James Cameron Calls ‘Wonder Woman’ “Objectified” And A “Step Backwards”

If you were hoping to geek out about Wonder Woman with James Cameron, think again. A new interview with the Avatar director just went live, and it is none to complementary of Diana Prince.

Recently, Cameron sat down with the Guardian to discuss the future of Avatar, and Wonder Woman was brought up in passing. The director latched onto the topic, and Cameron slammed all the praise Hollywood has been giving to the solo feature.

“All of the self-congratulatory back-patting Hollywood’s been doing over Wonder Woman has been so misguided,” the director said. “She’s an objectified icon, and it’s just male Hollywood doing the same old thing!”

Cameron continued, comparing Diana Prince to a character of his own creation, Sarah Connor, from the Terminator franchise.

“I’m not saying I didn’t like the movie but, to me, it’s a step backwards,” the director said. “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 difference] is so obvious. I mean, half the audience is female!”

While Cameron seems stubborn in his Wonder Woman opinion, the director lives with a minority opinion. The DC Extended Universe flick has received overwhelming praise for its unapologetic embrace of feminist values. Wonder Woman does not bow down to tested Hollywood tropes of being a ‘strong female character;’ The heroine doesn’t push down emotions or act chic to bolster an assumed badass ego. Director Patty Jenkins pushed Diana to simply be herself, and Gal Gadot told Rolling Stone recently she’s proud to not have bent towards Hollywood’s misogynistic leanings.

“I didn’t want to play the cold-hearted warrior. We didn’t want to fall into the clichés,” Gadot stressed. “We didn’t want to treat the misogyny in a preaching way. We wanted to surprise the audience.”

Clearly, the element of surprise worked. Wonder Woman has broken box office records left-and-right since its premiere, pushing it to become the highest-grossing superhero origin film of all-time. Jenkins and Gadot are poised to propel Wonder Woman to new heights in recent years while Cameron wades around in his prolonged Avatar stint. So, you can be the judge of whether the director’s criticisms are well-placed or not.

Wonder Woman is still showing in theaters, with a special one-day return to IMAX on Friday.