Redartz: Greetings, everyone. It's been a few weeks now since "Wonder Woman" opened, and it has been drawing a lot of praise. And here at the ol' BitBA, we can't miss a chance to discuss such a noteworthy film! By now, many of us may have seen it, but in case you haven't, be warned: spoilers ahead...
My wife and I went to see it last week. I was ambivalent at first, as the most recent DC films have not exactly 'lit my fire'. However the images I'd seen , and the positive reviews the film has generated, convinced me to give it a shot. To say the least, it didn't disappoint.
First off the casting was inspired. Gal Gadot was absolutely wonderful as the Amazon Princess. From the film's beginning, Diana was a very likeable, sympathetic character (something somewhat lacking in some other DC films, in my opinion). Gal did a fine job in portraying Diana's progressive education in the 20th. Century world. Her Diana was charming, and her Wonder Woman was unapologetically heroic. No darkness here. She was courageous, selfless, clever ; I found myself rooting for her through the whole film. I hadn't felt like that since seeing the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie.
Oh, and proper creds to Chris Pine for his turn as Steve Trevor. A very enjoyable performance, and his chemistry with Gadot was evident. I was prepared to dislike his character.As I've read very little of Wonder Woman, my exposure to the Steve Trevor character is limited to an assumption that he was a male 'damsel in distress'. Yet Pine fleshed him out nicely, and made me care about him as well. All the way to his tragic finish- didn't see that coming, but it made sense in the plot, and made sense in the bigger scheme of Wonder Woman's future role in the outside world.
Incidentally, any among you more familiar with the Wonder Woman mythos are welcome to correct my thinking here. Indeed, seeing this movie has me eager to pick up and read some of WW's four color adventures. Perhaps some of you can recommend some good tales...
Returning to the movie: loads of action, well presented.The effects were good, costumes excellent (loved the lasso). Here we see the Amazons interrogating the downed pilot Trevor...
I found it interesting that they set the film in WW1, rather than WW2; but it worked well for me. Actually, it helped establish the timeless aspect of Themyscira and it's inhabitants, as the film occasionally jumped to the present day (complete with Bruce Wayne on the computer). The prominent threat posed by chemical warfare and mustard gas in WW1was integral to the plot , and struck a chord with our terror concerns today. The scenes in "No Man's Land" were effective, and the atmosphere and camerawork well depicted the sparseness and futility of the trenches. And it provided a great opportunity for Diana to lead, and prove her heroic heart.
The music was a bit heavy , but didn't distract. In fact, I found very few weaknesses to the film (Ares, God of War, was perhaps a bit predictable as a villain, but not painfully so- and David Thewlis was fine in the role). And unfamiliar as I am with Wonder Woman, I was at least able to explain to my wife who Etta Candy was! The summary here being that we both enjoyed the film thoroughly.
I'd go into some further detail here, but I want to hear your impressions of the film. Therefore, I leave the rest up to you. How did you like the movie? Did it reflect well upon the comic, was it faithful to the canon of the character? Did it increase your interest in Wonder Woman, as it did for me? Or did it leave you wanting? By all means, give us your critical assessments!
10 comments:
I saw the film shortly after it opened. Diana's lack of familiarity with the outside world was truly hilarious at times, and Diana's revulsion to her first glimpse of early 20th century London made me chuckle aloud ("It's hideous!").
I found that the film rekindled one's interest in the Wonder Woman character, much like the Iron Man film did for his character back in 2008 (Iron Man comics were hardly first tier, and in general not very popular, but the film gave the character a much needed boost).
The Ares, God of War concept was a bit far-fetched, however, and the portrayal of General Ludendorff as a sadistic villain was inaccurate, or at the very least embellished--in actuality Ludendorff was not quite the cruel, malicious monster depicted in the film.
Diana was impressive to me--selfless, intrepid, and honorable. Gal Gadot did a fine job and makes an excellent modern Wonder Woman. I look forward to the inevitable sequel, which is already in the works.
My overall assessment: it was good, but honestly, not as enjoyable as any of the Marvel films. However, I think it is without a doubt the best of the DC films (but then again, that's not a very high bar; and yes, I'm including all three of the Nolan Batman films in that assessment).
What I really liked about it included a few things mentioned by both Redartz in the original post and by Thomas: Gadot was superbly cast and really played Diana as a noble, heroic and above all likable character.
The visualization of Themyscira and the portrayal of the Amazons were also spot-on, and by the time the movie was over I found myself wishing more of it had been set there. Also, Chris Pine is probably the best iteration of Steve Trevor I've seen in any medium - I certainly like him better as Steve than as Capt. Kirk.
The WW1 setting was also an intriguing break from the original comic-book origin, which I thought was handled pretty well.
As to the things I didn't like: like Thomas, I found the wildly fictionalized characterization of an actual historical figure, Ludendorff, who was not in fact killed at the end of the war (he lived into the 1930s I think), offputting. It would have been easy enough to create a fictional German officer.
Also, the whole conflict with Ares was kind of oddly resolved; I mean, most of the bad stuff he says about humanity was being proved by the war itself (and all of human history up to that point), and Diana vanquishing him by punching the crap out of him in godly fashion, however satisfying, really doesn't contradict any of that.
And there's a lot of other stuff in the story that becomes troubling if you overthink it. For example, a question that nagged me at the end of the movie was that Diana, according to the voiceover, apparently dedicated her life to working for peace in the outside world after the war. So what the hell happened? The events of the remainder of the 20th and the early 21st century are then a testament to her failure on countless occasions.
