Ghosted: How to make female-led action movies better in 2023?

When Ghosted was released, I was personally looking forward to it. From the trailer, it appears to be a commercial movie that blends comedy, romance, and action.

After its release, I found that the film incorporates elements from many other action films. For example, from an action perspective, you can see a strong style reminiscent of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series, such as fight scenes in high places and on cliffs. Considering that Skydance, one of the film's production companies, has been one of Tom Cruise's main film production companies in the last decade, the similarity in the fight scenes is reasonable.

From an entertainment perspective, this movie is okay and worth spending two hours on a weekend to watch while eating popcorn. You don't need to be fully focused and can go to the bathroom or grab a drink at any time. 

However, there are almost no memorable moments worth pondering after watching it. This made me start thinking about how to make female action movies more enjoyable to watch.

At first glance, Ghosted employs many of the common tropes of successful action films, such as filming in various locations around the world, over-the-top action scenes, the female lead switching between being a regular girl, a black-clad female agent, the main characters fighting and bantering at the same time, and their relationship progressing further after each crisis is resolved.

click here too see How many movies did "Ghosted" actually imitate?

However, this movie is like a mixed pot, with a little bit of everything, but the performance in any aspect is just average.

For example, in spy movies, there are often scenes of fighting under the backdrop of exotic cultural backgrounds. But in this film, except for the colorful bus at the beginning, the Pakistani small town built by the crew did not showcase its aesthetic functions as it should have. The killers, played by Anthony Mcakie, Sebastian Stan, and John Cho, appeared briefly and were quickly killed off, making this scene feasible in any nighttime corner of a small city.

The chemistry between the male and female leads feels quite forced. Despite having at least five characters telling them to "get a room," the chemistry between Ana and Evans doesn't quite click. It feels like they're genuinely arguing rather than flirting.

Overall, the exaggerated action scenes, stereotyped villains, immature dialogue and plot make the whole story seem childish. As a result, the sexual tension expected to arise between the male and female leads in a tense atmosphere is also lost. Therefore, as a romantic comedy, it is not thrilling or sweet enough.

However, I completely understand the market positioning of this movie. A light-hearted comedy film that includes beautiful women in action scenes may be clichéd, but it always has its own audience. It can be said that compared to male spy action films that are constantly seeking breakthroughs in repetition, there is still a lot of market potential and room for improvement for female spy action films.

So, how exactly can we make a female spy movie better?  Back to 2000s, in the field of action movies, male protagonists have always taken the lead, and women often play the role of decorative objects. So when movies like "Charlie's Angels", "Tomb Raider", and "Resident Evil" appear, audiences are pleasantly surprised. Male viewers can fully appreciate the sexy beauty of the female protagonist, admiring them in camisoles and high heels or tight-fitting clothes that outline their curves, jumping and flipping on the big screen, and engaging in various male combat gun battles. Female viewers can also gain a sense of "women can also dominate the world" revenge pleasure by identifying with the female protagonist's perspective.

At this stage, female spy action movies can get attention above a certain baseline just because the protagonist is a female spy. But as 20 years have passed, with the accumulation of female spy action movies and the improvement of film production techniques, audiences' expectations for the same type of movies have become higher and higher. Female-led action movies are also seeking breakthroughs. That's why the sequels to movies such as "Charlie's Angels (2019)" and the "Tomb Raider(2018)" series have not achieved the success of their previous installments.In addition to being beautiful and tough, female protagonists need to have more personalities. Audiences expect the production team to take female protagonist action scenes more seriously rather than treating them as child's play.

1/ Intense fight scenes

If action scenes in male spy movies continue to innovate, female spy movies should also keep progressing. In the past, female spies were often equipped with high-tech gadgets that compensated for their natural physical differences from men. Although these gadgets were cool, watching them repeatedly made it difficult to take the plot seriously. This kind of opportunistic setup has reduced the difficulty of female spies' missions.n this regard, Atomic Blonde from 2017 did a good job. The plot is set in Germany just after the end of the Cold War, and the historical background means that there won't be too many high-tech elements in the film. The female lead can fight her way through, relying on brutal fighting scenes that make the audience gasp in awe.

One of the most exciting parts of Atomic Blonde are the long action scenes, such as the 9 minutes long action scene in the second half of the movie. Although the protagonist is armed with a gun, the crisis is not easily solved through a gunfight. The pseudo-long shot editing showcases the intensity and pain of the fight. The fight becomes tense when the villain is as resilient as the protagonist, able to stand up and continue fighting even after being knocked down.

Additionally, many female spy movies tend to avoid direct and graphic depictions of violence and gore, especially when it comes to the female protagonist's injuries. However, in Atomic Blonde, the strength and pain of the female lead are intertwined. The height and weight of Theron, as well as her injured face/hand, make these fight scenes more convincing.

2/ More Rigorous Background Story.

Compared to male spies, the character images of female spies always appear more hollow and repetitive, such as having experienced some kind of childhood trauma, even to the point of being unable to live a normal life. They turn to becoming occasional spies for a living or revenge, and thus begin to wander on the edge of danger. This story formula is reflected in both Red Sparrow and Anna.

