Why Can’t Super Heroines Make a Good Movie?

It’s been going on for the past decade and it doesn’t look like it is stopping any time soon. Comic book movies are doing big business for the movie biz. Every major studio or production company has got some sort of comic book movie in development and the majority of them are super-heroes. Of course that makes sense since the majority of comic books are super-heroes. Not to say there aren’t plenty of good indie and non-hero properties out there. There are and I’m a fan of a lot of them. But the big money makers are the super-heroes.

Now when I type “super-hero” I am not only talking about men, but women as well. The super-heroines. Super heroines are by no means rare. There is a long and healthy list of costumed women who are just as good, if not sometimes superior, as many of their male counterparts. And yet, we have not gotten a decent super-heroine film. Why? It seems like there is some mysterious formula for super hero movies that just doesn’t work when you plug in a heroine instead of a hero.

One possible reason why there hasn’t been a good super-heroine movie could be men. The film industry is dominated by men. That seems like the very simple and obvious answer. But I have a problem with that explanation. While yes I do agree that the film industry is dominated by men, so is the comic book industry. Much of the source material these female heroes originate from was written by men.  Also the answer assumes that men can’t write relatable women. While there certainly aren’t men who can write women believably (I know I certainly have that problem sometimes) there have been films about women made by men that were both popular and well made.

Perhaps it is the choice of heroines that are being adapted. There are certainly characters in comics that do not lend themselves well to a big screen adaptation. We certainly will never see Onomatopoeia doing battle with The Dark Knight on screen in any incarnation. So perhaps that is it. The choice of heroines. Sadly that is not the case. Three notable adaptations that have been attempted in the last several years have been Elektra, Catwoman and Wonder Woman. These are three women who hold significant places in the comic book pantheons. And yet all their movies (and in the case of Wonder Woman, TV show) failed miserably.

It is in the watching of these movies where you see the true reason why they did not succeed. All three properties ended up having major changes made to the characters. The Catwoman of the film bore no resemblance to the Catwoman of the DC Universe. Wonder Woman became a CEO which has never been a part of her persona in the comics and they tried saddling her with the unheard of tri-identies where she was both Wonder Woman, Diana Themyscira and Diana Prince which made no sense to me whatsoever. And finally Elektra who was always such a dark anti-hero in the comics was tamed down and turned into a glorified babysitter.

Now while it was easy to see WHAT was wrong with these films, the harder question to answer is WHY. Why such a strong need to change the heroines to fit the screen? Change for the sake of change is not unheard of in adaptations from one media to another, but it rarely, if ever, seems to result in a good final product. And there is a reason Catwoman, Elektra, Wonder Woman, and all comic book super heroes are adapted into films. Because they have an audience. People like them already. So why is there such a huge need to change them?