Wonder Woman Review
I’ve seen Wonder Woman twice now, both times were magical. I’ve said it before, but there is something so wonderful…empowering…incredible…okay all three, about a woman kicking some major ass. DC finally got a movie right. Honestly if this movie had gone the same way as Superman and Batman v. Superman than this was my last DC movie. In light of how awesome WW was I’m actually pretty excited for The Justice League.
*Spoiler Alert*
Despite the ridiculous nature of her outfit, WW was not overly sexualized (why the F was she fighting in heels?!?!?). This was probably due in large part to the director being female. There were no gross bathing scenes (from the women at least), or slow motion boob shots. All the slow motion shots were to emphasize her amazing fighting skills. There was no damsel in distress moments, which feels like a given because she is WW, but sometimes peoples capacity to make dumb decisions astounds me. I also loved all the scenes when she was standing up for not only women, but people who can’t help themselves. People who had no voice in governments, who's lives and loved ones were being bombed away, those were some of my favorite scenes. When she is yelling at the general for not doing anything while thousands of innocent people lost their lives, that gave me chills. Even though Steve’s ultimate goal was to disobey his orders, I think there is great value to standing up to authority and speaking truth to power.
There was a good balance of humor and seriousness. This has been one of the great failings of the DC cinematic universe and one of the great triumphs of the Marvel cinematic universe. All the previous DC movies felt way too serious with very little small humorous moments to balance it out. There were so many little funny moments and I think Gal Gadot’s acting chops really shined through here. Some of my favorites were when they were sailing into London and she was like it’s hideous, when she was trying on the ridiculous women clothing of that era, and when she comes out in that skirt, and Steve puts glasses on her, and Etta says, “A pair of glasses, and suddenly she's not the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?” Turning the whole traditional makeover montage on its head. Undeniably Gal Gadot is one of the most beautiful human beings on this planet.
The fight scenes were epic, and were often times inspiring for others to do the right things. First of all the use of the Lasso of Truth was awesome. WW has definitely given me some inspiration for my RPG characters who fight with a whip. I liked her varied fighting style, she not only used her sword but also improvised other weapons, her whip, and fists when it came down to it. Also that scene where a guy tries to break a 2X4 across her back and she flexes and it explodes gave me chills. Ultimately one of the most impactful fight scenes was the No Man’s Land scene. She jumps out of the trench and starts crossing the distance to the German side and she is deflecting bombs and machine gun fire, and she inspires the other men to take action. Proving even in a hopeless situation one person can make a difference. While WW is basically a God I think this is a powerful lesson to see. It makes me incredibly happy to know that a generation of young girls will grow up having seen this movie, and hopefully many more female led Superhero movies.
Of course this movie wasn’t perfect, I don’t think any movie will be everything we want it to be for everyone, but WW gets close enough in my opinion, and I hope this encourages other franchises to invest heavily in female led movies, especially those directed by females. My own complaint would be that I would have loved to see more of the Amazons and getting their origin story. Seriously they were the most bad ass fighters. When Antiope calls for a shield and then shoots three arrows while flying over a rock was amazing and gave me chills. Then when that was mirrored with Steve and the tank door to take out the sniper in the bell tower was also chill inspiring. I hope DC makes an Amazon women and Themyscira.
Antiope being ah-mazing!
What did you all think of the movie? Do you think Marvel will answer with their own female led superhero movie? Let me know in the comments!