Wonder Woman (2017)

[Barnack]

8 minutes 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?

 

That is somewhat an issue with the movie, but more on a rewatch, once it is establish that human will do it on their own and we know this because we know about WW2, it make the killing of Ares feel a bit useless (but then again maybe it change who get the A-bomb during WW2)

 

I think BvS and Wonder Woman did establish that after seeing what she saw in WW1, that humans were maybe not worthy of their help or could not be helped by her, because there is no bad guy to kill, one person cannot change history course if that is the case.

 

If the next movie is contemporary, after justice league, it should work. Trying to involve a superheroes in WW2 would be an incredible challenge, how that hero did let happen what happened in the conflict, much easier to do WW1 and step over WW2.

[JohnnyGossamer]

I didn't really mean that it invalidates much anything in regards to her actions at the end of WWI especially given how concerned/righteous she appears of innocents, children, etc. I'm much more curious how they decide define what she was doing over the last century during the most infamous moments/wars in human history.

 

I assume something will be retroactively applied the current DCEU narrative regarding Wonder Woman being somehow detained or altogether away rather than simply choosing to do nothing while evil killed an insane number of women, children, etc. The movie does very much lay it on that only a god can kill a god. Is there another god lurking around in the last century in the DCEU? I'm honestly unaware because I don't read comics and don't know the histories of DC or Marvel characters.

Edited June 5, 2017 by JohnnyGossamer

[Barnack]

They heavily pointed out that she was on a long vacation from humanity problems if I remember BvS correctly, she did look like she was busy building herself a fortune(not that it require much if you are always young and working for 100 year's in a row), but her character was presented has high level exec/wealthy.

Edited June 5, 2017 by Barnack

[Lordmandeep]

Maybe she realized that you cant kill one person to stop the evil in Humanity, but yeah she could have gotten Hiter  lol 

[K1stpierre]

It's been days now since I saw this and I still feel like this has been the best super hero movie since the first spiderman way back in 2001. The characters were developed where you liked them and felt attached to them. The special affects were great as well but not over the top where it took away from the film. The length time would seem like it's too long but when watching it I never once felt compelled to check my phone, as the movie was perfectly paced and engaging the whole time.

 

Clearly the movie of the year, and this says a lot as I'm not a big Marvel or DC comic fan. I give thisan A rating, 9/10, absolutely great movie.

[baumer]

The main theme to the film was doing the right thing even when people say you can't or that it won't make a difference.

Sure, these themes have been in other comic book movies before, but they felt really dominant in this one, more than other films of the same ilk

I have my own beliefs in life and have my own inner demons, so to speak.  This is a film that will probably inspire me more than any other film has since Rocky Balboa.

There's a saying by Edmund Burke:  The only thing necessary evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.  This is what Diana was all about.

Yes, it helps that she has super powers, but she was fearless.  She did what she thought was right...all the time.

She disobeyed her mother and left, because she felt that by defeating Ares, she would save millions of lives

She went against Steve and the others when she saw that people were suffering.  So she goes into No Man's Land and kicks some ass.

Everything about this Wonder Woman is the epitome of what is good and just.

This theme of the film really hit home.

 

Some specific things I loved:

 

As you mentioned, No Man's Land is epic.  It might be the best battle in any super hero film.  It literally took my breath away.  She not only kicked some ass, but she inspired others to do the same.  She inspired others to fight for what was right.  When she jumps through the window and battles all the Germans, you could hear the audience gasp just a little.

I thought Gadot was terrific.  Not just in her delivery of lines, not just in her complete innocence and ignorance of the world, but in her physical acting.  Roger Ebert once said of Stallone, that he was going to be the next Brando in terms of physical actors.  I feel that Gadot gave one of the great physical acting performances of my life time.  And if Jean Dujardin can win best actor for a silent performance, and so can Holly Hunter, then imo, Gadot should at least get nominated for best actress.  

I thought the WWi theme was really interesting.

I like how at the beginning it connects the film to the DCU by having Bruce send her the original copy of the picture.

