myrrh heat than light wrote:Probably opening a can of worms here, but...
I'd consider myself a feminist but I think this (and Ghostbusters) are going about things the wrong way. I want to see strong female characters in films, and I want to see more ethnic minorities in cinema too. But rebooting existing franchises by recasting the characters with females is just stupid. I don't want to see Debbie Ocean just as I don't want to see Larry Croft or Alan Ripley. I don't want a black James Bond either.
These are existing characters and they're being changed because of no other reason than to cash in on the 'Hollywood is sexist' train. I can just imagine the pitch for this (probably delivered by a guy), 'it's Oceans Eleven - but with girls!' That, I'm afraid, is the definition of discrimination.
Mad Max: Fury Road and The Hunger Games movies proved that films can deliver strong female roles without resorting to gender recasting. I hope this fails, as I suspect it will.
Yeah I know, bumpain white guy etc.
I think it all depends on what the IP is.
A black James Bond? I can see that this would mess up the existing canon but I am not against it as such. They should have avoided showing the ancestral home of the Bond’s in Skyfall and gone with the “James Bond is a codename” idea. Either way the character changes every few years, I see no real reason why Bond has to be white.
A female Dr Who? It’s a show about a regenerating alien. I see no problem with the sex of the character changing.
A female Ghostbusters? It could have worked with a decent script and less “remember this from the original!!!!!!” bullshit. A comedy about a team of people catching ghosts isn’t restricted to one sex or the other. I agree though that they should have concentrated on delivering a decent movie rather than just swapping genders and thinking that would make an interesting film.
Female Ocean’s? Meh, Ocean’s 11 was decent but the sequels were strawberry floating awful. I couldn’t care less what a new Ocean’s film is about or who is in it.
Because of you though, I really do now want to see a movie where Larry Croft is searching the galaxy for an ancient artefact, while helped out by his sidekick Alan Ripley.