So yesterday I
went for the second time to see Wonder Woman, and I still stand by my
original thoughts. To put it simply, this isn’t a revolutionary
movie, it isn’t perfect, but it is a damn good one. It’s also
very empowering to a lot of little girls, and some older ones too.
That seems like a win win to me. I promise I will not give any
spoilers in this review. I’m going to look at a few key elements.
Things like what I personally liked, and didn’t. The quality of the
animation and story. As well as a few other key points that I feel
like they are worth mentioning.
Let’s just
start off with the bad and get all that muck out of the way. I
overall really enjoyed the movie, again it wasn’t flawless and I’m
not claiming it was the greatest movie ever. By far DC studios
greatest, but that’s not the main focus here. There was one part
that really killed the entire vibe for me, as a story teller mostly.
Again, I won’t give away spoilers, but I am going to describe the
situation and why it bothered me so much. There was a part near the
end that was a turning point for the entire movie, maybe just within
the last fifteen minutes. So as a story teller, I’m expecting
things to wrap up. Our main characters have their final moment, and
it’s done in such a tasteful way I love it. It left things open for
personal interpretation. After all, what is art supposed to do!
Anyway, the film moved on from that moment only to return and repeat
it. The entire scene. But wait! It didn’t just flashback to
something that happened only a few moments ago, it forced something
down the viewers throats. Again, prior to this each viewer could take
it however they wanted to. As DC however, showed it again, with ‘new’
information to the viewer, we were then forced to all make the same
conclusion. That moment, killed it all for me. We are in the biggest
fight of the movie (that’s not a spoiler, it’s a super hero
movie, you knew it was going to be there) and they decide to stuff
character development down our throats.
Other than
that, I can’t really say that anything else ‘broke’ the movie
for me. After seeing DC’s prior films, I really had some low
expectations. Did it have a bit too much CG effects? Oh yeah. Did
they look cheesy? Sure did. But again, this is a super hero movie.
She’s an amazon running around with a shield and glowing lasso of
truth. I didn’t expect it to look hyper realistic. It actually
became a feature that I enjoyed. It seemed to pull her out of the
world and bring back fond memories of what super hero’s meant to me
when I was younger. The only other small thing that bothered me to
any extent, and it bothered my girlfriend more so than me, was the
sound clips. They must have spent their budget on other things
because some of the sound effects were just so ‘basic horse sound
#1’ kinda vibe. However, I think DC could have done far worse on
this one. They at least didn’t use monster roars for wolves.
Looking at you Disney. (If you haven’t seen the new remake of
Beauty and the Beast, I don’t recommend you do so, just watch the
original.)
Alright, now
that all that mess is out of the way let me get down to some of my
personal likes from this movie. While the story was reminiscence of
“Captain America” from Marvel, I only could see that in the fact
that it took place during WWI. And there was a motorcycle in one
scene. It didn’t feel however, like I was watching Captain America.
I honestly thought that movie was beyond boring. Not bad, just not my
taste, I’m also not fond of him as a character either. Princess
Diana. She on the other hand rang of strength and faults. I love a
character with faults. Her actress Gal Gadot played the part
beautifully.
Gal Gadot for
those of you who do not know, is an Isralle actress and model. She
has been in The Fast and the Furious franchise before taking up her
roll as Wonder Woman.
I also really
enjoyed all the trow backs and nods to the old TV series and comics.
Even some of her classic music has been updated to fit this new,
wonderful, Wonder Woman. As far as the actual story line goes, there
are a few moments that left me having a ‘what the heck?’ kind of
moment. But those feelings normally didn’t last too long as the
action kept me moving forward. The camera shots. OH MY GODS! Let me
just take a moment and tip my hat to the director who made some
amazing choices. Blending speeds and angles to get some really
awesome kick ass scenes. Oh it made my heart melt. They did an
amazing job mixing things up and really bringing you to where the
action was, even if it was a little comic type extreme at times.
DC really
pushed a lot of lines with this movie. I was so happy to see many
different cultures represented in this one. They night not have been
massive or in depth, but they were there, each with their own skill
set. I personally, like to think that it mattered. Even on the Amazon
island, they had people of color and different races on their little
home.
Now one final
thing I want to talk about is sex. We all know that sex sells and as
a woman, I see it all the time in media. So much so that I have come
to expect it. I shouldn’t, but I do. The list of the examples is
way to long to even being, so I won’t. With this movie, I expected
no less honestly, and I was oddly surprised. There wasn’t a single
‘money shot’. Now what could I mean by that. We all know it. That
one shot that they take where it makes the female character look like
a slut, an item, like nothing but eye candy. Again, we come to expect
that. I was happily disappointed. They didn’t make Princess Diana
sexy. She was beautiful don’t get me wrong. She was strong and
powerful, and sexy, but for those reasons alone. Not because they
made her. Even in some fights you could catch the ‘plush’ (I
doubt it’s fat, but muscle isn’t known to move hence the term
here) of her legs jiggle upon landing. In our society that’s never
seen. Ever! They kept those female curves and weren’t afraid to
show them. It gave a normal feel to it. It showed every little girl
out there that curves are okay. Heck even as an adult I felt better
about myself walking out of it.
My final
conclusion. Go see it. Give the movie a chance, it’s by far the
best thing I’ve seen come from DC. It’s empowering. It’s a fun
movie. Go see it, go take the kids. Let them see how strong women can
be. Even if they aren’t Diana, princess of the Amazons, daughter of
Hippolyta, they can be strong, they can make a difference. They too
were molded from clay and brought to life by Zeus.
