LogFAQs > #975561977

LinkMarioSamus posted...

On a more relevant note, oh yeah I like how all these attempts to succeed older male heroes with younger female ones get so much pushback online but there was comparatively less of a fuss made about Courtney's Jack McClane being giving the spotlight in the fifth Die Hard over his father. I mean, okay, no one liked the decision, but people didn't get so fired up about it! I detect sexism.

For me, it depends on the character. Like if they made a "James Bond" franchise movie with the protagonist being Nomi, who was a whole lot of nothing, I'd absolutely be pissed. I'm not mad that she was the successor 007, just mad that after the hype she was an incredibly flat character who paled in comparison to every other female character in the movie (I would legit love a Paloma movie). Really the only interesting thing with her was the 007 number, and that resolved itself too abruptly.

Die Hard 5 was meh and Jack had little to do with that; he was decidedly generic for the most part, but was exceptional when having tension with John. However, one character could not have saved that movie from being anything more than a few loosely connected action sequences. I prefer Die Hard 4, which is his daughter Lucy's movie. The part where she is tied up and asks the bad guy if she can talk to her dad, only to say "there are only five of them left" is legendary. She knew she was only worth anything to the bad guy if she was alive. Though I don't know if her becoming an spy would have worked. It would have had to been done well and not felt forced.

With Star Wars, Rey was great in TFA and works as a Jedi - she was a compelling protagonist and a worthy disciple to Luke. However, her story in RoS especially could have been so much better than it was, like if she pretended to switch sides just to get a chance at killing Palpatine, saying "the best part about being a Sith Lord is the helmet. I think I'll keep it." or some legendary burn. Instead she became stale because Abrams allowed her to be, and to a lesser extent Rian Johnson and Daisy Ridley herself for trying too hard to "be empowering" in TLJ (I enjoyed that movie, but Rey was a downgrade from TFA). She was plenty empowering when she felt natural. Forcing it took away a big part of what made her character so appealing.

I think part of the problem is that we have male writers trying to create good female characters. We need more females on writing teams if we want more good female characters. There's a reason I always ask a woman to review my work. No Time to Die is a rare exception with the movies I'm referring to - Daniel Craig bringing Phoebe Waller-Bridge on was genius and I liked her presence from the moment she said that the script "needs to respect women - even if the James Bond character doesn't." She gets it.

But there are also many sexists out there who refuse to allow a woman to succeed their male hero. I'm not one of those, obviously. It just needs to be a good character. A male successor needs to be held to the same standard. Like with James Bond, for instance, anyone following Judi Dench as M was going to pale in comparison. Ralph Fiennes was fine, but doesn't hold a candle to his predecessor.