Did you see the SWIII trailer last night?

She forgot
-- do weak skimpy clothes
and in recent years
-- do kiss or pretend to kiss at least one other woman in the movie (Okay, Elektra flopped despite that).

Seriously, though what about Kill Bill and Uma Thurman's character (Black Mamba), who was moderately successful.
-- She did shun human society (till the very end).
-- She did kill her boyfriemd
-- She didn't embrace girl power, since she killed off a bunch of girls.

Click the link in my "posted by" line for a downloadable version, erg.

Sweet mother of God, I can't help but FREAK OUT for this movie.

Actually, if you read the article, the idea is to distinguish between what made a successful superheroine (e.g., Buffy) as opposed to an unsuccessful superheroine (e.g., Elektra). The article is actually pretty much spot-on.

I don't think Kill Bill applies because Uma Thurman's character in the movie did not have super powers. It might seem trivial whether a heroine's powers are natural or supernatural, but I think it makes all the difference. Most superheroes are supposed to be ordinary people who have been given superpowers and have to learn to use them responsibly. The audience needs to be able to identify with the superheroes, because they're supposed to be just like us. Uma's character, however, is far from an ordinary person, so she didn't need to be identifiable to be interesting.

The Buffy seasons all depended on the villan:
the mayor (season 3) was their best villan followed by "the original evil" (season 7). Weakest season hands down was the 6th when - Buffy fought inner demons most of the season & was sullen most of the time or even in a mental ward.

And it is nitpicking since Angel promptly came back to life in the very next season!

Buffy the movie was terrible, but there's Hilary Swank as one of Buffy's ditzy friends and Ben Affleck in a very short cameo as an opposing basketball player.

This is true to a large degree with male-centered movies as well, but super-heroine movies succeed when they feed off of an existing audience. Charlie's Angels fed off of the old show, but the second one bombed. The first Laura Croft fed of the game and the fact that Angelina Jolie is hot, but the second one bombed. Although Jolie and Cameron Diaz are both hot, they are also both (Jolie more than Diaz) personally bizarre individuals (although Diaz thought rape was going to be legalized if women didn't vote in the last election).

There is a socio-biology aspect to this. Anthropologically, men and women in all societies identify leadership with men. One may like or dislike this fact, but it is a fact nonetheless. There is has yet to be a character with a feminist-bent to maintain an following over time.

I think Larson's wrong about the appeal of Buffy. What made the show so popular across such a broad spectrum of audiences was (1) extremely cool and cynical villains who were surprisingly fleshed out, often even (sort of) switching sides-- Spike-- or so unbelievably creepy that they stuck in your head for weeks (the Gentleman-- don't tell me you weren't more than a bit chilled by that episode); and (2) very clever and novel takes on old monster legends, and the fact that Gellar played Buffy straight even in the midst of what would otherwise be ridiculous story constructs. The villains in the shows were truly a riot. They weren't one-dimensional; for the most part they had personalities and their own "issues" to deal with, and their interactions with Buffy and the Scooby team were scary but often absolutely hilarious as well.

Also, with regard to Larson's Rule #6, if anything BTVS exhibited the *opposite tendency*. Buffy was obviously the most kick-ass member of the group, but on quite a few occasions she needed to be rescued by Xander, Giles, Spike, Angel, and especially Riley for whatever reason (e.g. against Adam and in the Gentleman episode, up in the tower). This if anything added to the show's appeal, in contradiction to what Larson seems to think, since it showed Buffy to be brave and incredibly tough but also not invulnerable and often in need of a helping hand, with-- of all people-- a seeming dweeb like Xander saving her on occasion from an otherwordly adversary. Thus in this sense, the superheroine genre isn't too different from other classic heroes genres: We want them to kick ass but also be truly threatened with real danger for which they need to call in help, otherwise it's uninteresting. The relative lack of this may be one of the reasons that e.g. the Charlie's Angels and Tomb Raider sequels had such lackluster performances.