History YMMV / WonderWoman2017

* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/DCEUAres Ares]], [[WarGod the God of War]] once wiped out his fellow gods when they quarrelled over Ares' wish to [[KillAllHumans eliminate humanity]]. Surviving while injured and crippled, Ares instead plays on humanity's own preexisting prejudices and fears to sway them to destroy themselves, giving humans ideas for weapons and helping to manufacture peace that he knows they can't keep, setting the stage and giving them the matches to burn it down. When he reveals himself to [[Characters/DCEUWonderWoman Diana]], Ares elaborates on his methods, also wishing Diana to join him to wipe out humanity and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans make the world a paradise]].

* MagnificentBastard: [[Characters/DCEUAres Ares]], [[WarGod the God of War]] once wiped out his fellow gods when they quarrelled over Ares' wish to [[KillAllHumans eliminate humanity]]. Surviving while injured and crippled, Ares instead plays on humanity's own preexisting prejudices and fears to sway them to destroy themselves, giving humans ideas for weapons and helping to manufacture peace that he knows they can't keep, setting the stage and giving them the matches to burn it down. When he reveals himself to [[Characters/DCEUWonderWoman Diana]], Ares elaborates on his methods, also wishing Diana to join him to wipe out humanity and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans make the world a paradise]].

* WTHCastingAgency: [[spoiler:David Thewlis as Ares. He's perfectly fine when Ares is masquerading as Sir Patrick]], but once TheReveal happens, he looks completely out of place, both in the flashback of Ares after his fall, and when Ares puts on his armor. However, he does an excellent job as the voice of Ares and since he's in battle the entire time, we don't get too many closeups of his face.

* FirstInstallmentWins: ''Wonder Woman'' marked the first time the DC Extended Universe got a good reception, as well as the first super-heroine movie not deemed a complete failure. Thus there was a very high bar for ''Film/WonderWoman1984'' to clear, and even those who liked the movie admit it was inferior.

* CommonKnowledge: The idea that Ares was the only reason the war was happening/continuing is a common take away from the film, despite it not being exactly correct. While Ares was manipulating some events behind the scenes to help continue it, the war was largely caused by Humans, and he merely used it to his advantage. The confusion stems from the film not really doing a good job of conveying this, as as soon as Ares is killed, the war basically ends, which makes it seem like it really was just because of him.

* SignatureScene:
** The ShoutOut to ''Film/{{Superman|TheMovie}}'' with Steve and Diana being attacked at gunpoint by German agents in a back alley and Diana blocking bullets with her bracers.
** Wonder Woman crossing No Man's Land and liberating the village of Veld while demolishing every German soldier in her path.
** [[spoiler:Steve's sacrifice]] and Diana's reaction to it.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** After people complained about Superman and Batman using lethal force, Wonder Woman mostly pulls her punches despite being in an actual war (and being the only member of the DC Trinity that's often excused from the no-kill rule due to her background). She doesn't explicitly stab or slash people with her sword until the final act, [[spoiler:especially when she's enraged by Steve's death]]. Instead she throws punches and kicks and uses her shield and lasso, and only chops rifles in half.
** After the previous two films got a ton of complaints for trying to rush the setting's development until they consisted of little more than a bunch of character introductions with little plot holding them together, this film focuses entirely on Wonder Woman herself, with the framing story notably ''not'' contriving an actual appearance from Bruce despite his sizable role in it.
** The film's treatment of Chief may be a response to the Native American character Slipknot from ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}''. Alongside a sympathetic backstory, Chief is portrayed as an honorable smuggler in comparison to Slipknot being an [[{{Jerkass}} unpleasant asshole]] that [[WeHardlyKnewYe existed solely to die]]. It worked big time, as audiences [[EnsembleDarkhorse loved the character.]]

* GenreTurningPoint: ''Wonder Woman'' is the first female-led superhero movie since the failures of ''Film/Catwoman2004'' and ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' over a decade before its release, and the first ''ever'' to be very well received at that, and ended up a massive box office hit. Perhaps more importantly is that the film represents the first time a major movie franchise with a budget of over $100M has been directed solely by a woman, opening the door for other female directors to handle larger projects (something people had been calling on Hollywood to do for a while prior to this film's release).

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: One of the biggest criticisms of the film is the choice to have it revealed that [[spoiler:Ares was escalating the war by secretly manipulating key players on both sides instead of [[HumansAreBastards portraying humanity as solely responsible for the conflict]]]], particularly since it would have provided a great reason for Diana to seclude herself from humanity. This is especially strange given that up until that point in the movie, Diana's entire character arc was about learning how humans are both capable of evil and good, but the choice for [[spoiler: Ares]] to appear throws all of it under the bus. It doesn't help that the reveal comes right near the end of the film to justify a big climatic fight, making all the work put into Diana's development and understanding that mankind isn't as clear-cut as she thought basically pointless, because despite the film literally having Trevor tell her killing one bad person ends the war, Diana essentially does exactly that.

* MagnificentBastard: [[WarGod Ares, the God of War]] once wiped out his fellow gods when they quarrelled over Ares' wish to [[KillAllHumans eliminate humanity]]. Surviving while injured and crippled, Ares instead plays on humanity's own preexisting prejudices and fears to sway them to destroy themselves, giving humans ideas for weapons and helping to manufacture peace that he knows they can't keep, setting the stage and giving them the matches to burn it down. When he reveals himself to [[Characters/DCEUWonderWoman Diana]], Ares elaborates on his methods, also wishing Diana to join him to wipe out humanity and [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans make the world a paradise]].

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: One of the biggest criticisms of the film is the choice to have it revealed that [[spoiler:Ares was escalating the war by secretly manipulating key players on both sides instead of [[HumansAreBastards portraying humanity as solely responsible for the conflict]]]], particularly since it would have provided a great reason for Diana to seclude herself from humanity. This is especially strange given that up until that point in the movie, Diana's entire character arc was about learning how humans are both capable of evil and good, but the choice for [[spoiler: Ares]] to appear throws all of it under the bus. It doesn't help that the reveal comes right near the end of the film to justify a big climatic fight, making all the work put into Diana's development and understanding that mankind isn't as clear-cut as she thought basically pointless, because she can beat one guy and end the conflict.