Herself had the pleasure of company of the full complement of Menfolk -- Beloved Husband, Offspring the Second and Offspring the Third, and Cherished Friend -- yesterday evening for a movie and dinner. They saw
Jurassic World. Ooooo! The dinosaurs (and, as Offspring the Second reminded us, the non-dinosaur species that flew and swam) were beautifully rendered. The actors did a solid job of portraying their characters as written: they valiantly plowed their way through the cheesy parts, and brought levity through the humorous bits. Well done.
The one quibble Herself had was with the characterization of the women in the film. So. Very. Cliché.
First, there was the emotional mother, brought rather inexplicably to tears (in the hallway of what was presumably her workplace, in front of a glass-walled conference room in which several people were meeting) by the idea that her children were momentarily with her sister's assistant rather than with her sister. Wouldn't a working woman be accustomed to maintaining her composure in the office, and be irritated, rather than tearful, under the circumstances? Hrmph. She also threw out the annoying "when you have children, you'll understand," as if only those who have borne their own spawn can understand why one would be worried about or protective of offspring.
Next, there was that aforementioned assistant, who rolled her eyes and sulked at the idea of having to chaperone the children, and spent the vast majority of her time on her telephone -- but her pouty and careless behavior was duly punished, as she rather needlessly [SPOILER ALERT] met a drawn-out and unpleasant demise.
There was also a token "techie" woman in the control room, who was reduced to tears at one point. Although she mercifully had a redeeming humorous point later in the movie, she appeared to serve primarily as foil or assistant to several male characters.
And finally, there was our protagonist, the cold, rigid, controlling, not-sure-even-of-the-ages-of-her-nephews career woman, who retorted with the standard "IF I have children" in response to her sister's admonitions. The career woman had not a single nurturing cell in her body, referring to the dinosaurs as "assets" rather than as live creatures with needs and biologically-driven behaviors. Only when the career woman was taught of the suffering by, and the intellect of, the dinosaurs -- by the Virile, In-Touch-With-Nature, Protective Manly Man, of course -- did her hair become disheveled and her humanity appear.
Sigh.
I realize it is difficult to portray the many facets of a single character's personality in a two-hour story. Nevertheless, women are far more complex and subtle than the tropes displayed in this particular movie. It might be much too much to ask, though, to have the single-dimensional characteristics of these various women combined into a single person -- that would certainly have been too much realistic humanity for a standard summer blockbuster film.
On the lighter side, I do feel compelled to point out that the dinosaurs were all female. Girl dino power!
The Raptor Squad was found here: http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Blue
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