It sounds like the Batgirl movie is back on now that it’s found a new writer, who is the same writer that is responsible for bringing the Bumblebee movie to life. Seeing as how Transformers has been running itself into the ground, with a lot of thanks to its director, there’s a big hope that Batgirl won’t be stretching the idea of the Bat family out to a level that might be a little precarious to really think about. But to be honest it might be time for her to come out anyway since her last outing, done by Alicia Silverstone, was something akin to an adolescent’s fantasy that really did nothing to capture the imagination or the essence of the heroine.
Batgirl is after all a superhero that, like Batman, is highly skilled, very intelligent, and yet possesses no superpowers of her own. She relies on her intelligence and athletic capabilities to do what she can to fight crime, and like Batman has developed a history in the past with a lot of enemies that would rather see her out of the picture. Once Joss Whedon, who is responsible for the Avengers story and how it began, stepped aside Christina Hodson, who’s been in the Transformers writing room as a participant and been in on other various movies, took over. Since she’s already penned the screenplay for Bumblebee it was decided that she would take the shot of finding a voice and venue for Batgirl that could be used by a willing director that would make it work. To be honest she hasn’t really taken on anything this big it would seem on her own, but that’s part of the process it seems like, and if she’s asked to make changes then it’s likely that she’ll make them without much hemming and hawing, unless she’s got a valid point for keeping the story the way it is.
Batgirl is a lot more dynamic than she gets credit for a lot of times, but driving her own movie seems like a big stretch at this point even for someone of her tenure. Unfortunately this could be solely because she’s never really been pushed as a lead character and given control over a movie as a lead. After all her appearance in Batman and Robin, dismal as the movie was, amounted to only small supporting role that didn’t really go much of anywhere. The Bat family might have been loosely formed by the end of the movie but no one wanted to see it unless the actors and the story were completely flipped on their heads and rewritten. Well, this might be that chance for Batgirl at least. Hodson could make a big impact if she plays this right and manages to write up a story line that allows Batgirl to step into her own arena and shine brighter than anyone. Whether there will be other heroes in her story or not isn’t known yet, but this could be another important movie when it comes to giving women the ability to lead in powerful films showing women in a position of authority.
It’s got be done right thought, or it becomes an attempt to grab at something that the heroine just isn’t ready for yet. Have faith, it could work.
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