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I'm always late to the party when it comes to seeing movies, but there are some I look forward to seeing.
The new Wonder Woman has gotten very good reviews, and it certainly deserves them. I was never a big fan of adventure comics when I was a kid, but I read a Wonder Woman comic with her origin story when I was probably seven or eight and thought it was pretty decent. I watched the 1970s Wonder Woman TV show, like most young men, paying more attention to Lynda Carter's legs than any short comings the show may have had. There was a time when you could speak admiring of "Stalks" and other guys would know who you were talking about. Frankly I think its contemporary, woman superhero show Isis which was aimed directly at kids worked better, less a spectacle of womanly beauty and more one of encouraging both girls and boys to try to make everyone's life better through doing the right thing, kindness and consideration without beating them over the head with it.
The current Wonder Woman has traded in the star-spangled short-shorts for a less nationalistic costume, which I think is very appropriate. I understand where the owners of the DC franchise want to go with the Wonder Woman. But I am a little uncomfortable with making her an outright goddess. Obviously they want her to be an outright match for Superman, but having her closer to the old gadget guy, the old Batman, would make me more comfortable. I don't think heroes for kids who are mostly freaks of nature (I looking at you Marvel) is all that good for kids. I'd rather give kids something they think they could live up to than having them wishing they had this super power or that. Reintroducing Wonder Woman into the pantheon of heroes who beat people up for "peace and justice" is bad enough, but aiming her into the current morass of broody, conflicted, even mentally ill, superheros isn't something I actually want to see.
What's not so good about the movie? ... Well, this is not one that stands up to a lot of probing. The continuity is abysmal. The secondary characters, save Trevor's secretary, seem to be time fillers who serve no useful purpose. The "historical" background for the story is beyond ludicrous, not unusual for comic book material, but far from necessary.
It's pretty bad early in the movie when the German ship noses its way into the Amazons' hidden world and then disappears without being dealt with or being mentioned again. Was the copy I saw what everyone else saw? I kept thinking, "Wow, how are they going to deal with that ship firing at them?" And then the ship was gone without a trace. At one point Diana is leading some lady into the woods to appropriate her dress. But when she arrives at the gala, she wearing a dress that isn't made of the same material, that's cut far differently and isn't even the same shade of blue. She's also wearing some kind of matching shoes, that sure as hell aren't the ones the lady was wearing. I don't know why they made such a big deal of fitting Diana with a reasonably period appropriate dress in the store in London in the middle of the movie and letting her get by with whatever at the end of the war.
As far as the history lesson goes, err well, we must have been seeing the story of Billy Bob Ludendorff, and "Kluger Hans" Hindenberg, because there was not the slightest relationship between them and our world's Eric L. and Paul v. H. It's okay for movies to bend history a little, but I wish they wouldn't make a mockery of it. If actual World War I German bombers had a rate of climb like the one in the climax of the movie, the British would have had a hard time shooting any of them down. Startling aircraft performance even for World War II planes. But for the sake of the movie perhaps it was just as well we didn't have to wait around for a half an hour or forty-five minutes for it to get up high enough to go out in a blaze of glory.
What was good about the movie? Gal Gadot makes Wonder Woman smart and beautiful, and she can act well enough that she's believable in what could be a silly role. I think Lynda Carter was only partially successful at that. The direction was excellent. The villains were pumped up larger than life without being ridiculous. Gadot looked strong and graceful in absolutely every scene, and even the younger versions of Diana didn't look silly practicing their martial arts. (If you pay attention to some of the extras in the Amazon training scenes, you'll notice the difference immediately.) It's essentially a silly story, but it doesn't seem silly while you are watching it. The timing is great. If the story starts off slowly for those fans who just want action, I think it worked out well in the end. It definitely came together to make me ignore the flaws and just concentrate on the flow. Philosophically I liked that for all she could do, Wonder Woman comes to see she has limits.
All and all, a very fine, pure action, adventure film.
The new Wonder Woman has gotten very good reviews, and it certainly deserves them. I was never a big fan of adventure comics when I was a kid, but I read a Wonder Woman comic with her origin story when I was probably seven or eight and thought it was pretty decent. I watched the 1970s Wonder Woman TV show, like most young men, paying more attention to Lynda Carter's legs than any short comings the show may have had. There was a time when you could speak admiring of "Stalks" and other guys would know who you were talking about. Frankly I think its contemporary, woman superhero show Isis which was aimed directly at kids worked better, less a spectacle of womanly beauty and more one of encouraging both girls and boys to try to make everyone's life better through doing the right thing, kindness and consideration without beating them over the head with it.
