Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins responds to James Cameron's criticism

Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins said James Cameron's comments were unsurprising "as, though he is a great filmmaker, he is not a woman". Photo / Getty

Comic book blockbuster Wonder Woman won many fans when it was released earlier this summer. Enough, in fact, to make it the second highest grossing film at the US box office this year, but Titanic director James Cameron certainly wasn't one of them.

Speaking to The Guardian, Cameron claimed the film was "a step backwards" for female representation on screen, and compared Wonder Woman negatively to his own female creation Sarah Connor, the star of the early Terminator films.

"All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood's been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided," he told the newspaper. "She's an objectified icon, and it's just male Hollywood doing the same old thing!"

Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman - the second highest grossing film at the US box office this year. Photo / supplied

"I'm not saying I didn't like the movie but, to me, it's a step backwards," he continued. "Sarah Connor was not a beauty icon. She was strong, she was troubled, she was a terrible mother, and she earned the respect of the audience through pure grit. And to me, [the benefit of characters like Sarah] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!"

After being widely condemned for his remarks across social media, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins posted a firm rebuke to his statement on Twitter, writing that strong female characters don't necessarily need to be grim and violent.

"James Cameron's inability to understand what Wonder Woman is, or stands for, to women all over the world is unsurprising as, though he is a great filmmaker, he is not a woman," Jenkins wrote.

pic.twitter.com/8zkJXHLCJW

— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) August 25, 2017

"If women have to always be hard, tough and troubled to be strong, and we aren't free to be multidimensional or celebrate an icon of women everywhere because she is attractive and loving, then we haven't come very far, have we?

She continued: "I believe women can and should be EVERYTHING, just like male lead characters should be. There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman. And the massive female audience who made the film a hit it is, can surely choose and judge their own icons of progress."

Cameron, who is promoting the cinema re-release of Terminator 2, also used the interview to criticise the lack of films featuring strong female characters.

James Cameron said Wonder Woman was just "male Hollywood doing the same old thing". Photo / AP

Expressing himself with absolutely no sense of irony, Cameron said: "There are many women in power in Hollywood and they do get to guide and shape what films get made. I think - no, I can't account for it. Because how many times do I have to demonstrate the same thing over again? I feel like I'm shouting in a wind tunnel!"

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