Wonder Woman (2017)

[excel1]

Diana's outrage at conditions of No Mans Land was perfection.

[excel1]

Little Diana was adorable 

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I loved it. I did not like the slow motion action.

4.5/5

Edited June 4, 2017 by Dexter of Suburbia

[TheMovieman]

14 hours ago, excel1 said:

Diana's outrage at conditions of No Mans Land was perfection.

 

Yep, the iconic scene.

 

Another one that stood out, and I know many didn't like the third act, but when she went into berserk mode, I thought it was great.

[Lordmandeep]

A female superhero film Triumph

 

8/10

 

Likely needed more action in the first half but it ws good. 

[Arlborn]

It's weird how the two most emotional superhero movies for me came out in the space of a couple of months, isn't it? But that's what happened. Logan and this movie are incredibly emotional movies for me and I loved them both to bits.

 

Yesterday, after watching it, I had it at 9.5/10 but after sleeping on it this one is definitely a 10/10 for me.

 

The snow dancing was my favorite scene.

[nick64]

My review for Wonder Woman:

https://grabyourseat.wordpress.com/2017/06/05/wonder-woman-film-review/

 

The DC Extended Universe has not been off to a great start. While box office performance has been pretty strong for the most part, critical and fan reception have been mostly poor to mixed. After the consecutive disappointments of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad, many people took the “three strikes, you’re out” mentality. They gave up too soon though. Sifting through the rubble is the character considered by most to be the best part of BvS: Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is the first live action film to star the famous heroine and the first truly significant female-led superhero film. With these huge milestones setting heavy expectations, and with the responsibility of saving a franchise hanging on for life, it had a lot to meet up to. And it succeeds wonderfully!

 

Diana (Gal Gadot) was modeled from clay by the Amazonian Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) and brought to life by Zeus. She has spent her life on the hidden island Themyscira training in battle to eventually defeat Ares, the God of War, and discovers that she has abilities way beyond the other Amazons. When an American spy named Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes his plane on the island and informs the Amazons of World War I, Diana decides to act. She and Steve travel to London with hopes of finding Ares, defeating him, and ridding humanity of war forever.

 

Right off the bat, Wonder Woman has something that none of the other three DCEU films have had, and that’s focus. The plot of the film is very straightforward, with one major conflict and clearly defined characters. Unlike the other films, no attempts are made at franchise-building. There is no expositional dump scene helping to set the viewer up for Justice League. A scene from Batman v Superman is used as a framework for setting up the flashback to Wonder Woman’s origin, but that’s the only connection to the other films. This singular focus allows director Patty Jenkins to concentrate on making it the best it can be, rather than worrying about setting up future films.

 

The straightforward plot also allows the film to develop its characters into people that the audience cares about. The previous films struggled to create compelling characters, but Wonder Woman takes its time giving Diana and Steve personalities and allowing them to have conversations that strengthen them as characters. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are perfect for the parts and they commit to them wonderfully. Both characters have to face new worlds with customs that they aren’t familiar with, and it’s truly fascinating to watch them grow closer together as they learn. The dialogue is also laugh-out-loud hilarious, and there are some very emotional moments throughout, especially towards the end.

 

Patty Jenkins is great at setting up these characters and making them compelling, but not everything is perfect. She makes some great directorial choices, such as a muted conversation near the end of the movie and a great color palette, but there are some very poor choices too. The action scenes, especially an emotionally charged set piece at around the halfway mark, are staged wonderfully and Gadot pulls them off perfectly, but Jenkins has an obsession with slow motion shots that can become very annoying. There’s multiple in every battle. And the end kind of falls apart when a pretty poignant point is basically thrown out in favor of another subpar CGI showdown. It’s definitely better and more emotionally charged that the last few films, but the franchise still needs work in that department.

