"Planet 51"

General feeling:

Last night I rented "Planet 51" with my boyfriend and was expecting a fun animated kids movie. We both got a few laughs out of it but it was nothing memorable and there were some disturbing things about it that made us feel concern considering the amount of kids that probably watched/will watch it.

Female representation:

The female character Neera [Jessica Biel] is not even worth talking about. She has a few lines here and there but has absolutely nothing to do with the progression of the story. The first time you see her is a slow motion shot of her walking out of her house with romantic music playing... because obviously you see her through the main character Lem's [Justin Long] eyes. Not only is she just the romantic interest but she is barely in the story at all. When astronaut Charles [Dwayne Johnson] says a few words to everyone at the end he only has "take care of him [Lem]" to say to Neera. She is the prize to be won and when she is won she is instantly at his side looking up at him with admiration ready to "take care of him".




While I'm not surprised that Neera is the love interest I am surprised that she has no other purpose in the film. I watched "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" a few weeks ago, which was a far better female role, and I was expecting something similar... it is a kids movie after all and we are in 2010 now, I was hoping that little girls everywhere would be able to aspire to be something other than the male character (almost the only characters I ever identify with at all). In "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" the female lead Sam (voiced by Anna Faris) was, of course a secondary character and the love interest, but she was a sort of everywoman that girls could identify with at least on some levels. Neera is the equivalent of a 'dumb blond' role who misunderstands Lem until the end when he makes good and wins her love back from the other guy.

Final thoughts:

Although the female lead was a disappointment to say the least, there was something else that I noticed that was far more disturbing. From beginning to end there is a theme of objectifying women gags. "Hahahaha, that's so funny he just sexually harassed that woman and she gives him hell for it in a squeaky nagging voice" wait... what?
From a bit character whistling at a 'sexy' centerfold, to Lem's dad saying of Neera "Take that hill soldier", to a security guard ogling a female passerby, to Dwayne Johnson's astronaut character trying to teach Lem to act aggressively to 'take his prize' in order to get Neera to like him, the disturbing representation of women as objects freaked me the fuck out. Why don't we just tell kids it's a laugh to treat women like meat, objects, prizes... talk to the girl in your class like that because it will be hilarious little boy, and little girls don't forget, boys will be boys.

WTF?

Grade: Epic Fail