Films of the same era were, at first glance, providing a much better representation of women, although there were still underlying themes that either show women as being inferior, or objectify them. The Little Mermaid, for example, despite the fact it doesn’t have represent women in a blatantly bad way, ultimately ends with Ariel marrying Eric, suggesting that the only way girls can be happy is if they marry young. Even Aliens, so heralded for its positive representation of females, objectifies women even if only slightly by having Ripley walk around in her underwear and having the camera focus in on her body. Despite this, there is a lot of good to be taken out of both of these films in terms of the representation of women, but there’s also the negative representation that goes along with it.
Later videogames, with the advent of 3D visuals and voice acting, represent women in a more complex, film-like way. Women changed from damsels in distress to the main protagonists. Joanna Dark is a good example of this. In Perfect Dark, she is the glamorous heroine – a female James Bond – who saves the world with her super agent skills.
It has been argued that characters like Joanna Dark, despite their complex and overall positive representations, are only main characters because of their massively over-exaggerated bodies and suggestive actions and that appeal to young men - generally the target audience of most videogames. However, there are other examples of female videogame characters that are both positive examples of heroines, and aren't overly sexualised. The main example that comes to mind is the character Jade from Beyond Good & Evil. She's both a reporter, and works with orphaned children, and isn't overly-sexualised and also doesn't suffer from typically female character flaws that are present in many other female characters (like relying on a male character for help).
Like games, contemporary films also seem to have improved their representations of female characters (a good example being Kill Bill), however there are also still examples of bad representations of women, even in the past decade.
Sex In The City, despite positioning itself as a film about three independent women, is ultimately about their love of shopping, and how much they need men in their lives. The 007 films, despite not objectifying women in quite the same was as earlier films, still make women play second fiddle to Bond, and the main purpose of Bond girls seems to be to look pretty on Bond's arm, even though their personalities have become more complex in recent films.
In conclusion, the representation of women in both films and videogames has improved dramatically over time, although there are still many contemporary example son both mediums of bad representations of women, even though they're often more subtle than the overtly sexist of misogynist representations of yesteryear.