Wonder Woman Movie

Page topper yay!

On the topic of advertising missteps, Japan's choice of theme music has come under fire for, what else? Being sexist.

Basically Japan can't market this movie to save their lives, and people are mad.

The difference in responses kinda makes sense if you think about it. The non-Japanese are going "Well, Japan isn't the most feminist country in the world, so this was kinda expected", while the Japanese are going "Dammit marketers, Stop Being Stereotypical!"

I wonder if a similar situation happens for something made in America, with the Japanese going "blah blah it's America blah", and Americans going "NO"?

edited 4th Aug '17 11:35:54 PM by hellomoto

Arguably that's what happened with the Ghost in the Shell movie.

Details for the Wonder Woman Blu-Ray are in. Of note: It's going to include a bonus epilogue where "Etta Candy gets the boys back together for a secret mission that could impact humanity’s future".

Youtube can be a delightful place to explore.

So how can Diana speak 100 languages despite never leaving Themyscira?

edited 24th Aug '17 6:25:32 PM by SonOfSharknado

I dunno, maybe Amazons speak a "universal language", or something.

In DC Rebirth, I think it was an ability granted by the gods wait no, it was something she learned over time, though it helped that she had someone who also understood her language (Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva, later known as Cheetah). I suppose it would have been difficult to fit someone like that in here, considering the plot they went for.

edited 24th Aug '17 6:31:16 PM by KarkatTheDalek

I always figured that was part of how the gods made the Amazons in the first place, so that the whole 'make peace' thing would go a lot smoother.

Magic. Speaking and understanding all languages is just one of the Amazons' superpowers, so it's just magic. Maybe it's a translation effect, or maybe the knowledge just comes to them without them even thinking about it, we don't know, but I'm okay with not knowing when it comes to magic.

So far that's one thing I like about DCEU over the MCU, they aren't afraid to let magic just be magic.

Odin: You mean advanced science.

The Ancient One: Indeed. Metaphysics and science. Only science.

In other news, WB has just uploaded an Etta Candy focused promo video to advertise the upcoming home release of Wonder Woman

edited 27th Aug '17 6:01:38 PM by Servbot

It's official, Patty Jenkins signed on for Wonder Woman 2. Not that anyone really doubted, but you never know.

Nice to have it confirmed, though.

How It Should Have Ended.

I'm worried about Star Wars Episode IX being moved close to WW 2's release date. Hopefully someone moves.

edited 14th Sep '17 10:48:33 AM by comicwriter

Video that Gal Gadot posted from the DVD Release Party in LA.

So we're watching Wonder Woman, my roommate and me. She's been going by Viking in this reaction dissections I've done for other stuff. Here's the first half of our thoughts on the film.

Viking: …why are we doing this to ourselves?

Because we're critics. Who aspire to someday be real critics.

Viking: I wanted to be a writer at one point.

So did I. I think every critic wanted to be a writer at one point.

Viking: …we can still be writers, right?

No. That future is gone forever.

Amazon Training

Viking: So, this is a pro. That woman has half her boob cut off. My only other issue is that the little girl Diana looks too young not to already be training if this is a warrior society. You start training at five, seven max, and she is clearly like ten. Those are some years that could have been spent drilling.

Viking: You remember in 300 when they were like, "Rar, Spartans are trained as warriors from boyhood!" These are Amazons. They're the female versions of that. So help me, if they try to pull the, "Oh, I'm royalty, I can't be trained," I'm going to punch someone. Amazons were all about everyone being trained because no one wanted to be at the mercy of a man. Then Hercules f*cked it all up, but y'know.

"She is a child. The only child on the island. Please let her be so."

Viking: (facepalm) Do you know what I loved about the Amazonian myth? The fact that they tracked men down that they wanted to mate with and enslaved them so they could have kids. …why is Diana the only child on the island? How is Diana the only child on the island? How is that a sustainable population?

This is DC so I think their Amazonians are, like, not naturally born? Or something like that? I remember something about Diana being made of clay. Which legally makes her a pot.

"This will help you understand why war's something not to hope for."

Viking: Okay, her mom's not wrong here. You shouldn't hope for war. But that doesn't mean you should not prepare, because war happens whether or not you want it to.

