Wonder Woman

What's the title? Wonder Woman

Who directed it? Patty Jenkins

When was it released? 2017

What’s it rated? PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and some suggestive content

Would I recommend it? Yes. Seriously, yes – it’s awesome. BUT I’d recommend discretion if you are planning on bringing a child. This isn’t Suicide Squad, but it’s not exactly a Captain America joint either.

What's it about?(non-spoilers) Diana grows up a princess on the island of Themyscira, a mythical place populated solely by the female warriors known as Amazons. When man arrives on the island in the form of Axis Germans and an American spy, Steve Trevor, the Amazons learn about World War I or “the war to end all wars.” Diana feels it is her Amazon warrior duty to enter man’s world to fight for peace, and so her heroine’s journey begins.

What did you think? (spoilers) I thought Wonder Woman was the strongest entry into the DC Extended Universe by a long shot. For one thing, WW is a movie. I know that sounds like an obvious thing, but what I mean by that is it feels like a movie that can stand completely on its own. (To be fair, Man of Steel could too, it just was not very good.) I will say that I found the bookend scenes with Diana in modern day Paris annoying and disappointing. I tolerated the first introduction scene with Diana getting the same photo Bruce already sent her in BvS, as opposed to immediately jumping into Diana’s story on Themyscira, because I assumed that meant that the ending scene would explain where Diana had been all these years. The final scene did not answer any of my questions (like where exactly Diana has been the last century) nor did it work to set up the next installment in the DCEU. All it accomplished was muddying the mythos by making it look like Diana gets up to Wonder Womaning on the regular, which, the events in BvS make seem very unlikely. Despite these bookend scenes, WW maintains its feeling of distinction amongst the DCEU while not feeling out of place with the universe as a whole. I am very, VERY happy that this was Diana’s show, but, as annoyed as I would’ve been had they cameoed, Supes or Bats wouldn’t have felt out of place in this world.

And what a stunningly beautiful world it is. Let me tell you, they don’t call Themyscira “Paradise Island” for nothing. I can’t imagine there is a woman alive that upon seeing Themyscira wasn’t like – yes, I’d like a one-way ticket there, please. (I’d like to make a joke here how an all-female society is a fantasy, but I can’t imagine anyone having the same reaction to an all-dudes retreat. I won’t, because that joke would feed into gendered stereotypes of which I do not approve. But I’d like to.) Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, and Robin Wright as Antiope, General to the Amazons and sister to Hippolyta, are epic mentor figures for Diana. You imagine the kind of culture that resulted in those sisters would be a culture worthy of aspiring to. Themyscira’s beauty bleeds beyond its culture and leadership, onto the physical entity of the island itself. The white, azure, and verdant visuals of Themyscira certainly make the most stunning locale of the film, but every set that the film visits receives rich and detailed designs, be it gray and dreary London or brown and sandy Ottoman empire. Director Patty Jenkins has made a rich world for her characters to live in.

And fight in, as the case may be. One of the things I noticed first while watching WW was how impressive the action was. I’m a staunch supporter of the superhero genre, and I’m aware that a hallmark of that genre is the action sequences, but for me, personally, my mind typically glosses over the “punchy-punchy” of it all. But in WW, I was enthralled by the action. I may have audibly gasped when the Amazons first met the German interlopers on the beach. Every time Diana came with the heavy – except for, perhaps the underwhelming final battle – my eyes were glued to the screen. When fighting, Diana appeared as something between a ballerina and a hurricane, and it was impossible to look away.

Something I noticed in all the fight scenes, in addition to the impressiveness of the fights themselves, is the impact of having a female director. Diana and her fellow Amazons fight in sleeveless corsets and mini-skirts, but they never once felt sexualized. There are no butt-shots, even whilst they are flipping through the air. If Diana’s bare legs are shown, it is not for them to be ogled as objects, but respected as weapons. Diana’s body is not highlighted for what it looks like, but for what it can do. During the romantic moments of Diana’s story, she is wearing alternately, a massive heavy coat, a suit that wouldn’t look out of place on Emmeline Pankhurst, and an elegant blue dress accessorized with a massive broadsword. Anything resembling a catsuit is nowhere to be found. It was refreshing and wonderful to see a superheroine outside of the male gaze.

Honestly, it was delightful to see a superheroine highlighting her own film at all. Fans have had to wait 75 years to see Diana get the cinematic treatment. Gal Gadot helps make all those years of waiting worth it. Gadot knows who Diana is – a warrior, yes, but that isn’t the largest or even the most important part of Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is a heroine, an idealist. She values kindness and compassion. She’s brilliant. She’s empathetic. She’s confident. She’s curious. (I love when she freaks out over seeing a baby. It’s not because “well, she’s a woman and all women love babies, right?” It’s because she’s literally never seen a baby before.). Unlike her male Justice League counterparts, Diana’s heroic journey isn’t born out of pain or loss or trauma, but out of the simple conviction that the right thing is worth doing.

