Wonder Woman - Review Thread [TAG SPOILERS]

Interesting idea that maybe she wanted to train to feel like she belonged more with the other Amazons.

Diana really is quite separate from the Amazons, isn't she? This movie really highlighted that. Her demigod powers separate her, as well as her youth (relatively-speaking.)

It would be nice to see her have closer friendships with other Amazons. Though, as discussed around here, the movie doesn't focus much on the Amazons' lives outside their warrior training. It would be good to see her with closer female friends in the outside world too.

WW, Superman, Batman... they all do tend to have a solitary nature. It kind of goes with being a superhero, I guess.

 

WW's story isn't particularly simple anyway, imho, at least not for an origin story. It blends historical and mythological elements, and it has three acts that starkly contrast with one another in terms of setting, tone and overall feel.

It can still be enjoyed as a simple story, though, but that is a sign that it was skillfully crafted.

Obvious comparisons would be First Avenger and Thor 1. Those are both enjoyable movies, but I think both also show the pitfalls this movie avoided. Thor is a very choppy, uneven film by comparison, and it has nothing like the emotional highs of this movie at the end of each act.

First Avenger devolves somewhat into a series of montages and doesn't do a whole lot thematically with the historical setting. Certainly not on the level of what this movie is able to do with the WW1 time period.

 

It's secondary TO YOU. Since this is a review thread, i'm simply stating what i thought of the movie. To me the story is the main core of any movie. Without a good story i'm just not interested in it. Why would i be? Just because it has fireworks and a pretty face as a lead? I'm not that shallow. I need substance to be interested in anything.

A great movie should have a story that would still be addictive if it was translated into a book, without all the imagery to back it up. That's what a great movie should be. And a great movie should nail all aspects of filmmaking. It shouldn't be made for people who will overlook the story. That's laziness. You can have all the cool elements of Wonder Woman and still have an amazing plot too. It's perfectly possible. It's just not the case, and that's why i don't find it great.

Considering how many great movies exist that are much better than this, a 6/10 is actually a pretty solid rating. To give this a 9 or a 10 i would have to create a new scale of rating so i could give movies like The Godfather a 15.

 

The film is so much more than a pretty face and fireworks. That's about as inaccurate a description as you can get. Let's just agree to disagree.

 

Yeah, I guess she tried and failed for a substantial duration of the movie.

 

Or she succeeded and made BvS somewhat inconsequential. Take your pick

 

I'm of course referring to her arc of killing Ares magically solves everyone's problems, even though the movie is trying to suggest otherwise with both caricatures and her allies who have some cruel baggage to them.

 

Happily, it's not made that way.

It's a beautifully crafted origin story that rewards repeat viewings because it has a lot of thematic depth and emotional resonance.

The closer you look, the better the movie gets. I certainly underestimated it on my first screening (even though I did like it a lot initially).

 

It didn't solve all the problems. An armistice was signed and the War stopped. Her realization at the end of the film was that stopping Ares *won't* stop the war. Her arc was completed by the end.

 

It's not inaccurate, it's an opinion. I know the movie isn't just that. What i'm trying to say is that it doesn't give me what i usually want from a movie. It might be enough to entertain you, but we're two different people and what captures yur attention is probably different than what captures mine. I do need a great plot to be truly interested in a movie. Otherwise it's just meh. It's not bad, but it's meh. Which means i can watch it and be entertained by it but it won't fascinate me.

Wonder Woman is pretty much a Marvel movie, and that's why it works. I'm glad you enjoyed it and that the DCEU is having success. I just wish that with Matt Reeves we will get a slightly less formulatic approach to the super hero genre, like we got with Nolan, because that's the type of movie i like. I love when studios take big risks even if they end up not pleasing everyone.

 

Yeah, the idea isn't that the heroes actions are pointless. They do play a key role in allowing the armistice to be signed, thereby ending the war.

But they do not solve all of humanity's problems. Diana's journey does not lead to hopelessness, but it leads to a deeper understanding of the complexity of the world's problems.

There is a darkness that no hero can defeat, but there is still a lot that a hero can accomplish.

