2016 So Far: On Female Characters in Superhero Films

(top) Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, in Captain America: Civil War

(bottom) Psylocke, played by Olivia Munn, in Captain America: Civil War

So I saw X Men: Apocalypse and though I (surprisingly) enjoyed it quite a bit (the action scenes, with Quicksilver's rescue scene in particular, are extremely well done, and there are some very good performances), one issue I had was that, being a film so packed with new characters, some just couldn't or wouldn't make any impact on me whatsoever. Olivia Munn's portrayal of Psylocke must have been one of the most overhyped introductions to the X-Men universe. She has about 5 lines, max, has absolutely no character development whatsoever throughout the whole thing, and doesn't even get that much to do in the action sequences besides that scene everyone knows by now, of her slicing a car into two. The most striking thing about her is probably her impractical costume.

Now Munn as I said is hardly the only character who's underdeveloped. In fact I would say that besides James McAvoy's Professor X, Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan's Jean Grey and Psylocke, and Evan Peters' Quicksilver, all the other characters get very little development or depth, even the main villain played by OSCAR ISAAC (how can you give that man a role with no depth?), or simply retread character arcs from previous installments (poor Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender simply going through the motions again). Particularly egregiously underwritten are Rose Byrne's Moira MacTaggert who gets even less to do than the very little she had in First Class, becoming essentially an expositionary device, kind of this film's equivalent of Don Cheadle's War Machine in Captain America: Civil War (though like Cheadle she does have a good last scene); and Ben Hardy's Angel who's simply a one-note hateful villain with very little substance to that note, who with Munn makes for two very forgettable Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

So it's not just female characters who get the short end of the stick in Apocalypse but I'll be singling out Munn not because she's particularly bad (she's not), nor does she give the worst performance in the cast (she's just a bit bland, Hardy has one or two terrible moments), but because of some comments she made recently regarding her role in this film. In the process of discussing the 'strength' of her role as Psylock, she implicitly tried to throw another actress, or at least that actress' role, under the bus: Morena Baccarin, who in Deadpool played the role of the titular vigilante's girlfriend Vanaessa. Munn implicitly stated that she chose the role of Psylocke over Vanessa because she didn't want to play another 'girlfriend' role (for the extended interview, here it is: http://americanwaymagazine.com/content/role-reversal, source is American Way Magazine) .

Fair enough if she prefers one role to another. But did she have to deprecate the role of another actress just to add emphasis to her own role's supposed strengths? Now I'll be the first to admit that Vanessa isn't a great role, it's still slightly underwritten (but then again almost every supporting role in Deadpool is and it works for the film), and it is in some ways still a cliche 'girlfriend' role. But it undeniably has more 'substance' than Psylocke in terms of screen-time, dialogue and just overall impact. Baccarin has great chemistry with Ryan Reynolds, is actually rather funny in their scenes together in setting his deadpan one-liners up with her own sassy comebacks, and is not simply some 'damsel in distress' in the final act, getting in on some of the fun occasionally too.

What I'm trying to say here is essentially a reiteration of an earlier article I wrote about 'strong' female characters and roles in films, and 'strong' characters in general (reference:
http://www.savageonline.co.uk/our-london/have-strong-female-characters-become-a-cliche-in-themselves/). A superhero character's depth and strength is not accounted for by just having a 'cool' action scene here and there. Psylocke for example gets more opportunities to show off her powers than Jean Grey in Apocalypse, but Sophie Turner still ends up making far more of an impact because her characters strengths and weaknesses, personality, and relationship to other characters is written far better. Her character may not have been conceived as 'badass' a character as Munn's but she still resonates a great deal more as a character and thus, has more 'strength' in her portrayal of Jean Grey as an X-Man.

And if we're looking to other female characters in 2016 superhero films...well, Batman v.s. Superman was terrible but one very good thing about it was Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Gadot actually doesn't even have that much more material to work with than Munn, in fact I'd say they have just about the same sort of screentime and Gadot has terrible material around her to work with, but she manages to make her own 'badass' character work a great deal better simply because she doesn't just focus on Wonder Woman's physicality and aptitude in battle, but also adds such grace and eloquence to her limited dialogue that makes her performance and character work a great deal better than it should have.

Or of course my favourite film of the year so far, Captain America: Civil War. I'm still amazed at the balancing act the Russo brothers managed to pull off, the only characters I feel were given the short end of the stick were General Ross (William Hurt), War Machine and to an extent Vision (Paul Bettany), although they're all still good. Everyone else in the ensemble is FANTASTIC. Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. are obviously the dramatic highlights as the warring Captain America and Iron Man, but almost equally impressive are all the supporting Avengers.

In terms of female characters, what I've always loved about the Captain America films is that unlike say, the Thor films (where Natalie Portman's Jane is an underwritten bore and Kat Dennings and Jamie Alexander are good but have thankless roles), they never forget to compellingly portray the fairer sex. Hayley Atwell's Agent Peggy Carter was a highlight of the first Captain America film; her niece, played by Emily VanCamp here, gets a very moving speech in Civil War that is the prime motivational factor for Captain America to take a stand against the Sokovia Accords. Black Widow, who played a big role in Winter Soldier and has a great deal of emotional investment in the plot of Civil War, started off as just your standard 'action girl in latex' role but has throughout the films developed into an extremely compelling character (though in addition to improved writing, I also have to attest some of that to Scarlett Johansson improving a lot as an actress; her performance in Civil War is one of my top 3 favourite supporting performances of the year).

And to reiterate a point I made before in my article on 'strong female characters': male or female, characters can be both written as having discernable weaknesses, and still make for very compelling characters. In this film we have two of both male and female variety (I don't want to categorize by gender but hopefully you get my point), Daniel Bruhl's Zemo and Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch. Zemo is the least superpowered villain in the Marvel films thus far, he's just an Average Joe really in terms of physical skill, but he ends up being the most chilling, and the first to succesfully disband and defeat the Avengers, by his Iago-esque cunning and determination, which Bruhl brilliantly conveys. As for Scarlet Witch, Olsen ditches most of the distracting accent she had in Age of Ultron and gives an appropriately terrified, morose performance in the initial stages of the film to convey her almost childlike state of fear at a world she does not understand and does not understand her, making her portrayal of Wanda gradually finding strength in herself to act against this fear quite moving. Both characters are powerful in different respects but also flawed and weak in others and are thus, incredibly interesting to examine.

Lastly on a not completely unrelated note, I expect that Captain Marvel's going to be cast at some point. Elizabeth Debicki's already been nabbed by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (but maybe she'll be playing the character there, who knows), but if not her I'm campaigning for Emily Blunt or Natalie Dormer. Although with the recent casting coups and successes Marvel have had (I wouldn't have picked Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther and how wrong I was proven), maybe it's best to just sit back and watch.