I dunno. As a project Red Sonja’s been kind of cursed, innit? It’s been in development hell for a decade and the previous director (Bryan Singer) got yanked after he got accused (again) of having sex with minors. So now they’ve brought in Jill Soloway to replace him as director. Now, I’m not going to say “Jill who?” because for all I know, everybody watched Transparent. But this Hollywood Reporter passage is fascinating, in its way:
Hiring Soloway is in some ways a coup for the project, whose character sometimes found herself in the trappings of adolescent fantasy clichés and trapped in the male gaze. Soloway is known for elevating a strong female perspective and for themes of gender and inclusivity.
I assume that the ‘sometimes’ implies that in the latest comic book series the character is no longer eye candy for horny teenagers. Which is fine, but: without the chain mail armor and somewhat bountiful fighting style, what exactly is the point of the character? And how does the studio expect to make its money back*?
Moe Lane
PS: The history of Red Sonja as a character is very interesting, by the way. You will likely find it of note. I myself had key details of the character wrong, starting with confusing her with Valeria.
*Nice try, but you can’t say ‘Wonder Woman‘ to me. Patty Jenkins, bless her, made damn sure that my male gaze was firmly fixed on Gal Gadot, who is a ridiculously attractive woman who gets even more ridiculously attractive with every piece of clothing she puts on. That wasn’t the only point of the movie, true — but it was for-sure there, and I for one was happy to see it.
Annnnnd….it looks like a pass on Red Sonja.
… Wonder Woman was a decent movie that I liked all the more for putting a very attractive woman in clothing that did not flaunt her assets. Frankly, the clothing shopping scene was amazing.
Gal Gadot is a throw back to beautiful women like Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Smoke-show. I approve.
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Wonder Woman as a movie is ‘OK’. I still think it worked better as Captain America (Haley Atwell is another smoke-show.) However, it was a good example of a Superhero who did not have to be guilted into acting or suffer a traumatic event in order to know what is right. It was a better Superman movie than Man of Steel (low bar, I know.)
I saw the title, and thought to myself “it’s a sop for the TERFs”.
Then I read the piece, and remembered Leftists don’t work like that.
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I was about to say that I imagine there are a whole lot of pissed off feminists. Then I realized I didn’t have to imagine, and that’s pretty much their default state.