Summer has arrived (if you ignore the weekend rain) and so have some fantastic cinematic blockbusters.There’s exciting viewing for everyone: out-and-out action, talking apes on a CGI-level almost incomprehensible, tamed dragons, a cinematic experiment that took 12 years to make and a romantic comedy to satisfy your sentimental side. However, if you delve a little deeper, an inescapable fact arises and the question has to be asked: where are all the women?



Andy Serkis in the visually phenomenal Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. But the cast has very few women

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes looks epic. The story, the action and the special effects set the stage for a movie of fantastic proportions. But there are only two prominent female figures to at least 10 main male characters, both ape and human alike. In the ape world, the woman is Caesar’s wife, giving birth and feeling unwell afterwards for most of the movie. In the human world, we have one woman in a five-strong male group who are daring to enter into the carefully constructed world of the apes.

Why does the casting have to be so male heavy?

More: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes review

Ellar Coltrane in 'Boyhood' - but why not, Girlhood?

Next we have Boyhood which is a revolutionary film idea, charting one individual through 12 years of his life from boyhood to adolescence in actual time. The film, as is obvious, has chosen to chart the life of a boy. Of course, there was a 50/50 chance that it could have been called Girlhood. Wasn’t there?

Michael Bay’s latest robots in disguise offering is also out: Transformers: Age of Extinction. The film is a new era in the Transformers franchise, with Mark Wahlberg taking the helm as the new hero. Unfortunately that’s where the evolution ends as the female in the film remains the classic ‘damsel in distress’, only this time it’s her dad who has to come to the rescue.

More: Transformers: Age of Extinction might not be great, but it's bringing in the money

Mark Wahlberg in 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'

Then we have Expendables 3. The third in the instalment of a group of old men who once wielded their guns and muscles in quite a few action movies, teaming up together to defy the natural ageing process and still kick everyone’s ass. It’s hard to imagine a production company commissioning an all female line-up with the majority over 50, isn’t it?

Next page: where are all the women in 'How to Train Your Dragon 2'?