The surprise hit Prey, which has rebooted and reignited interest in the Predator franchise, has been accused of featuring a Mary Sue character, and the Internet has some things to say about that.
Prey centers around a young female Native American hunter of the Comanche Nation who goes toe to toe with a Predator, but of course there’s been pushback because of that choice for a lead in an action movie. For those unfamiliar, the term “Mary Sue” refers to a fictional female character who is “depicted as unrealistically lacking in flaws or weaknesses.”
As is common these days, discontent over female characters started over on YouTube. One video with 1.4 million views claimed that Prey was “a f**king intersectional feminist struggle session” and that it was “ludicrous” for a Comanche woman to fight a predator. This video, by the way, was posted weeks before the movie even came out.
Of course, this ignited some heated pushback.
Other female characters from popular franchises, like Ripley from Alien, or Rey from Star Wars, are also regularly used to illustrate the term. One Twitter user pointed out the obvious double standards.
Another use pointed out how language matters and stereotypes don’t help.
The argument is fairly easy to dismantle, according to one user.
Film critic Courtney Howard had some pointed words for men who use the term.
Another user pointed out that the video actually proves how good the movie ended up being.
Writer Matthew Dow Smith pointed out there are a slew of male characters that could be called Mary Sues.
Prey also has the distinction of being the highest-rated and best reviewed movie of all the Predator movies so far. It has a 92 percent rating on the site Rotten Tomatoes, with an 81 percent audience score. Veteran movie critic Richard Roeper said the movie did a good job of showing how the main character took down the Predator in a believable way.
“How can one teenage girl hope to take down this enormous, often invisible, ferocious, emotionally intelligent, extraterrestrial being with a wide array of weapons at its disposal? Let’s just say Prey comes up with ingenious ways to even the odds.”
Prey is currently streaming on Hulu.