I'm not quoting, but that is basically a paraphrase of the movie's ending.

 

Maybe 15 years ago i would have agreed with you. Growing up and spending too much time watching amazing movies kind of prevented me from looking at Wonder Woman as a beatifully crafted story. My standards are no longer that low.

But again, it's not bad. That's why i gave it a 6/10. It's a pretty decent rating. The movie does have its moments. It just has a boring, recycled, uninspiring, predictable plot.

 

Then, you've already understood her stance as it relates to both this movie and BvS.
She's not going to solve what humanity can struggle and solve on their own.

 

She said standing together is impossible in BvS. That's not the message at the end of WW.

 

Is it because she killed Ares and [BLACKOUT]everyone was hugging it out?[/BLACKOUT]

 

Well,

Spoiler

Diana, Steve and Co. are able to help bring about the armistice.

Then the survivors are standing together in London, remembering Steve, celebrating that the war has ended.

And finally the bookend sequence reinforces the idea of Diana's mission in the world, "now and forever."

So I think the overall message is clearly that standing together is possible. How the film-makers will handle that stuff moving forward is anyone's guess. I doubt they will abandon the core message of this movie, though, given what Geoff Johns has said about upcoming plans for the DCEU.

 

No. It's due to her witnessing Steve and his friends working together. She says to

Spoiler

Ares that humans are "so much more"

. That's not the language someone uses after saying "standing together is *impossible*". Hence the disconnect.

 

WWII among other wars never happened.

 

Well, yeah. She just stood together to face another being of comparable force. Seems like that only comes up when she wants to reflect that century of horrors, presumably without Ares' influence. She's had other monsters to take care of.

Her anecdotal allies, not the nameless guys on enemy lines.
It's romanticized to the point of disbelief, disconnect.

 

There is a character arc, from idealistic but naive Diana to one who recognizes that everything is not black and white that can be solved by one person. People have both good and bad instincts in them. Killing one person will not solve the problem. Which is shown in the scene where she spares the life of Dr. Poison. (Diana who lived on Themyscira wouldn't have done that.)

She has to trust goodness in other people while continuing her mission to help humanity in whatever way she can.

 

When Diana says "standing together is impossible" at the end of BVS, she is not talking about herself standing with mankind...she is talking about humanity as a whole. She is talking about wars, human conflict, etc, which is one of the themes of BVS. She is essentially saying that mankind is drawn to conflict.

Given the nature of global conflict over the years, notably a hundred years ago, is she wrong?

Her comments at the end of WW do not conflict with her comments in BVS, as she is, in fact, addressing different aspects of the concept. What she has observed VS her own feelings about what she has observed.

People act like she can only ever feel one way about human conflict because she said one thing about it at a given moment, or its out of character. That's absurd.

It's entirely possible to believe that the world is pretty messed up and still to have some hope for humanity. Many real people feel just this way.

 

Damn, nao that's another way to look at it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

Well, there were anti-aircraft weapons, but they mostly consisted of "shoot guns up in the air and hope to hit". I don't even think they had any kind sighting or fusing for AA work, let alone proximity rounds or RADAR ( which were decades away ). There's a reason aerial reconnaissance acted with impunity until pilots started strapping guns to their planes: aircraft might not be immune to ground fire at the time, but they were highly resistant against anything but low altitudes or terrible luck.

 

Saw this three weeks ago but never posted my review.
I honestly think it was the Wonder Woman film many have been waiting for. Gal was good here though there are times when she as an actress just can't figure out how to make the lines work. She did great with the fish out of water aspects and looked gorgeously fierce in the fight scenes. Chris Pine is charming and effective in the film as Steve Trevor. I didn't like the films villain twist, nor what they did to the gods but they don't hurt the film. I also hate the fact that that Trevor and Etta Candy, who is hilarious, are out of play for the sequels. The final battle has gotten flack for its heavy use of CGI but I liked it especially as we see the pain and conflict Diana is in as she learns about the world and has her faith in mankind tested. Overall movie is a solid 8 out of 10. That no mans land sequence is an example of why people love superhero movies and I just hope whoever helms the next Man of Steel film takes notes.