It takes two sides to fight a war but only one side to declare one.

The war story

Viking: That's a Christianization of Greek myth. The gods could give two shits about what happened to mortals.

It's true. Zeus hated mortal man's creation. Prometheus created man out of earth and Athena breathed life into him. Zeus flipped his shit. Both the story of Prometheus and that of Pandora's Urn, Zeus's act of vengeance against man, detail Zeus's fury over humanity's creation.

Viking: Also, why is Ares the big bad guy here? There are plenty of gods that are worse than Ares.

Like Zeus!

Viking: Yes! Exactly!

Ares usually gets cast as the Evil God these days, whenever Hades isn't doing it. Zeus is the skyfather, so he's depicted as good and loving and kind.

Viking: He. Rapes. Every. Woman. He. Sees.

Viking: Also, I have an issue with their depiction of war in this story. Men are only fighting men and women are only fighting women. Also, that naked woman with the red cloth around her? She's just there to be sexy.

"The gods created us, the Amazons, to influence men's hearts with love and restore peace to the Earth."

…did she just say what I think she said?

Viking: She literally just said that the purpose of Amazons is to satisfy men's bloodlust by being sexy.

"Hippolyta, I love her as you do, but this is the only way to truly protect her."

Viking: Hiccup's going to get out there again. He's probably out there now!

"She must never know the truth about who she is or how she came to be."

Viking: Well, that's ominous.

"I see the pilot! He's there!"

Viking: Well, that's a shitty protection spell they have. Just a thick fog? They could at least have storms that would topple you over.

Amazons charge the Germans

Viking: Okay, this! This is what I was looking forward to!

Calliope's shot down

Why aren't they killing the pilot? I mean, Diana knows he's the guy she helped, but all the Amazons see are a bunch of similarly dressed men holding guns. He should have been cut down by friendly fire almost immediately after grabbing that rifle. This is not, "Hey, I should go be a badass!" time. This is, "I should keep my head down, do not lay hands on any kind of weapon, and continue to be as non-threatening as I can until this fight is over," time.

Viking: She should have been the one saying, "Stay here," to him. "Hey, wait here. Do not go out there or you will be murdered horribly."

"The boys in the trenches call her Dr. Poison."

Viking: I like how f*cked up her face is. I wish more of the Amazons had f*cked up faces, but whatever.

Steve in the bath

Viking: I really like the water. Apparently he does too.

That's where I know him from! That's Chris Pine. He's the new Kirk.

Viking: Who?

Star Trek. Captain James T. Kirk just crash-landed on an island full of Amazons because of course he f*cking did.

"We speak hundreds of languages. We are the bridge to a greater understanding between all men."

Well, they're sure doing a bang-up job briding understanding by staying isolated on this island and never interacting with the outside world. Honestly, I don't even know what the Amazons think they're doing here. They're supposed to be guarding this god-killing sword for Ares's return, but they are making no effort to monitor the outside world for his return.

Viking: I have no idea what's going on in the plot. Pretty much every time they talk, more questions come out. I've honestly never wanted to say this to another woman, but shut up and fight.

"It is our sacred duty to defend the world!"

By sitting on our duffs and never doing anything.

Viking: I think that was supposed to end in a, "but that time has passed," or something. Like they're all defeated and shit and are a shell of their former selves.

Diana catches herself on the wall

Viking: Oh, please don't finger-climb.

Diana punches a hole.

Viking: Oh, okay. That's way better than what I thought was going to happen. Usually in movies like this, the character just shoves their fingers through the wall. Like, they have super-strength, but you're still hurting the shit out of your nails. She's smart enough to punch it first. I can be happy with that.

"I will show you the way off the island and you will take me to Ares." "Deal."

I love how he doesn't even question that. He has no idea how to find Ares but he's just like, "Yeah, sure, I'll say whatever gets me off the island."

Viking: He's a spy. This is just second-nature to him.

"You have been my greatest love. Today, you are my greatest sorrow."

