Summer of Wonder

So what a summer it's been for Wonder Woman, eh?

Yeah, I'm pretty late to the party, but I thought I'd chime in with some thoughts on the movie. Especially since all my previous posts on the matter were from before the film's release, so I thought an update was warranted.

This won't be a scene for scene review—just thoughts on certain key points and whatnot. Spoilers, obviously, for those who care.
So let's get cracking...

I'm not going to dwell too much on my thoughts regarding the other DC movies except to say I haven't cared for them. As pointed out in an earlier post, I wasn't into Man of Steel. I thought Suicide Squad was a mess. And I hated Batman v. Superman.

To be honest though, that didn't really bother me as I didn't have all that much emotional investment in those movies anyway. I've never been the biggest Superman guy. I don't care for Harley Quinn. And I've reached a point in my life where I'm pretty much done with Batman.
At the end of the day, Wonder Woman was the only character/movie I had any interest in. Way I looked at it, if absolutely nothing else came of DC's attempt at a movie-verse—the DCEU, as it's apparently called—I just wanted a good Wonder Woman movie.

Given the DCEU's track record and the fact Wonder Woman is notoriously "difficult," with portrayals that vary wildly depending on the creator, I was very nervous about this movie. As I've addressed in numerous past posts, for one reason or another, Diana just has bad luck with certain writers who either don't get her, or feel the need to "fix" her.
Although Patty Jenkins's interviews on the character were encouraging and early buzz seemed good, as I've said elsewhere, if you're a Wonder Woman fan long enough, you learn to live by the saying, "I'll believe it when I see."

I saw Wonder Woman opening weekend and......
I loved it. Was it perfect..? No, there are definite flaws—which I'll get to—but I think Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and all involved knocked it out of the park and delivered in a big way. No joke, I don't remember being that happy leaving a theater in a long time.

Happy dance!

Wonder Woman was never going to be an easy character to translate to the big screen, so I do believe the filmmakers deserve all the credit in the world for being able to distill Diana's key attributes in a fairly cohesive and enjoyable narrative.
Even though certain characters and beats don't get to be as fleshed out as they could (or maybe should), it's impressive they covered as much ground as they did.

I always thought one of the biggest hurtles any film adaptation would have to cross would be backstory. Everyone knows what an "amazon" is, but the Amazons of Wonder Woman have a rather specific origin and backstory. Think about this: we first have to cover who the they are, where they came from, what their purpose is/was, and why they're on their island.
That's a lot of context to set up before we even get to Diana's birth, upbringing, and training.

The opening twenty minutes or so is a little exposition heavy, but I think Patty Jenkins found a good way to cover it efficiently and as eloquently as you're going to get.

I've mixed feelings on use of the gods. It's a very Christian interpretation—with Zeus positioned as a benevolent, father-creator figure, and Ares as the rebellious fallen one, a la Lucifer.
On one hand, as anyone who studies Greek mythology or is at least familiar with the comics knows, that's pretty inaccurate and a major simplification of the Greek pantheon and its relation to the Amazons. As explained in the past, I've never been a fan of making Diana Zeus' daughter, and I don't like the removal of goddesses from her origin.

On the other hand, by distilling it into a relatively simple good god and evil god backstory, it keeps the focus where it belongs: Diana and her journey. I've noticed in the comics, when keeping the gods heavily involved and acknowledging their complexities, they can sometimes hijack the story and Diana herself winds up a pawn in their drama.
Maybe they can add some nuance or involvement from the goddesses in a sequel? Maybe it's better the gods remain gone? There's give and take there.

As said, I still don't like Diana being revealed as Zeus' daughter, but I suppose its execution in the film is as painless as it's going to get.

The Amazons themselves were awesome. Like others, I think it would've been nice to develop more of them and see more of Diana's life on Themyscira. As it is, we only get to know Hippolyta and Antiope, and much of the Themyscira scenes revolved around Diana's training...but this goes back to what I said about how much ground they need to cover.
Yeah, it would've been great to develop some of the other Amazons...but that would probably add another half-hour to forty minutes to a film that's already over two hours.

This is also why I don't mind they skipped the Contest and just had Diana steal the armor. I know some fans don't like it when they do that (Justice League Unlimited did something similar) but again...if they included the Contest and everything that goes into that, we're over an hour into the movie before Diana even leaves the island.
At the end of the day, the key thing is the conflict between Diana and her mother. Hippolyta doesn't want her to leave (whether that means forbidding her from entering the Contest or just telling her to stay put), but Diana disobeys and becomes Wonder Woman (entering the Contest anyway or stealing the armor).

I suppose now would be a good time to commend Gal Gadot's performance. When she was first announced, I didn't really have an opinion either way—for me, the main thing to worry about was how she'd be written and portrayed. At the time, she was only really known for the Fast & Furious movies, which I don't watch, so I couldn't comment on her acting ability.
I will say, in the weeks leading up to Wonder Woman's release, I was rooting for her. Based on interviews of her I've seen, she seems like a very likable, charming person.