 

Wonder Woman is exactly the movie that the DCEU needed. It isn’t perfect. An over-reliance on slo-mo and a weak third act dampen the experience, the plot is fairly formulaic and predictable, and it falls victim to PVS (Poor Villain Syndrome). But it succeeds in how it utilizes that formula. It stays focused on its goal and allows the characters to truly become characters. It also sends a very empowering message to young girls. But best of all, it really is a fun movie. It will have you laughing, crying, thinking, and cheering, and you’ll want to return to this world as soon as possible. Wonder Woman is not flawless, but it’s a giant leap forward for the franchise and makes its future look a whole lot brighter.

 

Grade: 7.5/10

[RandomCat]

I think I'd have liked this movie more if Ares wasn't the villain.

[ddddeeee]

2 hours ago, RandomJC said:

I think I'd have liked this movie more if Ares wasn't the villain.

That fell completely flat. Fortunately, we had the emotional drive of Steve's sacrifice to keep the movie afloat.

[Plain Old Tele]

I liked the concept of Ares as paper-pushing genteel whisperer, and he had a legitimately

good temptation for her. It got less interesting when he became just another hulking armored dude, but like ddddeeee said, there was enough of an emotional throughline with Diana/Steve to keep things working. 

 

I also liked the Diana rage out moment and how it was presented in an almost dreamlike way. 

[filmlover]

Gadot and Pine have such good chemistry in this that I'm sad he won't be back for the sequel (her hooking up with a descendant that looks just like him would be weird and lazy).

[RandomCat]

3 minutes ago, ddddeeee said:

That fell completely flat. Fortunately, we had the emotional drive of Steve's sacrifice to keep the movie afloat.

 

Well, that and I kind of felt that it neuters Trevor's point on some people are just bad. The Ares final battle felt almost attached and completely separate from Trevor and the rest of his squad that if you told me it was added in post so there could be a big villain fight, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Also at times Diana's naiveté annoyed the crap out of me.

[Plain Old Tele]

3 minutes ago, RandomJC said:

 

Well, that and I kind of felt that it neuters Trevor's point on some people are just bad.

 

I don't think so, IMO -- Ares just allowed the bad people to be bad with greater destructive potential. He sought out evil and allowed it to flourish. 

[RandomCat]

1 minute ago, God Emperor Tele said:

 

I don't think so, IMO -- Ares just allowed the bad people to be bad with greater destructive potential. He sought out evil and allowed it to flourish. 

 

It felt to me that the movie was trying to have it both ways. That humans can be very bad, but it's also Ares pushing them to be bad. I think the movie would have been stronger without Ares altogether.

[Lordmandeep]

34 minutes ago, RandomJC said:

 

Well, that and I kind of felt that it neuters Trevor's point on some people are just bad. The Ares final battle felt almost attached and completely separate from Trevor and the rest of his squad that if you told me it was added in post so there could be a big villain fight, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

Also at times Diana's naiveté annoyed the crap out of me.

2

 

 

Well you have to remember she is a superhero that is about always helping others in a world that lacks compassion to others.

 

The idea that millions can be killed for a stategic goal would naturally seem abhorent to her but would be seen as just the way of war to us. 

[JohnnyGossamer]

37 minutes ago, God Emperor Tele said:

 

I don't think so, IMO -- Ares just allowed the bad people to be bad with greater destructive potential. He sought out evil and allowed it to flourish. 

Good thing Ares wasn't around to whisper in Adolf Hitler's ear. If he was maybe employs gas chambers in hopes killing an inordinate number of innocents... Oh, wait. Yeah. I don't know. Didn't feel like anything would've changed whether Wonder Woman left the island or not. If anything, it got worse - much worse - in the conflicts/wars post-WWI. I'm left to assume that Wonder Woman sat back and just shrugged as the deaths of innocents mounted into the tens of millions after the century+ of heinous acts that were perpetrated after Steve Trevor's sacrifice helped ensure the armistice. Which, honestly, is compelling. I'd actually prefer her showing complete, utter indifference to humanity before another Steve Trevor type jolts her compassion again many, many, many years later.