So yeah, like I said, generally I liked the movie, but I found some serious flaws in the storytelling which probably could have been fixed with just some minimum re-writes and editing in the right places.
Really enjoyed the movie as did my wife and adult daughter.
Likes: The concept of the island, the acting, the concept of Aries, the WW I setting, the overall plot and dialogue, the settings / scenery.
Dislikes: I truly didn't see the need for the bits of sexual innuendo and ultimately bedding Diana. I guess I like my superheroes chaste since I think it adds to their virtue. (I suppose Charlie is opening himself up to a barrage of potential criticism, lol. It's OK.
Let me hear it, lol.)
Still pondering: I, and even my French wife whose region experienced horrendous German atrocities (Oradour sur Glane, Tulle), wondered about continuously depicting the Germans as beasts.
(Re: Ludendorff - His decision for the futile slaughter of a million men in the 1918 Spring offensive... only God knows where he is resting at this moment.)
I'm with CH 47 and others on this one. I did like it. I particularly liked the island setting and the different type of origin that Diana has. It was a nice change to have a non-modern, non-urban origin.
I thought the WWI setting was also unique and interesting. The Diana fish-out-of-water aspect was quite good. She wasn't weak and ignorant but she was also surprised and dumbfounded by what she sees. I really enjoyed the London section of the movie.
Ares was the weakest part in my opinion. His character was underdeveloped and for me the twist identity reveal was predictable. I at least knew that Ares wasn't Ludendorff from the beginning, and from there it is just process of elimination of the stars. I also knew immediately that Diana was the weapon and not the sword. I feel movies play up the big "reveals" but in the end it's more of a distraction.
But I liked the villainy of Dr. Poison and wish the ending spotlighted her more. Her interaction with Steve Trevor at the gala was interesting to me.
I was only okay with the ragtag team that Trevor assembled. It seemed a bit cliche. But I did ultimately really root for Wonder Woman when she led them out of the trenches.
I also liked the beach battle on the island when the "modern" world first encroached on their paradise.
However, Steve's final fate made no sense to me. Maybe I missed something. Explain to me why that was the only solution??? The guy was a top notch pilot so he couldn't fly somewhere? I have to be missing something.
Overall I thought it was a nice step forward for DC and I actually put this one above a couple of Marvel movies.
Seeing the trailer for the Justice League movie, I have very little hope that the trend continues. I actually think I will skip that one.
My guess about the WW1 setting is that 1) they didn't want it to too closely resemble Captain America: The First Avenger and 2) they probably found Diana's anti-war sentiment harder to justify if the enemy were Nazis.
Anyway, I liked it, but found the last 25 minutes or so unbearable.
I collected my thoughts (from Twitter) on Storify here: Thoughts on Finally Seeing Wonder Woman
HI Dr. O - interesting thought on the WW1 setting. Indeed, if it was set in WW II you would have the "anti-war" sentiment butting into the "just war" sentiment.
Martin - I thought the rationale for the in-flight explosion was that the gas had to be incinerated at high temperature which could be triggered by a bullet shot (If I recall) but you didn't want to be near the explosion b/c of potential gas poisoning?
Hey Fans - I have this crazy thought! What if Steve actually jumped out of the airplane and fired a shot on the way down and blew up the plane? And then Steve falls into the really, really cold North Atlantic waters and gets frozen in a block of ice?? And then like 100 years later some Icelandic whale fisherman find him floating around with in a perfect state of suspended animation??? Or better yet, some German U-boat finds him slightly decomposed and take him to a lab, fix him up, screw with his head, and then he comes back to Diana but as a bona fide traitor (which she doesn't know about)?
But who would believe that???? Craaaazy stuff or what?????
Good morning,
I would like to agree with many of the thoughts that others have said already today.
I saw this film on my birthday back shortly after it came out. My wife took me to see it, which is somewhat unique as this was the first comics/Apes/Star Wars type of movie we have seen together. She thought the movie was a slog, which may contribute to some of the negative thoughts I have about it.
I thought the parts with the Amazons were fantastic, and I agree that the casting of Gal Gadot as Diana was inspired. She looked great in the outfit and exuded the characteristics that we would expect from Wonder Woman. Like others, I would've preferred more of the island scenes as compared to some of the scenes that came later in the film.
I felt that the romance between Diana and Steve did not have enough time to percolate, thus in the climax of the film I thought it was a bit forced. This would be similar to the relationship between Cap and Bucky in the MCU films, where the time on screen just doesn't lend itself to the same degree of backstory that you get from series of comic books.
The villains were pretty lame; Dr. Poison could have been featured and it would have been better. The end scene played out like a video game and was a bore.
Overall, I'd probably not see this again, but relative to the Nolan Batman and Man of Steel flicks this was more enjoyable. I'd still watch any MCU movie before I'd see another DC film.
Doug
Hey, for once I've actually seen a new release! I liked it overall, but I agree that the "least good" part of the movie was the big boss fight with Ares; it just felt a bit cliché to me, like they threw it in because they thought they had to.
But it's definitely the best of the DC superhero movies (I haven't seen Suicide Squad, but I stand by my assessment.)
I agree with Doug about the end scene.
Overall though miles ahead of any other DC movie.
Gal was perfect. The "no mans land" scene was extremely emotional.
Favorite movie moment; "Look, a baby!"
Thanks for chiming in today, everyone! A couple of specific thanks:
Thanks Thomas, Edo and Charlie for the info on Gen. Ludendorff. I was unaware of his history, a lapse I now must remedy.
Thanks, Dr. O, for the link to your film impressions, and for your hypothesis regarding the WW1 setting. Sounds reasonable...
Post a Comment