Review of Wonder Woman (2017) by Daniel M — 13 Jun 2017

Here's where I am coming from:

I grew up on Marvel & Image Comics. I am primarily a fan of the X-Men, but have been largely disappointed with the many X-movies (with the exception of the recent "Apocalypse"--which I loved.) I'm definitely in the camp of those who thought Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Winter Soldier were the best superhero flicks up to now, and I recently (tentatively) added Ant Man & Dr. Strange to that list. I never followed the DC lineup closely, but I have really become engaged by the recent Man of Steel & Bat-v-Super movies (admittedly, in large part due to my crush on Amy Adams). However, the brief glimpse of Wonder Woman that Zach Snyder gave us in 2016 left me feeling unimpressed by the character and not inspired about a solo-movie.

But I did grow up on Lynda Carter & the Super Friends, so I do care. It's also not lost on me that this is the first time that we have ever been given a chance to see Wonder Woman in a movie. (Sweet freakin' potatoes--if I have to watch Peter Parker get bit by another spider, or if I see Mr. & Mrs. Wayne get shot in another alleyway I'm just gonna lose my $#!T.) So, I get that if this isn't done right we're all skrewd. But my wife was really excited to go see it, and since it's an action movie about superheroes, you've gotta foster that flame of interest when you can, y'know?

I went in not expecting much. I never liked the casting of Gal Gadot. To me she was already the not memorable stick figure from the Fast & Furious franchise. Too skinny to throw a punch and no blue eyes. Moreover, I've already seen a superhero "come of age" in a world war movie (thanks to Chris Evans & Co.), and I was disturbed by the warrior image that was teased in Snyder's BvS. Yeah, Wonder Woman is an Amazon warrior, but doesn't she come to bring peace? Isn't she supposed to be about restraint & non-violence (I'm looking at you, Lasso-of-Truth) instead of all of this swords & shields crap? As for a romance with Chris Pine, I couldn't care less. I've hit my Chris Pine threshold, thanks to his recent stints as Jack Ryan AND James Kirk. Geez. Time to de-saturate that market, IMO.

But I sat in my seat, and I was overcome by this wonderful movie. "Pleasantly surprised" would be underselling it; I was excited! And sure, the inevitable CGI climax duel-to-the-death was meh for me...we've already seen the same bit between Zod & Supes, right? Nobody can die (can they?) and meanwhile they just trigger a bunch of auto & home insurance claims.

So I went home and was eager to see what others thought of it. When I read all of the negative reviews focused on sexuality, diversity, Zionism, feminism, I was a bit miffed. Are these people for real?! This was a great movie! (I don't mean "great" as in: The Kings Speech or The Help--you get that, right?) It was Josephine Livingstone's review that put me over the edge. She claims it's a propaganda piece, but that's because she willfully ignores that the character isn't sexual--beauty doesn't have to be sexual (and there's no sense in being envious of a movie star's beauty...I imagine that sort of subconscious reaction is a handicap for a movie critic.) Moreover her claims that this film elevated Americans over the Germans willfully ignores the way the big "Indian Chief" hugged the baby-faced German soldiers when they were finally released from Ares' control. And her claims about the violence ignore the scenes where as Trevor's team shoots it's way through a Belgian town, Wonder Woman frowns. As they shoot down the opposition, she begins using her lasso to thwack or capture the Germans, like she's an old hand at fly-fishing. And this was what won me over!!!

Gal can throw a punch (as it turns out) and her Wonder Woman isn't just another violence-spattered-CGI-fest. She shows restraint. She comes to bring peace. When I hear the stories of all of these police shootings where the officers kill somebody and there's all of this blow-back, I always wonder to myself: why couldn't they have just shot them in the arm or the leg instead? Why kill when you can just neutralize? Director Patty Jenkins gets that. She let Wonder Woman neutralize whenever possible, and that goes back to what Wonder Woman was created to do--to inspire a generation to be different. In this case, I hope she'll inspire Hollywood to make more female-centered action flicks, more character-driven action flicks, less glorification of CGI, less glorification of violence (I mean, how many Deadpools do we really need?), and of course more Wonder Woman movies. (I'm dying to spend more screen-time on Themyscira! An Artemis/Diana sequel would be awesome!).

As a side note: I LOVED seeing Connie Nielsen & Robin Wright in action. Amazing ladies. Great roles. It was obvious the amount of dedication they put into training for them. Also, I love that the "Amazons" were a collection of real life Victoria Secrets Angels, Olympic bobsledders, heptathletes, police officers, beauty pageant winners, and professional fighters. So powerful, so positive, so capable. As for Gal Gadot--I take back my initial misgivings--she was worth the wait we've had since 1979. Like my wife said: "I love that when she thought she was going to fall, she screamed like a girl, but then she punched holes in the stone to climb up to safety on her own strength." Well done, ladies. More please.