_lives]

I thought she was too submissive too. No comics-spine in her.

[yaseen101]

I think that's been the problem of many of the heroines in the superhero movies. Characters who are strong and are far more capable are...not very capable and strong. Jean Grey and Mary Jane comes to mind.

[greenmask]

And Rogue.

Rooooogue~~!

[myniamh]

Jean and Mary Jane are good examples, although I think a lot of the characters are under used.
It's as if the movie creators are still stuck with bog-standard female tropes of strength instead of in comics, where we have had sixty odd years from to pick examples of powers/strengths of female/mutant characters. I'm not sure why they would, they seem to be comics fans on the whole. Might be that they forget when translating it for film?
Never thought I'd be praising the treatment of women in comics over any other form of media.

[yaseen101]

It seems that the higher you go the more difficult it becomes to have good female characters,especially in places where the most money is involved.

Though animation seems to be doing a lot better lately.

I remember being slightly disappointed when I saw the movie version of Black Widow, especially after having read the first few issues of her wonderful ongoing and those George Perez drawn issues. That were so much more that they could have been done and she was just the hot secretary and ninja babe.

I keep thinking how awesome would it be if they introduced Carol Danver's into the movie verse but alas no sign of that yet.

The only other female movie character I remember liking was Pepper Potts from the first Iron Man movie. I'm not sure about Betty Ross or Jane Foster since I haven't watched those movies but Pepper was one of the few movie female characters that I didn't find myself cringing or facepalming at and was completely awesome.

[myniamh]

Carol Danvers was one of the two female pilots in X2, it was just a throw away detail but she is there.

I did like that Pepper was seen as competant and strong, as well as not mooning away over Tony after she decided it was a lost cause and Jane is both competant and a strong person but if they are the only good ones we can think of out of all the combat trained superpowered female characters then something is way off. Storm, Jean and Emma could be put next to Ripley and Sarah Connor and notcome off baddly in comparison.

[yaseen101]

Oooh, that's awesome.

I wonder why they don't just give the female character's their own opponents or enemies to fight? That way we don't have to deal with them being on the sidelines or getting worfed for the inevitable hero/villain confrontation.

Funnily enough, Jane and Potts were from the Marvel studios and the X-Ladies were done by FOX. Makes me wonder what they might have in store for Maria Hill since she's one of the few no-nonsense characters and they can't pull the same thing that they did with Natasha as there is no excuse for it.

[myniamh]

Fox doesn't have a great reputation for female characters in films. One executive is quoted as saying they weren't going to do any more female lead movies because the two movies that did in one year with female leads (The Brave one and another I can't remember) didn't do massively well. They did OK, just not smashingly. Sif is fantastic in Thor as well, she is in all the fights/scenes the Warriors Three are in

[yaseen101]

Man, I want to meet an Executive one day that doesn't pull that line.

I'm glad to hear about the state of female characters in First Class and Thor. It makes me all the more interested in checking them out. :)

[randyjackson221]

I dunno, I've always thought that Emma always played everyone for her own purposes. I thought she was fine.

Additionally, it was the 1960's. I expect a little sexism and chauvinism, and I expect Emma to put up with it to a point.