 

Maybe in the sequel, a la Caps with Hydra being an ever present parasite lurking in shadows/plaint sight in Steve Roger's absence, the writers will make a little more sense of it.

Edited June 5, 2017 by JohnnyGossamer

[BluRayHiDef]

Review: Wonder Woman

 

 

Wonder Woman's theatrical debut is not without its merits but its wonders are - ironically - quite sparse. Rather than be a fast-paced and exhilerating adventure, Ms. Prince's arrival on the big screen features too few exciting moments that are spread too far apart. Furthermore, it drags along at the speed of a snail, which makes its running time of two and a half hours all too apparent. 

 

 

So, why is Wondy's first big-screen adventure being touted as the greatest entry in the DCEU thus far and as the greatest thing since sliced bread? Because it follows tradition and doesn't take risks; whereas Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and Batman v Superman define their protagonists primarily via the actions and decisions that their protagonist's make in relation to their plots, thus developing their titular heroes and progressing their stories simultaneously, Wonder Woman takes breaks from its central narrative in order to depict Diana's growth. 

 

 

There's nothing wrong with this approach in and of itself, which is obvious based on the fact that a majority of titles in the history of film, including the ones that are considered to be the best, have used it. However, in Wonder Woman these breaks overstay their welcome to such an extent and are so abundant that they hamper the flow of the story and turn it into a borefest.

 

 

Admittedly, each of them is pretty good in and of themselves; however, they are too long. Also, because they all share the same purpose, which is to depict Diana's lack familiarity with mankind's world and her subsequent adjustment, they are redundant; and because there are so many of them, they steer the film away from the action adventure that it should be and make it into a romantic drama. 

 

 

Perhaps if each of these scenes were just a bit shorter or if a couple of them were cut, they wouldn't feel so overbearing. Personally, I think that the film would be better without the scene in which Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) teaches Diana how to dance and think that the scene in which she shops for clothes and the one in which she's taken to a bar by Steve to meet two of his acquaintances should have each been shorter.

 

 

On the bright side, Gal Gadot surprisingly acts well - very well - in these scenes (and throughout the entire movie). She convincingly portrays naivete, curiosity, and bemusement, asserting with conviction that killing Ares will free mankind of its own malevolence, excitingly running toward a stranger to interact with their baby, and jokingly stating that mankind's style of dance is dull. In each of these moments, she emotes and deliver's her lines so skillfully that I buy the idea that she's from a cloaked island occupied exclusively by women and that has no contact with the outside world.

 

 

Anyhow, let's move on to the action! There is one breakout sequence that defines the movie and Wonder Woman herself, and it is amazing. Dubbed "No Man's Land," the sequence depicts Diana donning her tiara, revealing her armour for the first time, and taking a course of action that no man is willing to take: climbing out of a trench to cross a battlefield that no troop has been able to cross in an entire year due to overwhelming gunfire from the opposing side, and not for the sake of fighting but for the sake of enabling innocent people to get to safety. 

The scene is emotional thanks to Gal's calmly but powerfully delivered dialogue; Steve says to her, 'That's not what we came here to do,' and she replies, 'That's what I'm going to do.' The emotional punch of the scene is intensified by the subsequent shots of her staring down the path to the other side with a look of determination, watching herself to her own amazement as she deflects the rifle rounds from the German troops with her bracelets, and grimacing as countless rounds of machine-gun fire strike her shield. 

 

 

Unfortunately, however, No Man's Land is the only one of the film's few action sequences that is memorable. All of the other ones are unremarkable due to their composition and subsequent lack structure. Whereas No Man's Land and good action sequences in general are arranged in a way that tells a story in and of themselves, that is to say apart from the overall story within which they take place, those in Wonder Woman besides No Man's Land do not; instead, they are nothing more than compilations of disconnected shots of the titular hero taking out mortal baddies and throwing around their war toys with ease. 