I was blown away by Robin Wright.  She definitely had that Sara Connor vibe going on.  In fact, all the women on Paradise Island were amazing to see.  And it stuck me that I was watching beautiful women on screen, but I wasn't really paying attention to their beauty....I was much more interested in how they were performing.

I also thought Pine did a terrific job of making us care about his character.

 

The final battle was well done, but as I mentioned to @kowhite...it didn't need to have an epic finale because finding Ares was kind of the McGuffin of the film.  

 

I just really connected with the film and I really want to see it again...in fact, I might do so today.

[rukaio101]

I think people seem to be misunderstanding what Ares was doing most of the time. He was never actually manipulating the Germans or the Allies or anyone else into war. He was merely giving people ideas for weapons/tools and then leaving them to their own devices. He never deliberately forced them to use them or told them how or who to use them on. That was all mankind's doing. He'd never tell Hitler directly to use gas chambers on the Jews, he'd merely give a German scientist inspiration for a method of killing a lot of people and then walk away.

 

Honestly, this is mostly just my own interpretation, but I really like the idea that Ares's plots aren't so much designed to efficiently wipe out humanity as they are to prove that he was right. He alone saw the evil in humanity and the other gods shunned him for it. So instead of wiping humanity out himself, he merely gives them tools to do with what they wish. If they truly are not evil, like the Gods believe, they should be fine. He even balances out his interference by trying to help them work towards peace with the armistice (one of the few things that wasn't explained that well in the film, I'll be honest). But instead, they end up destroying each other and proving every last doubt he had in them.

 

Of course, in the end, Wondy manages to break away from his ideology by acknowledging that men are beings of nuance, of both good and evil. Something that she as a demigod (of both god and woman) can understand, but he, as a pure god, cannot. Again, mostly my own interpretation, but there's a lot of subtle stuff I really like about Ares. Shame he does go a bit generic ranting villain towards the end.

 

 

EDIT: Actually, this literally just occurred to me, but the main evil plot that Wondy/Steve were fighting to stop the entire movie was never actually directly Ares's plan. It was his tools yes, but it was solely Ludendoff/Dr Poison's idea. Ares was just hanging back the entire time and watching. He only turned up at the end, not to complete the plan, but because he wanted to talk to Diana and tempt her onto his side. Possibly out of loneliness (since the other gods are gone) or as a way to affirm his ideals, the ones that the other gods violently rejected. He's the final boss, yes, but he's technically not the main antagonist.

 

Christ, this movie's like the anti-MoS/BvS. With those movies, the deeper I dig, the more shit I find. With this movie, the deeper I dig, the more reason I find to love it.

Edited June 6, 2017 by rukaio101

[Plain Old Tele]

@rukaio101, the armistices stuff was rushed through a tad, but the gist was that he was going to engineer a "peace" he knew would fail. Thus vindicating his viewpoint all over again -- in his eyes. This was something he was in the process of before he met Diana and realized who she was, so he adjusted his plans to include her (and hasten his ultimate goal). 

[Lordmandeep]

I found it rather Hilarious to show Ludendorff who is based off a real figure to be killed by Wonder Women. 

[TheMovieman]

13 minutes ago, Lordmandeep said:

I found it rather Hilarious to show Ludendorff who is based off a real figure to be killed by Wonder Women. 

 

What % of the people who went and saw the movie knows? And if they did know, care?

[Arlborn]

8 hours ago, JohnnyGossamer said:

I didn't really mean that it invalidates much anything in regards to her actions at the end of WWI especially given how concerned/righteous she appears of innocents, children, etc. I'm much more curious how they decide define what she was doing over the last century during the most infamous moments/wars in human history.

 

I assume something will be retroactively applied the current DCEU narrative regarding Wonder Woman being somehow detained or altogether away rather than simply choosing to do nothing while evil killed an insane number of women, children, etc. The movie does very much lay it on that only a god can kill a god. Is there another god lurking around in the last century in the DCEU? I'm honestly unaware because I don't read comics and don't know the histories of DC or Marvel characters.

