Amulet: The Stonekeeper

Spoiler Alert!: Most of the big reveals in this story are given away in this review.
by Courtney Hilden

Amulet: The Stonekeeper is the first book in a graphic novel series that follows Emily and her brother Navin as they struggle to rescue their mom, who has been taken by a tentacled monster. Despite the overly-used premise and nods to other fantasy stories, this first part of the Amulet story manages to feel fresh.
The story opens up on a family vacation, one that ends in tragedy after a car crash kills Emily and Navin's father. Because of his death, their mother moves them both to their ancestral home, which has an opening to a mystical world that Great-Grandfather Silas (still somehow alive) was running with the help of an amulet. Similar to the titled ring in The Lord of the Rings, the amulet's power comes with serious, personal drawbacks, but to save her mother, Emily decides to wield its power. Great-grandfather's gang of helpers, including a bunny-like Misket, help Emily and Navin, and the story ends before readers can know if their mom survives.
The artwork is stunningly cinematic, especially in their color choices and background detail. The monsters feel new, with a strangely combination of the Halloween ghouls of Invader Zim and the many characters, good and bad, from Hayao Miyazaki. The children, Emily and Navin, are perfect cartoon characters, both simple and expressive. (The series is now in the process of being made into a movie, and given the fantastic art, this is not surprising.)
It is also nice that the main hero is Emily and not a young man. So often in fantasy stories that are written for both genders the hero is male. Often, female characters play small roles or ones that confine them to feminine roles (as mothers, nurturers, or even in Avatar: The Last Airbender, where the main female character, despite considerable power, was the one doing most of the cooking and laundry.) Here, Emily is a character who is without an disadvantage that could be coded as "womanly." She is tying to save her last living parent and take care of her younger brother, a role that could have easily been male, but here, thankfully, is not. It is time both young girls and boys read a story about a real girl, one who is brave and well-intentioned but imperfect, and this looks like a great series to do so with.

Is Salt a Feminist Movie?

A review of Salt.
by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: Part of this plot, though not the final twist, is given away in this review.  

There was a lot of talk on blogs and forums on the Internet about Salt, a movie starring Angelina Jolie.  Before the movie came out, there was a lot of enthusiasm over how the movie was originally written with a male main character, but once Jolie became interested in the project, the gender was changed to reflect their star's.  Feminists celebrated this as a moment where gender didn't determine the casting of an actor.  After the movie came out, the movie was given mixed reviews, discussing it as a fun and well-made popcorn movie, but complaining it was not especially deep.  But it must have captured someone's attention, as it managed to make $70.8 million in ten days. 
But after the movie came out, there was not much of a discussion about if the film was feminist in and of itself.  And, given that other reviews have already dissected so much of the other aspects of the film, it seems important to talk about how this movie, being the only film I can think of where the gender of its main character was purposeless changed, about how gender operates in the movie
First and foremost, it was a relief to see Jolie not play up her sexiness or body.  She wore frumpy work clothes that looked unflattering and unfashionable.  She had a miserably bad haircut throughout the beginning of the movie, her blond locks looking like a bad dye job.  (While her character's actually dye job looked utterly normal on her, the kind of hair someone who only washes it every other day looks.)  Considering Jolie is the woman who, about ten years ago, played Lara Croft, where, because she apparently was not what the directors and producers wanted, had to wear fake breasts.  In a world where one of the most beloved film stars has an imperfect body, you know the standards are far too high.  It almost felt like Salt was purposeless not more than just a woman with a government job.  It was nice to have a heroine who was relatively ordinary.
But the plot's reliance on Salt's dedication to her husband is troublesome.  Early on in the film, Salt's husband, Mike, is taken by Orlov's group.  After he is killed by Orlov's men, it becomes Salt's apparent motivation, leading her to follow enough of Orlov's plan to dismantle it.  (I say apparent motivation here because it is possible that other things are motivating her, but her husband's murder is the only clear force propelling her.)  Salt's dedication is admirable, but it's troublesome that her only motivation throughout the movie is her love for her husband.  If this movie really had been about a man, it is hard to believe that it would follow this same plot.  A male character in those circumstances would have other things motivating him.
It is also important to note the lack of female character, beyond Salt.  All the other characters are male, and apparently, other than Salt, everyone important at the CIA is male.  Although women have historically struggled with jobs in the CIA, they do exist.  The complete lack of other female characters within the story just serves to remind the audience that even if the main character's gender was changed, that it was because one of the biggest stars in the world became attached to the project, not because it was a moment to make a statement about gender and characters in the movies.  And of all the things about this movie, from the ludicrous chase scenes and the McGuyver moments and the unbelievable idea that Russia has trained children to eventually bring down the U.S., that indifference to gender within the story is the most disappointing.