This is a really sad scene and all but I just can't stop thinking about how shocked I am that the boat didn't start moving behind her. That would have happened in a Marvel film, because Steve has no reason to actually wait for Diana. He's already lying to her to get her to take him; why not just get the f*ck out of here while she's distracted by the other Amazons?

Sleeping with Women Banter

Viking: What am I watching?

DC attempting to write Marvel-like banter. To be fair, it was a better attempt than Suicide Squad when halfway through the film, they were like, "Shit, people hate Batman v. Superman. Quick, let's take a timeout from the apocalypse to go chill in a bar for a while. That's wacky and Marvel-esque, right?"

Viking: Okay, but putting that aside, one of them should be steering the boat. These two deserve to hit an iceberg.

"I have no father. My mother sculpted me from clay and I was brought to life by Zeus." "…well, that's neat."

Okay, credit where it's due. That was proper Marvel banter.

"I created this for you. To restore your strength."

Viking: Super-Soldier Serum?

Ares, I think. The general is probably Ares and this is to rejuvenate his godly power. I'm going to hazard a guess that Dr. Poison was also created out of clay but was created imperfect, which is why she has the weird face thing. She's probably the failed attempt to create Diana, like the Red Skull was for Cap.

Diana in London

Nothing to really comment on here. Just a lot of fun scenes and great character bits with plenty of laughs. This whole sequence was fantastic.

This seemed like a good stopping point, so we cut off here. Plan's to finish tomorrow.

edited 16th Sep '17 10:42:32 PM by TobiasDrake

By sitting on our duffs and never doing anything. Well yeah that's the point of contention between Diana and her mom. The queen is convinced Ares is gone so there's no need for Diana to leave or e en train.

She's also bitter about how humanity rejected and enslaved the Amazons, so her attitude towards them now is "they can go f*** themselves for all I care".

RE: banter on the boat. Most of that was ad-libbed, not "DC trying to Marvel". You can sort of tell by how the scene runs kinda long and has more frequent pauses and topic drifts than the scripted chats, but I find it all funny.

edited 17th Sep '17 12:56:15 AM by Tuckerscreator

Whenever someone brings up Diana being made of clay, all I can ever think about is that weird storyline from the 90's where Clayface is able to (temporarily) absorb her - despite neither of their powers working that way.

Well with this attitude I'm sure I can expect nothing but objectivity from you guys

What?

Does she not realize the Amazons do stuff other than fighting? They are not just a warrior society.

So now we're complaining that people aren't acting like characters from a Zack Snyder movie? That's new.

Man, she is going to love the DC version of Heracles.

Do you know what I love about people who say this crap? That they are completely ignorant of the fact that this was a propaganda tale meant to keep women in their place invented by misogynists. Why does anyone act like the Amazons myths was some tale of badass women warriors? There only role was to job to any man they came across.

Okay you know what, this I agree with. Hell, I'll even agree Zeus would make for a better villain.

What? How in the hell did she come to this inane conclusion? What in god's name would put that idea in her head?

Okay, credit where it's due. That was proper Marvel banter.

I wasn't aware Marvel invented humor.

edited 17th Sep '17 3:50:54 AM by windleopard

That's what happens when you try to use actual mythology to judge if it's faithful rather than figuring out if the made-up modern version works as a story.

Speaking of which:

This is what I meant when I said there were some parts of Hippolyta's story that have deeper implications than on the surface. She said that the Amazons were created to calm mankind's bloodlust for war, but then she also mentions how she freed the Amazons from slavery a few minutes later. Given her cynicism of mankind, it seems to me that their goal to save mankind did not go the way they wanted, and considering that Ares stated that he did not corrupt mankind, it's quite possible that the story told to Diana is a water-down version of what actually happened all those years ago.

Could you elaborate on what you mean? Like, she flat out states they did try to help mankind but where rejected. What other implications are there?

Also you're trying to use real mythology to judge a comic book movie that's LOOSELY inspired by Greek Mythology. It's like trying to use Norse Mythology to analyze the Thor franchise. In both cases, they're not trying to be all that accurate to the actual myths. Rather their using the myths as a basis to tell their own stories.

Although, the WW comic tends to be more accurate to Greek myth than the Thor comic is accurate to Norse myth.