 

I don't think she believes in getting directly involved in a man-made conflict anymore after all that. She did say she'd rather use love to save mankind, didn't she? In my humble opinion it would make a lot of sense for her to never get directly involved with WWII after she came to that conclusion because I'm pretty sure she doesn't believe that killing men is the right answer to anything anymore.

 

But perhaps she was somehow involved in the background, using her extensive knowledge and resources to somehow try to hasten the peace process. There are literally a million ways where they could say she was instrumental in the war ending where and how it ended rather than it ending with, say, the Nazi winning or ending 5 years later instead or becoming full-on nuclear before ending.

 

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Arlborn

[John Rambo]

Wonder Woman reminds me of Doctor Strange (Visually way better). I felt it was entertaining, perfect summer entertainer. A perfect good one time watch kinda movie! 

7/10

(PS: Not a big fan of SH so my rating will mostly be less)

[Belakor]

Gal Gadot is Wonder Woman, she is perfect for the role.

Fight scenes were really well done, CGI was very good overall.

Cinematography was very good as well.

I actually liked the Ares revelation & fight scene, but it lacked the emotion/drama of the Superman vs Zod fight.

-----------------

The movie was waaaaay too long.

Many plotholes, included why the general had superpowers when he opened that bottle, Why WW has the sword in BvS if Ares destroyed it.

6/10 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Belakor

[Avatree]

Much better than Man of Steel and a huge step away from the atrocities that are BVS and Suicide Squad. I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

Gal Gadot impressed me. After BVS I had compared her to a porn actress, thought she was awful. But her shallow lack of acting talent actually worked very well for Wonder Womans naivety. I thought it suited her really well.

 

I'm glad it took the time to focus on a few details and slow down a bit. The scene in the little town was great. Loved Ewen Bremner as well. The song he sang, Green Grow the Rushes-O, my gran used to sing that song to me to get me to sleep when I was little. Not really relevant to the movie I suppose but it touched me.

 

Also appreciated that with the exception of the 2 minutes on each end of the film, it didn't feel forced into the cinematic universe, there were no references to other superheroes etc. at least none that I noticed.

 

Plot was pretty predictable, David Thewlis was pretty obviously the villain from early on, although I didn't anticipate Ares actually being in it; I thought she would realise that there are no gods, evil is man made. I was really surprised the greek gods ended up being real.

 

so yeah I really enjoyed it.  

 

[ddddeeee]

I saw this again today and cried at the No Man's Land sequence. I know there are creaks everywhere but when the movie succeeds it really succeeds.

 

An easy A.

[Mulder]

On 6/6/2017 at 0:46 AM, Belakor said:

Gal Gadot is Wonder Woman, she is perfect for the role.

Fight scenes were really well done, CGI was very good overall.

Cinematography was very good as well.

I actually liked the Ares revelation & fight scene, but it lacked the emotion/drama of the Superman vs Zod fight.

-----------------

The movie was waaaaay too long.

Many plotholes, included why the general had superpowers when he opened that bottle, Why WW has the sword in BvS if Ares destroyed it.

6/10 

That's not plot holes but to answer them anyways, Dr.Maru says she made a new gas for him ((Which is hinted to have been made from inspiration from Ares)) it's really that simple. Her sword in Batman v Superman is different from the one she has in Wonder Woman.

[junkshop36]

Overall I thought it was good, solid movie. 

 

Positives:

 

Gadot did a great job as WW. Prior to this I never really thought much of her acting. She was really good and quite believable in the role. I thought she pulled all the more emotional moments off beautifully. Of coarse she was great in the action scenes, especially the "No mans land" scene. 

 

Pretty much ditto for Pine. I think this is my favorite role he's played in his career. Keep in mind I haven't seen Hell or High Water. 

 

My favorite part of the movie was everything on the island. I'd watch a movie that was all about the Amazons lol

 

The action was pretty good, especially the battle on the beach, the "No Man's Land" scene and the part in the village. 

 

Negatives:

 

I didn't care much some of the supporting characters; specifically the guys that go with them on the mission and the villains. 

 

The three guys felt a little underused and didn't really feel like they did much. Also, when the one guy can't take the shot I thought we'd get a scene later with him taking a shot and saving her or Trevor's life but it didn't happen. Felt like a missed opportunity to me. 

