Film

Rose McGowan Slams ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Billboard For Celebrating “Casual Violence”

"The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid."

by Junkee  3 June 2016

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X-Men Apocalypse has received some mixed reviews since it was released a few weeks ago, particularly in relation to its depiction of female characters. Much of the critique has revolved around the bizarrely revealing costume of Psylocke (Olivia Munn), a jarring decision that makes every single scene she’s in seem unnecessarily pervy.

In his review of the film, Junkee’s Glenn Dunks said of the costume: “There’s even an extremely tasteless scene in which a sword-wielding super-villain Psylocke stands in the middle of Auschwitz in a high-waisted bondage-inspired costume that looks like a swimsuit with her legs spread wide. Sure, it’s apparently accurate to the comic book, but that doesn’t make it any less absurd”.

This week, when The AV Club writer Caroline Siede expressed confusion as to why Psylocke had to keep her ‘canon’ costume while other characters like Wolverine could wear a different costume than they do in the comics, she copped several days of Twitter abuse.

Now, the film is being criticised for several billboard advertisements that have popped up around the US that depict villain En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) strangling Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). It’s a violent and distressing image that, in truth, doesn’t fully represent the film.

Although X-Men depicts a universe in which mutant warriors of all genders are adversaries of equal strength and supernatural powers, this poster does not look particularly fantastical; it just looks like a big guy physically choking a smaller woman. One of the most vocal critics of the image is actress and filmmaker Rose McGowan, who told The Hollywood Reporter: “There is a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence against women is the way to market a film. There is no context in the ad, just a woman getting strangled. The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid.”

“So let’s right this wrong. 20th Century Fox, since you can’t manage to put any women directors on your slate for the next two years, how about you at least replace your ad?”

This sentiment also seems to be shared by many fans of the series, with writer and editor Jay Edidin, one half of the podcast Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men, saying that: “It’s gratuitous, it’s offensive in completely useless ways. Offensive isn’t always necessarily bad, but this is offensive in ways that serve absolutely no purpose, and while it does depict a scene from the actual film, it’s also a terrible representation of the movie as a whole.”

20th Century Fox are yet to comment on the matter.

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UPDATE  (5/6/2016): 20th Century Fox have apologised for the billboards.