The current Wonder Woman has traded in the star-spangled short-shorts for a less nationalistic costume, which I think is very appropriate. I understand where the owners of the DC franchise want to go with the Wonder Woman. But I am a little uncomfortable with making her an outright goddess. Obviously they want her to be an outright match for Superman, but having her closer to the old gadget guy, the old Batman, would make me more comfortable. I don't think heroes for kids who are mostly freaks of nature (I looking at you Marvel) is all that good for kids. I'd rather give kids something they think they could live up to than having them wishing they had this super power or that. Reintroducing Wonder Woman into the pantheon of heroes who beat people up for "peace and justice" is bad enough, but aiming her into the current morass of broody, conflicted, even mentally ill, superheros isn't something I actually want to see.
What's not so good about the movie? ... Well, this is not one that stands up to a lot of probing. The continuity is abysmal. The secondary characters, save Trevor's secretary, seem to be time fillers who serve no useful purpose. The "historical" background for the story is beyond ludicrous, not unusual for comic book material, but far from necessary.
It's pretty bad early in the movie when the German ship noses its way into the Amazons' hidden world and then disappears without being dealt with or being mentioned again. Was the copy I saw what everyone else saw? I kept thinking, "Wow, how are they going to deal with that ship firing at them?" And then the ship was gone without a trace. At one point Diana is leading some lady into the woods to appropriate her dress. But when she arrives at the gala, she wearing a dress that isn't made of the same material, that's cut far differently and isn't even the same shade of blue. She's also wearing some kind of matching shoes, that sure as hell aren't the ones the lady was wearing. I don't know why they made such a big deal of fitting Diana with a reasonably period appropriate dress in the store in London in the middle of the movie and letting her get by with whatever at the end of the war.
As far as the history lesson goes, err well, we must have been seeing the story of Billy Bob Ludendorff, and "Kluger Hans" Hindenberg, because there was not the slightest relationship between them and our world's Eric L. and Paul v. H. It's okay for movies to bend history a little, but I wish they wouldn't make a mockery of it. If actual World War I German bombers had a rate of climb like the one in the climax of the movie, the British would have had a hard time shooting any of them down. Startling aircraft performance even for World War II planes. But for the sake of the movie perhaps it was just as well we didn't have to wait around for a half an hour or forty-five minutes for it to get up high enough to go out in a blaze of glory.
What was good about the movie? Gal Gadot makes Wonder Woman smart and beautiful, and she can act well enough that she's believable in what could be a silly role. I think Lynda Carter was only partially successful at that. The direction was excellent. The villains were pumped up larger than life without being ridiculous. Gadot looked strong and graceful in absolutely every scene, and even the younger versions of Diana didn't look silly practicing their martial arts. (If you pay attention to some of the extras in the Amazon training scenes, you'll notice the difference immediately.) It's essentially a silly story, but it doesn't seem silly while you are watching it. The timing is great. If the story starts off slowly for those fans who just want action, I think it worked out well in the end. It definitely came together to make me ignore the flaws and just concentrate on the flow. Philosophically I liked that for all she could do, Wonder Woman comes to see she has limits.
All and all, a very fine, pure action, adventure film.
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(I also liked it better than the Avengers #2, which gave me a headache.)
But, eh, comic book movie. Doesn't really stand up to film criticism. I liked it, I didn't think it was the best movie ever or the best comic book movie ever...that honor still goes to Nolan's Dark Knight, which I have no interest in re-watching. Wonder Woman on the other hand I might rewatch.
Frankly I think its contemporary, woman superhero show Isis which was aimed directly at kids worked better, less a spectacle of womanly beauty and more one of encouraging both girls and boys to try to make everyone's life better through doing the right thing, kindness and consideration without beating them over the head with it.
Ah...ISIS!! I loved ISIS as a kid. So agree, much better than Wonder Woman. Actually I also preferred Bionic Woman to Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman...didn't really resonate for well the reasons you articulated above. Any more than Superman did.