Scarlett had 2 phds, 1 masters, spoke 4 living languages and 2 dead - and she is all of about 25 by her appearance. It is impossible that she could have done all this at such a young age. And she is Lara Croft to boot at the same time, with apparently vast experience travelling the world on adventures - she must never sleep. Also, who funded these adventures? No job is ever mentioned.
shareShe worked as a professor at University College London, she says this when she first introduces herself.
shareI hate when they do this in books and movies. It just screams of lazy writing that they have to tell us how smart she is rather than find ways to show us.
Also doing the math:
Average graduating high school: 18 years old.
Average length of a bachelors degree: 4 years.
Average length of a history masters: 2 years.
Average length of a history phd: 5-8 years.
18 + 4 + 2 + 6.5 + 6.5 = 37 years old
Plus she mentioned that she is a professor and unless she started that job real recently, that adds at least another year or more.
She would have to really be skipping through grades in early school and taking summer and winter classes throughout college to have a chance at getting through all that by her 20's.
Yup. I have spent a lot of time in and around university academics over the years. I have never seen or heard of anyone in the humanities and social sciences even close to approaching Scarlett's level of formal credentials and career achievements at such a young age - especially in the complex fields of history and symbology. It takes years to write a half-decent PhD in these areas. Why couldn't they just say she had one PhD (rather than two) and was a lecturer (rather than a full professor). This would have been a more accurate picture of where her career was at for her age. Anyway, I considered her character to be a liar from early on in the film, when she boasted about a set of achievements impossible at her age. I kept hoping throughout the film that one of the other characters would expose her as a fabricator. Unfortunately this didn't happen, and she got away without being unchallenged.
shareWhy can't movies/videogames/books ever just have normal guy/girl characters? Every character now is special forces or ex special forces, every person that is supposed to be educated has at least a PhD, and the list could go on for most character types almost nobody can relate to. I want to hear about the regular guy, and not gods boring gift to shooting criminals/solving mysteries with their 4 phds and 30 years of special forces experience.
shareHear, Hear.
I think Kick-Ass fits well with your vision.
If she received her education in the UK, that maths is a bit off.
It would be 18 + 3 + 1 + 3 + 3 = 28
UK students (except Scotland) typically also start university undergrad at 18 but finish undergrad in 3 years. Masters in the UK is usually 1 year. Doctorate is typically 3 years.
When she got to the Krav Maga I was rolling my eyes. It's pretty implausible, if not impossible - I doubt anybody like this exists in the modern world. In my department there are plenty of "professors" and none are mid-twenties girls.
The character could have easily been a particularly brilliant archeology student but instead we get this silly Mary Sue.
One of the first things I thought in the film was that her character should've been named "Mary-Sue".
They went way over the top in selling her.
HOW ridiculous, right?? Right!??? I mean I was also soooooo annoyed how she healed the guy with the neck bite with only her mind powers. Pfffffttttt, that's like 20 years of witchcraft, 20 years of alchemy, 30 years of devil worshiping!!! SO she should be at least 70, plus say 20 years old, 90 years of age!!!
shareI loved her character! I hope she inspires my daughters who are also brainy, ballsy and beautiful ;)
For a nerdy girl of 39 who has done A LOT of studying and travelling and exploring "life" myself - she's great. I hope there's another installment.
~R
I bet you have 3 PhDs, 2 masters and speak 7 languages.
shareMy daughter is 14 and speaks 3 languages plus one dead one.
share