James Cameron doubles down on his Wonder Woman criticism

'She's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. To me, that's not breaking ground. They had Raquel Welch doing stuff like that in the '60s'

James Cameron has not only reiterated his criticism of Wonder Woman, but he seems befuddled as to why his comments were controversial in the first place.

"I was certainly shocked that [my comment] was a controversial statement. It was pretty obvious in my mind," Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter; in August, the director claimed the Patty Jenkins-directed movie was a "step backwards", as it featured an "objectified icon" that was just "male Hollywood doing the same old thing".

Jenkins herself gracefully responded to the comments by noting: "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."

Cameron, however, stands by his words. "I mean, she was Miss Israel, and she was wearing a kind of bustier costume that was very form-fitting," he explained. "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]."

He added, "Linda looked great. She just wasn't treated as a sex object. There was nothing sexual about her character. It was about angst, it was about will, it was about determination. She was crazy, she was complicated."

"She wasn't there to be liked or ogled, but she was central, and the audience loved her by the end of the film. So 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."

"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 is currently at work on the next four Avatar sequels. The movies that, in 2009, he described in detail the technological resources needed to ensure its CGI female lead had the perfect, natural bounce to her tits.

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