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A Watery Surprise

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For many years, I was a Marvel / DC movie fan.  Not a rapid fan, mind you, but enough of a fan to watch the movies.  And not enough of a fan to pay money for those movies…. that’s another story.  The last few years have soured me however.  I never could keep the X-Men timeline straight and the movies became darker and darker.  When I started to see spoilers about who would die in the last big Avenger extravaganza, I decided it was time to take a pass. 

Over the weekend, I was surfing around the on-demand movies and saw the Aquaman had once again jumped to the top of the list.  I turned it on with a little trepidation, telling myself that I could always just turn it off – not like I had and expensive ticket stub in my pocket or a full tub of popcorn on my lap.

It was a classic underdog good guy against bad guys who just seem to be bad because they can. Aquaman’s human name is Arthur, which was a bit endearing, and I managed to suspend all sense of reality.

But the big surprise was the lead female character, Mera.  She was intelligent, strong, driven and a magnificent warrior.  In every fight scene (and there were many) she held her own and in fact, saved Aquaman at one point.  Never did she scream, faint, shrink back behind the hero or need to be rescued by him.  Towards the end of the final battle, she is the one who plants a whopper kiss on him, not the other way around.   The only other female character (Arthur’s mother) was also fabulous – a warrior queen who made the ultimate sacrifice for her family.

It’s too bad that there were only two of these splendid characters.  The rest of the movie was fairly predictable, although it had a few minutes of wry humor here and there.  It was entirely because of the two women that I can say I enjoyed the overall film. 

Tell me about your favorite women movie characters!

26 thoughts on “A Watery Surprise”

  1. In an effort to be less predictable than I often am, let’s go with Ree Dolly. That’s the character played by Jennifer Lawrence in her big breakthrough film Winter’s Bone (2010). She was gritty and courageous in that film.

    Here’s one more: Penelope Featherington, played by Nicola Coughlan, who first graced my screen as the chubby “eejit” (her word, not mine) in Derry Girls. That’s the funniest show I’ve seen. In her role as Penelope, Coughlan is a splendid addition to the cast of the amazing Bridgerton series.

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  2. I became enamored of Glenn Close after seeing her in ‘The World According to Garp’. Can we talk about animated movies? ‘Brave’ has a pretty brave young lady.
    I’ll think on this.

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    1. OK I think you guys know me well enough to know by now that we may certainly talk about animated movies. Or movies that are only in your head.

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  3. Princess Buttercup. Loyal and true.
    Claire Underwood. Powerful, steely
    Jenny Curran. Damaged but redeemable.
    Anitiope. Dignified, bravely self-sacrificing.
    All played by Robin Wright.

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons, wayyy late in the afternoon, but somedays, with the time difference, it is the best I can do.

    I can’t say that I have a favorite because there are so many of these characters that I truly, so maybe “memorable” is a better description.

    All of the women in League of Their Own. I re-watch that movie every several years, and I think it is such a pleasure to watch. It is like being part of a group of women who let loose honestly with each other when there are no men around. Plus Tom Hanks is always good and he is good in that movie as a sloppy drunk.

    In a second baseball movie, “Bull Durham,” Susan Sarandon plays Annie Savoy who is doing life her own way. Love her.

    Vivian Leigh plays Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind. She will do anything to survive, and I have always hated her for that because she abandons every moral code. She is also incredibly honest about it. So I don’t like her at all, nor do I like what the movie represents, but it is still riveting.

    And finally, Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Just WOW at the raw talent of Liza Minelli, the genius of the music and choreography. She was the perfect partner to Joel Grey’s Emcee.

    I will stop there.

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  8. Daughter says that’s a hard question. She suggested Vanessa Hudgens (from High School Musical).
    We’re watching ‘The Music Man’ right now (Because you all reminded me of it the other day) so Shirley Jones as Marion and her mother, Pert Kelton, and of course Hermione Gingold. I have a biography of Hermione which is great fun. She was a real character.

    Kelly suggested Thelma from “Thelma and Louise” for a powerful woman.
    We also came up with Mulan. The new version of that is as much fun as the original.

    OT; we watched a movie called ‘Big Miracle’ about rescuing some whales in Alaska. Based on a true story. But hokey smokes; talk about your plot holes!

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