Movies aren’t a zero-sum game. Audiences do have to make decisions about their time and money, but one film’s success doesn’t necessarily mean another’s failure. But trolls–both anonymous and of the James Woods variety–recently decided to pit “Captain Marvel” against “Alita: Battle Angel” due to anger over a misreading of the former’s feminist politics, both inherent in the film and from its vocal star Brie Larson. We don’t think that you need to make female-led action films compete against one another, but since these dudes decided to start this fight, we’re going to finish it. Well, us and the millions of moviegoers who gave “Captain Marvel” its record-breaking opening.
Without having seen the film, “Captain Marvel’s” detractors labeled its protagonist as the less independent of the two and decided that Larson’s call for inclusivity in the film’s press coverage excluded white men (it didn’t). They review bombed the Marvel Cinematic Universe film sight unseen and called for fans to see ‘Alita’ instead during the opening weekend for “Captain Marvel” with #AlitaChallenge. This shouldn’t be an either/or situation; more films with strong female leads are wins for everyone who cares about equality and representation on screen. But despite featuring a woman warrior at its heart, ‘Alita’ is a pseudo-feminist film that does little to challenge the status quo of a male-dominated industry. In contrast with “Captain Marvel,” ‘Alita’s’ faux female empowerment is revealed when examining its filmmakers, its male gaze, and its approach to its heroine’s relationship to men.
On their surfaces, these share some commonalities beyond their ass-kicking leads. Directed by Robert Rodriguez (who says he also did a rewrite) with a heavy hand from co-writer/producer James Cameron, ‘Alita’ focuses on the journey of the titular teenage-esque robot (in a nuanced mo-cap performance by Rosa Salazar), from forgotten parts in a cyborg junkyard to a fierce fighting machine. Scientist Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz) unites her head and powerful heart (no symbolism here) with a new android body, bringing her back to life where she discovers her prowess as a warrior but remembers only fragments of her previous existence. Similarly, “Captain Marvel” follows our heroine Captain Marvel a.k.a. Carol Danvers (Larson), who doesn’t remember much of her life before she became a Kree warrior, as she fights a group of alien terrorists in both space and here on Earth. This marks the first MCU movie with a female lead and the first with a female director (Anna Boden, co-helming with partner Ryan Fleck).
Having a woman both behind the camera and the screenplay can help with adding an authentic perspective to a film (even one that’s set in space). Four women are credited with the story and script for “Captain Marvel,” and while having that many voices might have led to its screenplay’s issues (we’re not saying this film is perfect, by any means), it did mean that audiences got to see a female character written primarily by people who have experienced living in a female body–albeit one without superpowers. And while ‘Alita’ does have a woman co-writer in Laeta Kalogridis, this film has Cameron’s fingerprints all over it, with far more attention paid to world-building than creating viable women characters. This just seems more like a couple of guys’ ideas about what a female-centric film should be, and Cameron’s statements about the film being an “elegant allegory for female puberty” aren’t helping either.
Men can write about young women, even those of adolescent age with sensitivity and insight; see Bo Burnham‘s “Eighth Grade.” (Seriously, please see it.) But with ‘Alita,” Cameron and Co. are far more focused on what he and the audience think of Alita’s body than her own experience in it. Rodriguez is a solid filmmaker, particularly when it comes to visuals, but he has a history of objectifying women’s bodies in films from “Desperado” to “Sin City.” The way Alita is shot and presented here is textbook male gaze, particularly when she gets an upgrade to a “better” body, complete with bigger breasts that the camera definitely takes notice of and wants you to as well. “Looks like she’s a little older than you thought,” says one character, commenting on her new physique and theoretically absolving anyone in the audience from feeling icky about lusting after what we’ve been told is a teenager. Sorry folks, it should still feel icky.
READ MORE: ‘Captain Marvel’ Flies High & Fast, But Struggles With Narrative Turbulence [Review]
Meanwhile in “Captain Marvel,” Carol Danvers’ body isn’t the focus of the camera or the audience. There are far more shots of her photon-blast-shooting hands than there are of her boobs or butt, and the camera doesn’t linger over her body like we’re used to seeing in male-directed superhero films. The version of the character’s uniform hews closer to the Kelly Sue DeConnick version of the character designed by Jamie McKelvie, rather than the skimpier, less practical costumes of previous incarnations that were designed more for titillating than saving the universe.
But it isn’t just the way the audience relates to these women that sets them apart; it’s also how they relate to the men in their respective films. “Alita” owes her existence to her adopted dad, Dr. Ido, who dotes on her and tries to protect her, despite her capacity as an actual deadly weapon in the shape of a teenage girl. The film spends about as much time on cool cyborg fights as it does on Alita’s love for Hugo (Keean Johnson), who is the embodiment of every terrible crush straight teenage girls have on lame dudes. (Guilty.) The film doesn’t see him as awful as he really is, but he’s The Worst, fully inferior to Alita in every way (and not just because she’s engineered to be superior to humans). She’s willing to give up everything she is for this guy, *mild spoiler* literally offering him her heart a.k.a. her power source, because this movie is not about subtlety or real independence for its female lead. *end mild spoiler*
One of the most interesting things about “Captain Marvel” is that there’s no love interest. Romance on screen isn’t in itself bad, but Carol is her own person who isn’t defined by any of the men around her. Instead of a love story, the primary relationship in the film is Carol and her female best friend. Her connection with Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury isn’t even the paternal one we might have expected. They’re presented as equals with banter more similar to that of a buddy comedy than how we’ve seen him interact with the other Avengers. However, what most strongly demonstrates Captain Marvel’s independence is the climactic line that was the film’s most empowering moment. The superhero tells a male character, “I have nothing to prove to you,” which is more likely to elicit a cheer than any usage of her powers.
READ MORE: ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Is A Noble, Jaw-Dropping Spectacle [Review]
But those who claim “Alita: Battle Angel” is the superior pro-women film couldn’t even make their case at the box office this weekend as they’d hoped. “Captain Marvel” hauled in $455 million worldwide, making it the sixth biggest opening of all time–and flying high above ‘Alita’s’ month-long total in just a weekend. Even the biggest supporters of Cameron’s film might not have expected it to really compete with “Captain Marvel” if they’re being honest, but ‘Alita’ dropped this week at the box office even more than one might expect at this point in its run. Its fifth-place finish netted $3.2 million to the Marvel movie’s massive $153 million at the domestic box office. Despite trolls’ efforts to make a statement, it couldn’t even match last week’s numbers, declining week-over-week 55.7% versus the previous decrease of 41.5%. And in case ‘Alita’ apologists try to argue that was just due to the smaller theater count, its per screen average was down 42.2% to $1,348, putting it in 18th place overall for that metric.
We shouldn’t have to position movies about women against each other; we should have enough of them where these troll-manufactured rivalries don’t dominate the discourse around them. But if you’re going to be so arrogant as to come for a movie you haven’t seen, based on a willful misunderstanding of it and its publicity, maybe you should choose a battle you can win.
Here’s a small sampling of the trolls’ pitiful #AlitaChallenge campaign:
https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1102283075701039104
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1102634460913246208
https://twitter.com/RubisM00n/status/1102974961143218182
https://twitter.com/DarkerEve/status/1103250393277046784
https://twitter.com/EHGardell/status/1102787757880107008
