According to
journalists, bloggers and whoever else decides this sort of thing, 2012 is the
Year of the Movie Geek – or,
as Entertainment Weekly suggested, to some
predictable grumbling, the Year of the Dude Movie. You could go through the
usual arguments about how movies aren’t gender-exclusive and how women enjoy
watching superheroes and shit blowing up just as much as men, but it’s hard to
deny that this year seems to be stuffed with even more
traditionally male-oriented fare than usual, with offerings like
The Dark Knight Rises,
The Avengers and
The Bourne Legacy dominating the year’s cinematic slate and nary a
romantic comedy or female-centric film to be seen. Yet, amidst all this
testosterone, a ray of hope has quietly emerged: despite being theoretically
geared toward men, many of these action, sci-fi and comic book flicks have
actually served as showcases for women.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at some of the “dude movies” released thus
far. January 20
th kicked the year off with
Underworld: Awakening, the fourth installment in that shockingly
prolific vampires-meet-werewolves franchise, and Steven Soderbergh’s spy movie
Haywire, both headlined by women. Fast-forward
two months, and we’ve got
The Hunger
Games, 2012’s first real blockbuster; like the Suzanne Collins young adult
novel it was based on, the movie derived much of its appeal from the character
of Katniss Everdeen, who has become one of the most iconic heroines in recent
memory thanks to her fiery personality and skill with a bow and arrow.
The Avengers may have been a
sausage-fest in terms of sheer numbers, yet it was Scarlett Johansson’s Black
Widow who not only served as the superhero juggernaut’s emotional center, but
also seemed to generate the most conversation among filmgoers, even if
some
people refused to recognize her awesomeness.
Snow White and the Huntsman and
Prometheus?
More leading ladies. Even Pixar got in on the act, featuring a female character
as their central protagonist for the first time ever in
Brave.
Of course, these are hardly the first movies to put a woman in the center
of all the action. In 1979, Ridley Scott introduced the world to Ellen Ripley, Sigourney
Weaver’s smart, competent and tough corporate grunt-turned-alien fighter who is
largely recognized as cinema’s first real action heroine. With the sequel, Aliens, in 1986, Ripley was firmly
cemented as a character as edgy and classic as James Bond or Indiana Jones.
Just sooo badass.