 

 

Even the heroine's final battle - in which she engages Ares, the God of War - lacks the designed progression of danger and intensity of a good cinematic fight. For example, Man of Steel's Battle of Metropolis can be divided into four distinct segments, each of the last three of which is marked by a sign that the antagonist is becoming increasingly powerful and/ or dangerous: 

 

1. Zod delivers his monologue and attacks Supes 

2. Zod learns how to use heat vision
3. Zod learns how to fly
4. Zod attempts to kill an innocent family

 

 

These actions on the part of the villain create a distinct and recognizable narrative that elevates the sequence above your run-of-the-mill, generic action sequence. However, in Wondy's battle with Ares, there is no progression in danger or intensity, because Ares does not become more powerful or formidable throughout the battle and does not change his method of attack; from the fight's beginning to its end, he resorts to nothing other than throwing Diana around like a rag doll or striking her with telepathically controlled debris; hence, the fight is a drab. Yes, there is that moment when he simultaneously forms and dons his signature armour, but it doesn't mark any actual change in him or his tactics, so it can't be viewed as the sign of a new segment in the fight. Also, yes, there is that moment when he channels lightening into a bolt with which he strikes Diana, but it too doesn't mark any increase in danger or his power, especially considering that Diana harnesses it from him and fires it back, thus killing him. I get that the battle is more about Diana's increase in power - both physically and as a character; however, a battle that doesn't present the villain as a truly formidable foe does not suffice as a good action sequence. 

 

 

Overall, Wonder Woman is a good flick but not a good comic-book flick, which it's supposed to be. It's more of a romantic drama with a few moments of underwhelming action sequences (apart from No Man's Land) and a piss poor excuse for a villain, whose motive, by the way, for his campaign of evil is a textbook example of the word "trite": he hates humans because they're bad. Well, whomp, whomp, Mr. God of War, I guess I'll call a whambulance for you. 

 

 

6.5/10

Edited June 5, 2017 by BluRayHiDef

[Plain Old Tele]

^^ I feel like you're being a bit literal with how the movie wrapped up. I didn't really get that perspective. 

 

edit: sorry, the moved post screwed that up. I was replying to Johnny. 

[JohnnyGossamer]

20 minutes ago, God Emperor Tele said:

^^ I feel like you're being a bit literal with how the movie wrapped up. I didn't really get that perspective. 

 

edit: sorry, the moved post screwed that up. I was replying to Johnny. 

I definitely got carried away and went with it. Totally respect and understand those that feel the way you and many, many others feel about Ares and what worked in the movie. Most of all, given how conflicts grew so much worse after WWI, I'm curious if that's ever addressed going forward? Or, if most believe it was suitably addressed already in this movie?

[Plain Old Tele]

1 minute ago, JohnnyGossamer said:

I definitely got carried away and went with it. Totally respect and understand those that feel the way you and many, many others feel about Ares and what worked in the movie. Most of all, given how conflicts grew so much worse after WWI, I'm curious if that's ever addressed going forward? Or, if most believe it was suitably addressed already in this movie?

 

I'm sure I'm reading a lot into all this and introducing my own perspective as well. I felt that however emphatically Diana "destroyed" Ares, he's an elemental god and there are many ways you could choose to reintroduce/resurrect him (in a literal sense). In a thematic sense, I felt the movie showed that humans are capable of great evil on their own -- Ares chose to speed up those developments here and there but wasn't abolutely key to humanity inventing new weapons. WWI was the war that truly ruined the concept of it being a gentlemanly affair with an effort to avoid citizen casualties, etc so having him be responsible for aiding in that made sense to me. 

 

You're of course right that WWII brought even more suffering and death -- on a whole other level -- and if they choose to have Wondy take that on to some degree or another in a sequel, that's great. But I don't feel like choosing to not tell a WWII invalidates this one or her choices.