I am not afraid of movie recasts

With a recent release of “Ghostbusters” and the reboot of “Ocean’s 8” on the way, Hollywood seems to be creating a trend of recasting movies to have a main cast of female leads.

The “gender bending” that these movies are trying to achieve has not had a good start. The new “Ghostbusters” has been under critical fire from all sides, more so by the public audience than by critics. Critics find the unique rendition of the popular classic to be somewhat entertaining while the public either adores the humorous film or finds a way to bash it for not living up to the original or for not being comedic as a standalone.

The hard part is making a good set of characters. When there are recasts, it’s not always easy to stick with the same roles and plot similar to the original because the actresses themselves are diverse in the ways they handle their roles.

“A strong female lead who does not provide controversial subjects and applies well to the job they are looking for should be cast for movies,” Daniel Pearl Magnet freshman Samuel Torres said.

He also mentioned that Hollywood looks for the embodiment of the character they are casting. That means that a seasoned actress would be best for a role in movies that will follow these trends. “Ocean’s 8” is taking this approach by casting Anne Hathaway, Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter as their main characters. As “Ocean’s 8” is the remake of a remake, the loose translation of the original (“Ocean’s 11”) will be apparent.

However, as long as the cast does a good job, it seems as if people don’t care as much as they make it seem as shown on the IMDB message boards. It seems as though, because of the criticism recasts are receiving, the trend is not what it seems.

The trend is not gender bending. It stirs up enough conversation, but when it boils down to it, recasts are fine as long as they don’t become tiring. Movies should be able to be fresh, new, exciting and all the while remain entertaining as well as relevant to the culture it is being released into.

One possible trend that could be more successful and less controversial is to have more female leads in more original movies. They can be based on books, but it’s about not having to change the dynamics of the characters based off of the gender as recasts may feel the need to do.

Take a look at the novel “Annihilation” by Jeff Vandermeer, for example. It’s a sci-fi thriller that centers around a group of four scientists, all of whom are women. There has been casting and Natalie Portman is set to star as the biologist (the book’s narrator), according to IMDB. Not only is the director taking into account the experience she has, but he doesn’t have to change the dynamics of the plot based on gender the way that these recast movies feel the need to in order to appease their audiences.

As it stands, these trends are fair and completely justified ideas. It seems, as this is a very diverse country, that it can be considered overdue especially considering how prominent movements like feminism are and how they can so easily influence the movie industries as they are now.