Wonder Woman

2017, Patty Jenkins (Monster) -- cinema

Wonder Woman was the only good thing about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Sure, Batfleck looked good in the suit and visually the movie is stunning, but did not like it. I did like this movie, a lot, but not quite to the level of love. I did not jump on the hype chariot.

In the last movie's write up, I mentioned that DC needs its Marvel-like setup movies; standalone flicks that will lead is to the Justice League movie. If anything this movie, set in World War I, is its Captain America: The First Avenger. Its not just the war angle, but also being a period piece means they have to deal with the idea of an absence of superheroes. They also have a magically influenced, mad Nazi commander with super science experimentation going on, and they even have a colourful cast of soldiers, giving Diana her Howling Commandos. But stealing a base plot idea doesn't actually lessen the movie.

Steve Trevor comes along as the extraneous male lead, to introduce Diana to the world outside her island paradise, the world of Man, the world of strife, violence and pain. In a lot of ways, all the male European and American characters in this movie are extraneous. They exist to lead fish-out-of-water Diana through Europe and the war, so she can do her super powered best to surpass their efforts.

I have to admit, I was not entirely drawn into this as the Ideal Feminist Movie. Sure, we have a female director leading a movie with a powerful, capable female lead character who entirely holds her own. Maybe I was expecting more, maybe I was more convinced that the Hype Machine is much too crafty these days, playing on people's desires for something to be better than it is. When the Machine says, "Finally, a movie comes along that is...." I ask, "Is it really all that?" I think we need a movie that is more than Female Director, Female Lead for this to be the Best Thing Evah. Maybe from the context of superheroes, this is where we needed to go but I am not sure. Convince me, please.

But I did like this movie a lot.

Gal Gadot looks so good in the outfit, and I am not talking sexy (she is that, though) but powerful. This version of Wonder Woman, whom I really know mostly from the cartoons, with sword and shield, is a powerful figure. She stands up to bullets and bombs like they weren't there. We know this isn't a wholly Amazon thing, as many of her sisters died on the beaches under the guns of Nazis, but she carries off her role as the premiere Amazon living weapon quite well. Those slow-mo's that so many people dislike, I rather enjoyed, as she broke guns into shards, knocked Nazis senseless and deflected bullets like so many  hornets.

And I hate hornets.

P.S. Kent and I need to really focus more on the model of this blog, which is that we Disagree, but we do agree on this one.