James Cameron isn't backing down from his critique of Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Avatar director continued to discuss the blockbuster hit, which he first criticized in August. Cameron said Wonder Woman was "not breaking ground" during the conversation with THR's Kim Masters.
"Yes, I'll stand by that," Cameron told THR of his earlier remarks about Wonder Woman and its star, Gal Gadot. "I mean, she was Miss Israel, and she was wearing a kind of bustier costume that was very form-fitting. She's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me, that's not breaking ground. They had Raquel Welch doing stuff like that in the '60s. It was all in a context of talking about why Sarah Connor — what Linda created in 1991 — was, if not ahead of its time, at least a breakthrough in its time. I don't think it was really ahead of its time because we're still not [giving women these types of roles]."
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Cameron is referencing his Terminator character Sarah Connor, something he did during his original Wonder Woman comments, too. Back in August, Cameron told The Guardian that "the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood's been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided." During that interview, Cameron also said that "Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon."
When Masters brought up Jenkins' response to his original critique, Cameron reiterated his original statements.
"As much as I applaud Patty directing the film and Hollywood, uh, "letting" a woman direct a major action franchise, I didn't think there was anything groundbreaking in Wonder Woman. I thought it was a good film. Period," he told THR. "I was certainly shocked that [my comment] was a controversial statement. It was pretty obvious in my mind. I just think Hollywood doesn't get it about women in commercial franchises. Drama, they've got that cracked, but the second they start to make a big commercial action film, they think they have to appeal to 18-year-old males or 14-year-old males, whatever it is. Look, it was probably a little bit of a simplistic remark on my part, and I'm not walking it back, but I will add a little detail to it, which is: I like the fact that, sexually, she had the upper hand with the male character, which I thought was fun."
Cameron still seems to be missing the point that Connor and Diana Prince don't have to be pitted against each other. They're both amazing characters. We'll see if Jenkins responds to his second round of comments.