 

The villians were fairly underwhelming to me, especially that lady scientist making the poison gas. Ares was ok but he turned into just another big CGI bad guy. 

 

Which brings me to the third act. After the sequence in the village I thought the movie grinded to a bit of a halt and felt a little too slow paced. The final fight was a tad underwhelming and had a bit of a been there done that feel. 

 

 

Still, I liked it better than BvS and SS and a little less than MOS

 

 

7.5/10

[Goffe]

Better than I expected, but still not quite good enough. Half of its impact is lost because of the look and sound of the film. It sounds annoying due to the unmemorable HGW score always trying to ruin every scene by overscoring it to death; It looks unpleasant due an over-reliance on mood-killing CGI, and I'm not just talking the third act, unnecessary and lazy special effects can be seen all over the damn thing.

 

For all the praise Wonder Woman got for being the DCU film to get it right - as opposed to the 'nefarious' Snyder's vision - Diana made no qualms about taking a little detour in her mission to kill Germans whom she thought to be under Ares' influence. She literally preferred to murder a bunch of soldiers than stay on course and potentially save their lives by going through with her plan. It sounds even worse, from a moral pov, when you consider she, a god with super powers, was massacring mortal humans.

 

An emotional beat at the end did redeem things a little bit, but it was far too late, and even that was undermined by Gadot's objectively poor acting skills.

 

6/10

Edited June 15, 2017 by Goffe

[Blankments]

Wonder Woman gets it right. A thrilling origin story that feels utterly unique despite its clear influences. Despite an obnoxious framing device designed to remind you of an overbearing cinematic universe, the film is clearly belongs to Gadot's Diana. Both Diana and Gadot are stellar in their roles in the storytelling and as an actor; Gadot comes across as utterly perfect as Wonder Woman, making it impossible to imagine another actress playing her. More importantly though, Diana is fantastic; the first hero put forward by DC Films in years that actually is worth aspiring towards. She's charming, reasonably flawed, funny, and a badass, everything Wonder Woman should be. The film blends her mythological background with a WWI setting in a way that actually feels really fresh. The action, although clearly influenced by Snyder, is nearly always awesome and that theme still gives me chills.

 

Most of all, the best thing about the film is the direction. Patty Jenkins does not really give the film a style or flare, but it doesn't feel like it came out of a house. She knows when to let the camera linger or when to cut to make an emotional impact. Moreover, she knows why this movie is unfortunately important. The first female-led superhero movie in more than a decade, Jenkins smartly and subtly takes on the gender and ethnic roles usually assigned in blockbusters, reestablishing them in empowering ways that's always just a joy to see, blending that with a timeless feel that makes one realize something oddly melancholy. This film could've easily been released ten, fifteen, maybe even thirty years ago, and it'd fit in fine in tone and in quality. We should've got a Wonder Woman movie like this years ago, and that's a true shame. However, now that we finally have one, thank goodness it's this one.

 

Chris Pine is excellent as Steve Trevor; his chemistry with Gadot makes the romantic scenes really shine in a film where they could've easily been an afterthought. The rest of the cast is forgettable, but that's fine when you have Gadot and Pine grounding the film as well as they do. The only clear flaw of the film is the third act, when it unfortunately becomes, for a brief five minutes, a generic CGI slog-fest with dull visuals and boring action. Thankfully though, the rest of the film doesn't fall into the trap.

 

You can insult the other DCEU films as much as you want, but they've always nailed the iconography of these characters. Wonder Woman does that multiple times, but more importantly, it has strong character work and an engaging story to back it up for once. Gadot and Jenkins make a mighty team that delivered a quality, idealistic blockbuster with moments of awe, laughter, and emotion. Wonder Woman is... well, you probably guessed it... Wonderful. A-

[Blankments]

(Awkward that I have the last review on here, but here's my thoughts on a rewatch.)

 

Despite the trappings of a cinematic universe, Wonder Woman upon rewatch becomes stronger thanks to its unique simplicity and huge heart. A delightfully sincere movie. A-