The often given excuse for why it took so long to get Diana up on the big screen was that her origin was too difficult, too weird to tell. The whole world recognized that gem to be a mound of manure, but if by some miracle someone reading this was worried as to how Jenkins would approach Diana’s story, allow me to set your mind at ease. Diana, who she is and where she comes from, makes sense. (Seriously, people accepted Norse God Thor, literal alien who gets his powers from sunlight Kal-El, and FREAKING Rocket Raccoon & Groot. A mythically powered princess from an all-ladies island is not that hard to swallow.) Jenkins highlights Diana’s original origin story (Hippolyta carved Diana out of sand and Zeus brought the baby to life, Pinocchio-style) and grafts in the New 52 retcon (Hippolyta and Zeus made the beast with two backs and Diana debuted nine months later.) WW introduces the Pinnochio version as a bedtime story Hippolyta tells her young daughter to protect her child from the truth that she is a demigod and half-sibling to the villainous Ares. That, of course, means that when Diana’s “true parentage” is revealed, the DCEU canonizes the New 52 interpretation of her origin.

Does this interpretation make sense? Sure. Am I happy about it? No, not really. Especially because when William Moulton Marston created Wonder Woman back in the 1940s he Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, be the one to imbue Hippolyta's sand baby with life. Zeus had diddly to do with it. I like that version the best. I don’t think it would’ve been too hard for audiences to accept, and it still explains how Diana has her powers and is uniquely powerful amongst the Amazons. Being Zeus’s love child makes her just another demigod. Also, adopting the New 52 version makes the only two members of the Greek pantheon on display in the film dudes. No Aphrodite, no Artemis, no Hera.

Speaking of Hera, that goddess is notorious for taking her annoyance at Zeus’s philandering out on her husband’s love children, notably Hercules. Hera being pissed at Diana would put Wonder Woman and Hercules on the same side, but Hercules is historically a major villain in Diana’s mythos. Neither Hercules nor Hera shows up in WW, so this probably shouldn’t bother me, but it does. Also, I want to say, for the record, that, in the myths, Zeus was a massive dick and a serial rapist, and I am sick and tired of modern adaptations portraying him as one of the good guys. Am I going on a tangent? Yes. Should I move on? Probably.

It’s not just the Greek goddesses that I wish had more of a role in WW. I wish Diana had gotten more interaction with female characters across the board. “But, Emiline,” you say. “The whole first third of the film is Diana growing up on an island with no men. All of her interactions are with other female characters for that chunk of time.” To which I say you’re right, they were – for that chunk. But as soon as she and Steve sail off into man’s world it becomes, quite literally a man’s world. Diana and Etta Candy say maybe ten words to each other the entire film, which is ghastly. The most touching and in character moment of the lackluster final battle is when Diana stares at a defenseless Dr. Maru and chooses not to kill the woman responsible for Steve’s death. However, instead of talking to Dr. Maru, or engaging with her at all, Diana lets her run off into the night, never to be seen again, while our heroine reverts all of her attention right back to punching and pontificating with Ares. As amazing as the Amazons were, Themyscira isn’t the only place women live, and it would have been nice to see Diana have more meaningful conversations and relationships with some of the women of man's world.

I will say that the men Diana comes across in man’s world are lovely and refreshingly diverse. Diana’s Wonder Boys, as they were named on the Fuzzy Typewriter podcast, are comprised of a MENA aspiring actor, Sameer; a PTSD suffering sharpshooter, Charlie; a Native American smuggler, The Chief; and Steve Trevor. The systemic discrimination faced by Diana’s newfound friends, including Etta Candy as a plus-sized woman, is both named and given consideration over the course of the film. These are misfits who, for one reason or another, man’s world has found lacking and cast aside. They are not model minorities, but flawed, fully-realized human beings. I fell in love with all of them.

A very cool side note, Eugene Brave Rock’s Chief introduces himself as Napi, a trickster demigod in Blackfoot folklore (read more about Brave Rock’s portrayal here at this article from Indian County Media Network.) Given Diana’s own mythological origins, this mythical introduction could allow Chief to pop up in future WW installments. This would be awesome both for the continued Native representation in a blockbuster franchise, but also because I loathe the idea that the Wonder Boys will go the way of Cap’s Howling Commandos, i.e., they show up in one film where I fall in love with them and then NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN. I’m hoping they figure out a way to have Etta Candy in future films because if all fans get of the iconic character is the little we saw in this film – well, to quote the prince of Florin, I will be very put out.

You may be asking, if I’m annoyed that I won’t get more Etta, how furious must I be that they killed off Steve Trevor? The answer is not very. Let me explain. I like Steve Trevor. I like him as a character and I like him as a love interest for Diana (do not get me started on my feelings when creators try to pair her with Superman or Batman, because this post does not have enough room for that kind of negativity.) Also, I really like Chris Pine and have since I first saw him in Princess Diaries 2: A Royal Engagement. I thought the writing of Steve and Chris’s portrayal in the film were excellent. But the second I saw him in the first WW trailer my first thought was “that dude had better die.” It was the only outcome that made sense for a variety of reasons. In BvS, Diana has been so hidden from the world that Bruce Wayne, world’s greatest detective, had no idea who she even was. If she had been off the last century doing the kind of daring do she did in WW, I think Bruce Wayne would’ve noticed, along with most world governments. So, something must have happened to make Diana put up her gauntlets. In every other super story ever, that answer would be, the girlfriend died.