Standardized character backgrounds are not enough for a movie to present a relatively rigorous story background. Without a relatively rigorous story background, the final result of the film will appear like child's play, even in the case of a comedy, making it difficult for viewers to relate. For example, Ghosted.

How can we avoid female spy movies looking like child's play? Although realism is not a necessary requirement for spy movies, movies can have unrealistic settings. However, basic logical consistency is a necessary condition for viewers to become involved in the plot and believe in the characters. 

Logical consistency here refers to the self-consistency of the plot within the movie's own setting, and there should not be too many contradictions and loopholes.

For instance, Angelina Jolie's movie Salt and Jennifer Lawrence's Red Sparrow both featured great action scenes, but due to obvious plot bugs, many viewers were disappointed and as a result, their ratings on various websites were not very high.

If we expect a female secret agent movie that can stand the test of time like The Bourne Identity, at least our production team needs to make more efforts in the logical coherence and accurate details of the script.

3/Exploration of Aesthetic Style

Movies are not just about telling a story, the style of the visuals and sound can greatly affect the audience's experience. When a movie's visual expression or music is outstanding enough, any flaws in the story can be forgiven and accepted.

For example, in Mad Max: Fury Road, Charlize Theron's performance turned this movie from a male protagonist series into an action movie with exceptional female characters. The strong stylized expression is reflected in the audiovisual effects. The combination of yellow sand, gasoline, steel, rust, armor, blood, heavy metal rock music, and engine sound creates its own post-apocalyptic aesthetic, making it an excellent cult movie.

Atomic Blonde also has its own unique visual style. The cold black, gray, and blue colors, coupled with the cold mist, damp ground, and various dim neon lights, give the whole movie a cyberpunk atmosphere. This visual effect also makes the narrative of the movie more serious.

For another example, Margret Robbie's portrayal of Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad also has outstanding aesthetic value. The watercolor-like, sweet and dark coexisting character design corresponds to her rebellious and ambiguous personality. The alternating chaos and order in the movie's visuals, much like Quinn's alternating mad and rational personality, are highlighted.

My personal favorite fight scene is the one where she uses a spear. The petals and her red dress in the scene take the audience to Quinn's imagined world. At this point, the realism of the fight is no longer important.

One potential direction for female action movies is to showcase unique aesthetic styles through visual and auditory effects, rather than simply relying on and repeating patterns already used in other films.

4/ Reflection on Male Gaze

In 1975, Laura Mulvey wrote “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” which bridged feminist film theory and psychoanalysis to criticize the dominance of a masculine-centered cinema and its attendant male gaze. For Mulvey, classical Hollywood film is a problematic institution, for it controls and directs the look of the spectator in a way that objectifies women.

Using Mulvey's perspective, it is easy to see that action movies have long been dominated by men. Female protagonists always wear either tight black bodysuits that affect their ability to fight, or long skirts with high heels that show off their legs. No matter how injured they are, it does not affect their ability to show off their sexiness. Especially when it comes to fight scenes, their slender bodies make it difficult to believe that their fights are real.

We can accept a female spy who can't fight, but we can't accept a female spy who isn't beautiful enough. Luc Besson's film "Anna" directly uses supermodels to shoot action scenes. 

The display of the protagonist's strength and beauty is indeed a major focus of action movies, but in female-led action movies, the display of female beauty becomes even more important. Female action movies are inevitably dressed in spaghetti strap dresses and high heels to fight, just as male spy action movies always wear suits to fight.

Can't female agents be beautiful? Of course they can. But I think a more worthwhile question is, do female agents have to be beautiful? From a commercial film perspective, it's better if they are. Although the public occasionally finds so-called powerful female protagonists who emphasize the balance between power and beauty, in reality, this praise is just a way to avoid and conceal the male gaze.

Moreover, compared to the promiscuous Bond, female agents seem to have to adhere to a stricter code of sexual ethics and have their own standards about true love. They rarely indulge in casual affairs and constantly change intimate partners in the series.

How can we subvert the gaze towards men like this? Myranda A Dapolito pointed out in her article "A Contemporary Analysis of Action Films with Female Leads" some successful attempts in contemporary action films with female leads in this regard.

For example, neutral dressing is undoubtedly a rebellion against male gaze. Take the yellow suit worn by Beatrix in "Kill Bill" played by Uma Thurman, although some viewers may find it sexy, the suit itself is a reproduction of Bruce Lee's famous screen image. 

Lisbeth in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and Furiosa in "Mad Max" also wear neutral clothing, which is a refutation of female action movies under male gaze.

Additionally, in some action films starring women, props are used instead of objects that are objectified. In early films, women often appeared in extreme close-up shots, divided into parts, and sexualized. However, in these films, it is the props - and the subsequent violence - that are dissected and sexualized. For example, the sword in Kill Bill and the modified car in Mad Max can be seen as a substitute for the setting in which women are objectified by male fetishes.

Of course, equal fighting scenes are also crucial. Women can personally seek revenge against those who have inflicted violence on them, instead of relying on a more powerful male lead to administer justice. This is also an attempt to place women in a position of agency.

Since Ghosted has already thought of having the male lead fall onto the female lead's lap, why not go all the way and let the female lead personally deal with the person who once threatened and abused her? This movie could have been better, just like female spy action movies that can be made better in the future.

ref：A Contemporary Analysis of Action Films with Female Leads