And I think she killed it. She's gorgeous, obviously, but she perfectly captured Diana's idealism and warmth. She's convincing in the action scenes. When things go bad, she conveys Diana's heartbreak in a way that made me want to leap into the movie and give her a hug. Frankly, I thought she was downright adorable.
She, and the movie as a whole, does something that I believe is much harder than one might assume: present Diana as naive and altruistic without making her seem dumb or bland.

That is a hard line to walk. Strong writing and direction also factor in, but it takes a earnest performance to play the "pure hero" and not come across as boring, insufferable, or just downright ignorant. Christopher Reeve pulled it off with his Superman. Chris Evans does it with Captain America. And, absolutely, add Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman to that list.

Readers of this blog might recall my very first post where I criticized when Wonder Woman is portrayed as overly naive or an outsider to the point where she comes across as inhuman, stupid, or just alienating. To illustrate my point, I used a scene from the Justice League comic where Diana eats ice cream and proceeds to pontificate about it at length.

When the movie came out, I noticed bit of a surge in traffic on that particular post, and I imagine it's because the film contains a similar scene where Diana tries ice cream. So I suspect some might wonder: did the scene in the movie bother me?

And the answer is an easy no.
I'm not going to belabor why I think this minor scene works in the film while failing in the comic. I'll only say that the movie did it right. I'd chalk it up to to a few key things: Gal Gadot's performance, Patty Jenkins direction, and perhaps most important, the scene in the movie is only a quick thirty second bit (after Diana's already been firmly established) where in the comic it's an actual scene that serves as our introduction to Wonder Woman and goes on for three or four pages.

Simply put: the ice cream bit in the movie is a quick, harmless moment and does its job in presenting Diana as endearing and likable. The scene in the comic is overplayed and only makes Diana appear alien and inhuman.

Props to Chris Pine are warranted, too. Aside from his chemistry with Gal Gadot, all things considered, how easy could Steve and Diana's relationship devolved into "the woman needs a man to tell her what to do"?

I didn't make this. I'd give credit, but I don't know who did.

They walked a very thin line having Diana need Steve to introduce her to the Man's World without it becoming condescending or patronizing, and I think they succeeded. 
Yeah, Steve does end up doing a lot of explaining to her, but at no point did I think she lost her agency or point of view. As much as he was her guide, it was still her journey and her decisions.

This was probably best exemplified in the No Man's Land scene, which is arguably the stand out scene of the entire movie.
Speaking for myself, just the fact the backbone of the entire sequence is born out of Diana's desire to help everyone she meets made me love this. THIS is Wonder Woman. She wants to help everybody, and if she can't, she's damn well going to try.
And again, it reinforces that as much time Steve spends explaining things to Diana and leading her around, at the end of the day, she does what she's going to do and it is awesome.

But as much as I prattle on over how much I loved the film, that isn't to say it's without flaws, and as many have said, the most prominent of which would be in the villains and final boss battle.

Ludendorff was serviceable as a red herring for Ares, but not a very compelling antagonist. The twist could be seen coming miles away, but that didn't bother me. The lesson Diana needed to learn was you can't just kill one bad guy and everything will be okay. If anything, I think knowing that killing Ludendorff would accomplish nothing adds a little tension. We know Diana's wrong long before she does.
But it doesn't change he was a pretty thin character. 

I did like Doctor Poison and Elena Anaya's performance. So much so, it becomes a real shame she didn't get to do more. If nothing else, it would've been nice for Diana and Dr. Poison to have some sort of meeting or confrontation before the finale...something to add a little meat to Diana's decision to show her mercy.

I think, in the end, because Wonder Woman is such a showcase for Diana, her character, journey, and what she's capable of, the villains were left with the short straw. They were there more to serve a purpose than be engaging characters in their own right.

Which brings me to Ares, and for what it's worth, I don't think the ending is as bad as some make it out to be. I've seen people say the fight with Ares is as bad as the Doomsday fight in Batman v. Superman and others go as far as to say it ruins the entire film, which I think is exaggerating. The fight with Ares is definitely flawed, but it doesn't torpedo the movie by any stretch, in my opinion.

I think a big problem with the ending is there's a lot going on that needs to happen—important beats and moments that should be there—but all have to be fit in and around a massive CG slug-fest between Diana and Ares.

Consider all the stuff going on in the finale: Diana realizes Ludendorff isn't Ares, she gets disillusioned with mankind, the real Ares reveals himself and tries to tempt her to the dark side, Steve says his goodbye and sacrifices himself, Diana goes Super Saiyan, she's tempted to murder Dr. Poison but shows mercy, and finally destroys Ares.
This is all stuff that should happen, and on paper, the final battle makes sense. But in execution it becomes a little clunky.

Some say Ares should never have appeared and left it with Diana realizing there is no "big bad" behind it all, which I get. But I think having Ares appear himself and confirm mankind inflicts war and horror onto itself isn't a bad idea and, because this is a superhero movie, conveniently provides Diana with a villainous face to punch for the finale.

