Yes!

[selenak]

In this interview with Marvel honcho Kevin Feige, the passage about Black Widow made me dance the dance of joy. Then he goes on to discuss the question of female superheroines and whether or not they'll fair well on screen:

Q: There’s been talk of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow getting her own spin-off films. How far along are we from seeing the

Comments

[moonspinner]

A: Well, I would say Kill Bill, or I could go as far back as Alien and Aliens. When they’re done good, they are just awesome hero movies. It’s only when they don’t do well that they say, "Oh, it’s because it was about a woman." No, it’s because the movie was bad.

Q: How do you feel about a movie like Elektra, then?

A: [Pauses] Did you enjoy that movie?

Q: I enjoyed… parts of that movie.

A: Right. [Smiling] I think if that had been a better movie, more people would have come to see it.

I find this so interesting. While I agree a lot with the earlier part of the quote (about good movies=good movies and bad movies=movies about women/black people, etc.), I think that there is also a phenomena where successful (note: not necessarily good) movies starring women are lumped as "teenage girl" flicks and are not taken seriously/derided by the "nerd-stream". But that is slightly OT anyway.

The interview gives me a lot of hope. Elektra could have been a wonderful movie if handled right. I really enjoyed the relationship between Elektra and Abby. I can re-watch their moments together ad infinitum and it makes up a lot for the bad in the movie. Because the bad.. is really bad. Superhero movies shouldn't be boring and this one was. I think apart from the writing and direction and story (an assassin with an agent? really?), having Jen Garner be the star was not also a good idea. She's great in an ensemble TV show but I don't think she has the shoulders to be the title character/protagonist on the big screen.

[selenak]

Yes, I think he's very right that successful films starring a female main character like Kill Bill or the Alien quartet are "hero movies" while flops are declared to be women's pics etc.

Re: Elektra: I must admit I didn't watch it, word of mouth was too bad. So I can't judge it one way or the other on a personal basis myself.