Coming off the subject of women in films that was branching out from the recent TMNT article, particularly with April ONeal of TMNT, Tauriel of The Hobbit, and Mark Walbergs characters daughter in Transformers 4. The argument was whether Tauriel was more, less, or equally irrelevant in the film compared to the daughter in Transformers 4. My stance is that Tauriel is more significant... but with an asterisk. Sadly in both films they are there mostly for mechanical purposes; to serve as plot symbols for two other males each. But Tauriel succeeds in being more interesting than Marks daughter. Shes not obnoxious, she kicks ass all the time (not just at during the final battle), and as far as elves go, and she brought a bit of a refreshing feel to the film ultimately, with her falling for a dwarf, of all creatures, and being Legolas opposite in mentality and ideal. And I like Legolas more in The Hobbit than I do in LOTR. LOTR Legolas only knows how to stand there looking pretty, upstage Gimli, and super-archer everything in sight. Hobbit Legolas actually has FLAWS. Hes stuck up and racist. Tauriel is a character who will end up teaching Legolas to be a better man through her own actions. Tauriel is also there to enhance the personalities of the other dwarves that arent Thorin, and give them more growth and development as a result. Marks daughter, in contrast, doesnt really teach her dad anything new. In fact Mark Walbergs learns and grows from her boyfriend, and they are the ones who get the serious bonding moment. So Tauriel is far more developed in these regards. These two characters are finally in there for a last reason: because they need to have a girl in there. Tolkiens stories are extremely woman-deficient, and to compensate the films have had a long-standing track record of few-but-mighty women to fill those spots. With no Galandriel for this round, Tauriel fits the bill nicely enough. Marks daughter in contrast IS there for the woman count, but also chosen for the purpose of making older men feel guilty about checking her out, like Megan Fox and 3-girl before her. The Chinese actress was far more interesting. So now we come to Megan Fox as April. She has has few to no good performances so to be the leading lady in this movie, the human character we relate to that connects us to the turtles at the beginning of the story, it does make me nervous. If youre going to be the sole or scarce female representative in the movie, at least be a good character or serve more noble purposes. This is where Tauriel succeeds for me.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 21:21:50 +0000
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