I think the mistake with Ares was trying to make his point of view somewhat sympathetic, what with his insisting he wants to restore the Earth to a paradise.
I understand the filmmakers' desire to make it seem like the villain has a reasonable point, which theoretically would justify Diana's temptation to join him, but I think it undermined the more important thing Ares' presence should've hammered home: "I don't make them do anything, they do this to themselves."

Which brings me to another issue: the movie has trouble juggling the ambiguity of World War I.
Unlike World War II, where the Nazis were clearly the bad guys, WWI wasn't quite as simple. This makes their setting the film during this war appropriate to the lesson Diana learns, but there are times where the movie settles into the simplified "good guys vs. bad guys" narrative which muddies the message.

But like I said, I don't think this ruins the movie in any way. We're talking about ten minutes or so of a two hour, twenty minute movie. And even flawed, there's too much that works in the ending to call it a complete loss. Steve's final goodbye and sacrifice is good. Diana realizing and accepting that life isn't so simple and black & white is a satisfying arc.
And, as someone who's criticized Wonder Woman's overuse of weapons, I love that in the end Diana's sword is useless and what defeats Ares is her deflecting his power back at him.

Finally, a big question/concern going into Wonder Woman was how they would segue into Batman v. Superman...specifically Diana's claim she "walked away from mankind a hundred years ago."
And judging from the film—now confirmed by Gal Gadot herself—it seems they're fudging, if not outright ignoring that. No, it seems Diana didn't give up on humanity after World War I and she...well, I guess they'll explore what exactly she's been doing in the time since in future sequels.

And I think this is a good call. As I've discusses in prior posts, the idea of Diana eventually losing faith in mankind and choosing to not be Wonder Woman anymore is a potentially compelling story. But it needs to be treated with the gravity it deserves and not as some cheap hand-wave to explain why she wasn't around for Man of Steel.
I also think it would be unwise to end her first movie with her giving up.

So I'm glad they're scaling back on that, if not disregarding it altogether. If this iteration of Diana must reach a point where she's tempted to quit or whatever, do it right.

As someone who's been a longtime fan of Wonder Woman, who's been told numerous times "she just doesn't work/sell"...who's seen dozens of misguided or wrong-headed efforts to "fix" her...to not only see her presented on the big screen as she should be portrayed, but to also see this depiction go on to become a massive success and embraced by audiences...
Vindication is the word that comes to mind.Wonder Woman has always been an iconic and beloved character, but now—arguably for the first time—she's legitimately on the A-list, and it's really nice to see her finally have a turn at the mountaintop.

So I guess the question now is what will this mean for the future?
For all intents and purposes, Wonder Woman was the movie of the summer. As we know, at the end of the day, the execs at Warner and DC only care about the almighty dollar, so with Wonder Woman raking in the cash, they'd be wise to capitalize.

Warner has already announced a movie sequel with Patty Jenkins directing again—which is good to hear.
Aside from that, we still got Justice League. As of this writing, it's coming out next week and...we'll see, I guess. Given the film's troubled production, it might be unfair to kick it while it's down. From what I'm seeing, and judging from early buzz, it looks like it's going to be a simple, one-and-done flick, likely aiming to be as crowd-pleasing as possible.

You can see the signs of Warner recognizing Wonder Woman's success with the increase of her presence in the marketing over the summer. If they're smart, they've realized Diana is effectively their Iron Man now and are adjusting accordingly.
And honestly, even if Justice League doesn't turn out good......as I said, since this DCEU thing started, all I wanted was a good Wonder Woman movie. And I got that, so huzzah!

At the end of the day, as long as Justice League doesn't screw up Diana, I'll call it a win.


On the comics front, I know DC has been doing their Rebirth thing, which undoing a lot of what the Nu52 did.
I can't say too much about it, as I've only read the first two trades of Greg Rucka's run so far. From what I've read, though, I like what they've been doing. No more rapist Amazons. Diana doesn't act like an irrational brute with a sword.

She might still be Zeus' daughter, but I guess we can't win them all.

There's also the revelation of her twin brother which...ehhh. More interesting, I'm aware of the recent introduction of the character Grail—who is Darkseid's daughter. Again, I haven't been following the story that close, but I understand, although Grail is something of Justice League-level villain, she's been presented as an opponent for Diana in particular.
So there's something to said about Wonder Woman gaining a high-profile new enemy.

I'm going to wrap this up with one last thing...
Over the summer, I've looked at several of my previous posts  and wondered if I should update or even delete some of them. With so much of the Nu52 going to the wayside, a lot of my complaints have become obsolete. As said, the Amazons aren't rapists anymore. They've broken up Diana and Superman. Given how much audiences welcomed the film's portrayal, hopefully, future writers will skew away from the sword-happy barbarian she came across as.
And further, maybe she'll be written with more consistency and thought...and less misguided efforts to "fix" her. Hopefully.

So I wondered if it's worth leaving some of these posts complaining about things that are no longer relevant. 
But I'll keep the posts up as they are. I think it's good to keep a reminder of how low things can get. And even though specific things might no longer be canon, most of the posts discuss trends and tendencies that could easily manifest in other ways.

In the end, if the posts become even more obsolete as time goes by, that could only mean Diana is being written better. And that's no bad thing.