If you weren’t happy with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, then you’re not alone. But if you weren’t happy with the presentation of Lois Lane’s character in that movie, then you’re really not alone. In a chat with HeyUGuys, Margot Kidder, who first brought the character of Lois Lane to life in the original Superman movies, had some words for Zack Snyder’s handling of the intrepid reporter.
Specifically, Kidder addressed how she was reduced to little more than a plot device. She said that they “didn’t give her anything to do! I mean, how stupid is that? They made her what used to be the girlfriend, which kind of ended in the 60s with women’s rights.” She’s absolutely right, too. While Lois starts out in this intriguing situation of searching for truth and facts in a war-torn desert, she slowly gets reduced to nothing more than the “naked girlfriend in a bathtub.” Allyson Johnson excellently broke down all the problems with her character, highlighting just how much of a “damsel in distress” trope she’s become thanks to BvS.
Kidder points out that it’s not Amy Adams’ fault, though. She praised Adams’ work, saying she’s “one of the best American actresses around.” She lays the blame for the film at the feet of the classic Hollywood scapegoat: the studios and their meddling. To Kidder, the vision was muddled by their approach and how they wanted to appeal to millennials. In reply to a question about why people keep going back to the classic films, she said:
They go back to them because they were so much truer to the comic books. Kids learn the morality tale of Jesus in a way; a guy away from his dad, floundering around on Earth and is this purely good person. Superman responds to women by saving them, saves the children and beats up the bad guys, if you will.
In that sense, it’s so much simpler than the later films made it out to be. I think there was a cynical decision on the part of the studios, which are now owned by multi-national conglomerates just like everything else on the planet. So they would make these artistic decisions by non-artists – guys would want to hit the millennial demographic because they literally make up about one quarter of the population.
Probably, my guess is what happened is when they decided to hit the demographic of the millennials in the later films. I think the directors were good, the actors were good but the basic approach wasn’t there.
Whereas the movies she helped create were simpler, and thus a bit clearer and to her, better, these newer ones tried to do too much.
What do you think? Do you agree with Kidder?
(via io9)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google+.