“But, Emiline,” you say. “Isn’t that fridging? Don’t you hate fridging?” And, yes, I do hate fridging, but no, Steve’s death isn’t a textbook fridge. Fridging is when a woman is killed for the sole purpose of giving a male character emotional stakes. Steve is not a woman. He is a man – an above average man, but still, a man. More importantly, his character isn’t killed for Diana’s emotional stakes. She already has oodles of stakes in her fight with Ares. Most critically, however, is the fact that Steve is not killed. He sacrifices himself; he, of his own will and volition, makes the decision to die in the line of duty to save innocents. If a female love interest were given that kind of agency and allowed to act as that kind of a hero, I would leave the theater skipping with joy – skipping, I say.

I am both grateful and annoyed by how great of a character Steve Trevor is in WW. He’s a better Superman than DCEU’s Clark Kent in that he, actually, you know, cares about saving people and believes in doing what’s right for its own sake. He’s great as a love interest too. He’s supportive, competent, and funny. He is chivalrous, offering to protect Diana, but he also steps aside when he realizes she’s better equipped to handle a given situation. He’s respectful but not coddling. I cannot express how much I adored the scene where he has the Wonder Boys re-enact the shield move he saw the Amazons pull back on Themyscira’s beach. So I’m grateful that Diana was given such a great love interest because she deserves no less. However, I am annoyed that Steve Trevor is perhaps the greatest love interest put to film in a long time, because I have a strong suspicion that Steve’s character received such consideration for the sole reason that he’s a dude. “Sure he’s the love interest, but he has to be a fully rounded character and have his own personal arc and agency. We can’t just have him screaming in the corner, getting kidnapped, pouting for no reason and forgiving flaws for even less. What do we think he is? A woman? Bahaha.” I’m not saying I wanted Steve to be emasculated or damseled or have to deal with any of the crap that normally comes with being a love interest. I just wish the other female love interests didn’t have to deal with that crap either.

Moving on to the other man in Diana's life - Ares. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t a Malekith either. He’s probably at around the level of a Red Skull. Maybe a Zod (and by that I mean MoS Zod, not Superman II Zod.) I don’t know, he was fine. I called the twist. I didn’t call it as quickly as my one viewing buddy, who the literal instant David Thewlis came on the screen leaned over to whisper “That’s Ares.” As soon as he offered his services to Diana and Steve I was like, “Oh yeah, you’re totally right.” But I didn’t call it as quickly as she did. I’m trying not to let that bother me. (Admitting you have a problem is the first step.) Anyway, I appreciated that Ares wasn’t as on the nose as mad, violent Ludendorff, but was instead someone more wily and devious. I thought it was smart to have straightforward, guileless, cannot-comprehend-why-anyone-would-lie Diana confronted with the duplicity of Ares.

In the same vein, I thought setting WW during the more ambiguous and morally fraught world of WWI, as opposed to the world of literal good-guys and Nazis of the much more popular WWII, was a stroke of genius. Like I said, having a character like Diana swim through murkier waters makes for better challenges for her character specifically. I’ll also admit that, in general, I wish more films were set during WWI. WWII gets a lot of narrative love, and I get why. The powers of light and dark are more easily defined, the characters are larger than life, everybody loves watching Nazis get theirs. But WWI, to me, is such a brutal conflict based out of moral ambiguity which makes for fecund ground for complex stories. I realize I’m going on another tangent, but I just wanted to point out that WWI stories are great and deserve more love.

But, as Diana learns, it’s not about “deserve”, it’s about what you believe. That’s is the moral of Diana’s story, the lesson she and the audience learn, spelled out in black and white, stated to our heroine and by our heroine. Much has been made about Patty Jenkins’s post on “cheesy” movies, and its going viral is well merited. I’d say the greatest strength of Wonder Woman, both the film and the character, is its cheese. WW is a movie with a message, and those don't come along all that often anymore. Now, I’m not of the belief that every movie needs to be an exercise in didacticism, but I don’t believe that a movie having a message, particularly a message with such “hokey” ideals as hope, optimism, forgiveness, and the power of compassion, should automatically qualify a movie as somehow lesser.

The Marvel heroes are supposed to have feet of clay, be the everymen that audiences can relate to. DC is the realm of gods, of archetypes bigger and larger than life, painted with broader strokes than we mere mortals are. When done wrong, this turns DC characters into pillars of marble – cold, inhuman, and lifeless. But when done right, the DC offers up aspirational figures, their ideals nestled inside beating hearts. WW most certainly provides the latter. We may or may not deserve a heroine like Diana, but she is here for us anyway, showing us a better way to be – because that’s what she believes. And we can too, if we choose to.

Images: iMDB

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