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Summer 2015 Review: Women in Blockbusters

It’s no secret that women are quite often poorly represented in cinema, especially big budgeted summer blockbusters.  If you look at the last five summers, most years feature an embarrassing 1 to 2 major movies in which women have prominent roles.  Even when a woman is featured, she is often sexualized, one-dimensional, or in a supporting role (mother, daughter, girlfriend) to the main male protagonist.

Fortunately, the tides are starting to slowly shift, as Hollywood realizes that literally half of their potential audience are, in fact, women.  Overall, the summer of 2015 has been an improvement, with several movies featuring very well-written female characters.  Here’s a look back at some of the films of the summer, both the good and the bad. (more…)

Things I Learned from ‘Terminator Genisys’

I’m a fan of Terminator films. The first two movies are classics, and I didn’t hate Rise of the Machines. The franchise is ripe for another entry, and with James Cameron endorsing the new film, I figured it was worth checking out. How bad could it be?

Famous last words. I was really, really disappointed with Terminator: Genisys. Here are my biggest takeaways from the film. I’m tagging this post as [spoilers], I guess, though honestly if you’ve seen the trailer and any mediocre action movie in the past 15 years, the movie doesn’t offer many surprises.

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‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ VS ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’

Summer blockbuster season begins with two mega-budget colon-sporting action franchise sequels that couldn’t be more different. Mad Max: Fury Road serves as a throwback to the insanity of action movies of the 80’s, while Avengers: Age of Ultron is firmly rooted in contemporary blockbuster filmmaking. While I can recommend both movies, for my money Fury Road is far and away the more interesting of the two.  Mad Max succeeds on so many levels, and it really highlights the shortcomings of Avengers, and by extension, many modern action films.  Mild [spoilers] for both films from here on.

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