Wonder Woman
- Jun 8, 2017
- 3 min read
Wonder Woman had more riding on its success than any other movie besides possibly The Avengers. Tasked with the responsibilities of saving the floundering DC Movie Universe, being the first Wonder Woman film, and just being a good movie generally I am happy to say it was a success! Starting with Man of Steel, the DC Movie Universe got off to a rocky start. While not a terrible movie, it set a dark tone that made the following Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad disappointing movies to the point of being laughable. One of the strongest points of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its ability to infuse humor into each movie and have characters that are likeable. The dark tone of DC movies made everyone out to be bad guys. Even the normal boy scout Superman has been portrayed as though he is preparing for an emotional podcast someday and fails to inspire much hope at all. Wonder Woman thankfully breaks this trend and sheds some light into a superhero universe that desperately needed it. Right from the start of the movie we are introduced to a world that is literally much brighter than that which we have seen from DC so far. Themyscira, the home island of Wonder Woman, is a warm place. While the all women inhabitants of the island are bruised by their past, which is portrayed beautifully through a flashback, they have hope and purpose in their vision of the future. The “damaged characters” that DC seems required to have are made stronger, not weaker by their past. The woman of Themyscira have trained and prepared so that they will not face the wars of man again and that they know and are therefore somewhat confident with what their place in the universe is. This small distinction when compared to other DC movies is a breath of fresh air. She does not sulk around in fear and anger as Batman and Superman do. Wonder Woman has purpose and vision. Wonder Woman is not a perfect film. There is an overwhelming amount of CGI towards the end, hearing the names of Greek gods so often can be strange, and some of the characters besides Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor fail to shine, but the movie remains enjoyable. Much like the original two Spider-Man movies this film lowers the threat ever so lightly so that the audience can remotely relate to the emotions displayed on screen. World War I and biological weapons are no small deal and Wonder Woman and Steve recognize this threat. However Wonder Woman is repeatedly shown to be so much greater than anything the forces of man can put together. These details allow Wonder Woman’s first interactions and surprises from her adventures shine through that much more. When she sees death it impacts her more because she is such a powerful being. Death is somewhat foreign to her and she feels even more motivated to stop it because of that. This is not the kind of movie that rewrites what it means to be a comic book movie. But it didn’t need to and does so many other things well. We are given a strong woman super hero in her own story. Furthermore it is a good story which has a twist that may even surprise some. And most importantly it is enjoyable to watch. While I don’t have confidence that this Wonder Woman movie will be able to fix the sinking DC Movie Universe, Wonder Woman has already shown that when men doubt her… they end up looking very foolish. 8/10
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