This February a slew of both bad and good movies came out. However, two of them have been talked the most and those films being Sonic the Hedgehog and Bird of Prey.
What should have been a feminist success turned out to a downright misogynistic disaster at the box office. While the other that gain a truckload of backlash for the C.G.I abomination that supposed to represent the beloved Sega video game character Sonic, turned out to be a box office success, beating Detective Pikachu as the newest adorable, expressive C.G.I character to date.
These two films are where they are now because one decided to listen to the fans, while the other kicked them to the curb, thinking their message was far more important than actually adapting the source material.
At the end of the day, one wonders should fans have a say in terms of the creative process in films when it comes to adapting a popular product or should fans leave it to the paid artists to take liberties with it?
I like this idea a lot! I didn't realize Sonic had been so successful at the box office. I saw Birds of Prey and I actually really liked it. I'll admit I'm not a huge comic book fan myself so I don't know everything about what they got right or wrong in that particular film, but I personally really enjoy Margot Robbie as Harley which is why I went to see it. I feel like the marketing of both films, especially Birds of Prey, could have been a lot stronger. This story is along the same lines as the female Ghostbusters-reboot. I can't help but lean towards a feminist argument here. It seems like perhaps Sonic performed better in theaters because it was not a female-focused film. Comic book fans seem to have trouble with female narratives, which is alarming. I'd love to see this story tackled with that in mind. I'd also be interested to hear about what things fans would have changed in Birds of Prey. Is there anything that could have been done there to make people come out to see the film? Or is a story driven by a female cast doomed to always fail in a presumably male fan's opinion? – StephanieKocer4 years ago
@StephanieKocer,
Thanks for the note!
I don't mean to promote myself
But to answer your question about female films and failure check out an article I wrote months back called the paradox of the strong female character – Amelia Arrows4 years ago