MovieChat Forums > Annihilation (2018) Discussion > Why hasn't this movie been promoted as a...

Why hasn't this movie been promoted as an example of movie with female main characters?

posted 7 years ago by kuku (3510)
12 replies | jump to latest

A scifi movie with an all-female team as main characters. A good scifi movie... which has been well received by most of the people who, for example, heavily criticized Ghostbusters reboot. This would have been a wonderful chance to promote a movie with an all-female team.

So what's happening?

Well, in Ghostbusters 2016 males were portrayed as psychopaths or clowns. Or militaristic psychopathic clowns. Fortunately, there were some women there so they could save the day.

You take the Star Wars reboot, white males are portrayed as psychopaths or clowns. Or even as psychopathic clowns, as Hux or Kilo Ren.

You take Black Panther, you have two white characters, one is a psychopathic villain, the other one is a clown. What's the odds, isn't it?

So it could seem that females are secondary, blacks are secondary, hispanics are secondary. What matters is bashing males, and bashing whites, and specially bashing white males.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

Does that really need to be done? Any intelligent viewer knows this already.

😎

[–] kuku (3510) 7 years ago

Are you suggesting then that the feminist Ghostbusters reboot, Blank Panther or the multicultural Star Wars reboot are aimed to retarded viewers?

Well, that's a valid point.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

LOL.

😎

[–] nufsaid16 (685) a year ago

No, it's not a valid point---you don't even have one---particularly since the last two films were worldwide box office hits, especially Black Panther, which began one of the biggest box office smashes ever. Saw Annihilation recently, and it was refreshing to see a sci-fi flick where the lead wasn't a white male for a change. The fact is, white dudes still star in and make 98% of the films in Hollywood, and even indie films---sci-fi films with an all-female cast are few and far between. That's said, the film was pretty good, unique, low-key and different---not your usual sci-fi flick at all.

[–] LAcdisneyprincess (97) 7 years ago

Ever watched "The Descent"?

[–] lordbishop34 (1442) 7 years ago

One of these days I need to finish the last 15 minutes of that movie.

[–] lordbishop34 (1442) 7 years ago

Limited box office appeal perhaps so they decided to just let it be?

[–] Renovatio (2990) 7 years ago

The kind of people who simply want to celebrate it for having women leads tend not to really care that much about cinema and ideas, rather they're more interested in mainstream representation and power... This is why Ghostbusters was championed. It was a big budget studio movie meant for a wide release. A lot of money involved and a huge platform for their concepts...

Their concern is to see more women in positions of power, fame and success... A small, cerebral sci-fi movie that deals with themes of distruction in nature and of the self, is not going to do anything for their cause... Even moreso that didn't do well in theatre in the US and had a tiny release...

This movie only fits their narrative if they would use the victim "card" as the movie was straight to streaming outside of the US due to producer disputes...

The real people who will appreciate this movie are the film and sci-fi enthusiasts... And they'll appreciate it more for the concepts, ideas and filmmaking than for any feminist ideals... That's probably for the best in the long term...

[–] nufsaid16 (685) a year ago

Seriously? You can appreciate this film for having female leads in what is usually a male-dominated genre, and enjoy the film at the same damn time, which is what I did. The two are not mutually exclusive. And, as a woman, I really enjoyed that aspect of the film---it was refreshing. This was also a really good film, and an offbeat sci-fi which didn't have the usual generic sci-fi plot or tropes, which made it even more interesting.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

thats called sexist..did they promote heat as male lead movie ?

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

The test screenings were bad and they lost faith in this film so they dumped it on Netflix outside of North America without giving it much marketing. Also it's not part of an existing franchise for them to promote the brand spanking new diversity.

Disney keep getting articles about how awesome they are for having their FIRST GAY CHARACTER. For seemingly a few years now.

Remember when Captain Marvel came out and everyone praised Marvel for having a solo female superhero film? Even though films like Catwoman, Elektra and of course Wonder Woman had previously came out not to mention other female lead franchise efforts such as The Hunger Games, Underworld, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Alien etc. Everyone was acting like they saved cinema and were so 'stunning and brave' for taking some risk by having a female superhero movie.

It's all PR bullshit. Annihilation got dumped by the studio who lost faith in it so there was nothing to gain from a marketing push about how great it was for being a film with strong female characters.

[–] nufsaid16 (685) a year ago

Because there weren't a lot of superhero films made featuring women as the lead before a decade ago, and the few that were made weren't box office hits. None of the films you mentioned were superhero films---that's the difference here. Which you completely ignored. Most of these superhero films are male-dominated---that's why it was a big deal when Wonder Woman was made and proved to be a box office hit, which paved the way for Captain Marvel. Annhilation got kicked to the curb because it's not your usual generic predictable sci-fi flick----it's a more thoughtful, slow burn kind of film and where the aliens aren't your typical generic aliens either. That's also why it was barely promoted and dumped into theatres for a brief time.