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Reviews Film / Wonder Woman 2017

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maninahat Grand Poobah Since: Apr, 2009
Grand Poobah
06/24/2017 05:25:41 •••

The Dark and Gritty Film that Works

What with every other DC movie this decade going foul, a tremendous amount is riding on Wonder Woman to be good. Thank goodness then it turned out to not only be good, but also a movie that reminds us how a superhero movie should be done.

Wonder Woman's origins cover a lot of the same ground as Captain America - another star spangled hero famous for punching Nazis in propaganda comics. That's probably what led the decision to set WW in World War I, a more cynical, morally ambiguous conflict. Whilst WW ends in a similar way to Captain America: The First Avenger, (with a plot about stopping super-villain general launch a super weapon via giant aeroplane), it has a much more satisfying payoff because the rest of the movie has done the leg work to make you care about the heroes, the conflict, and the broader concept of war itself.

The single best scene in the movie is when Wonder Woman first arrives on the front line. She takes one look at No Man's Land, decides to make it her own, and singlehandedly charges into a wall of machinegunfire and mortar shells. You'd think a model in a garish red and blue metal miniskirt would look quite silly in this sort of setting, but it is surprisingly compelling. I've seen Zack Snider screw up a very similar looking trench scene in Sucker Punch, and seeing his name in the writing credits made me concerned at first, but this movie actually takes the best of his work (the appropriately Grecian themed, slow mo combat from 300) and avoided all the other bullshit that's come with his terrible other superhero movies.

This movie has a lot of heart. It takes the time to do what a lot of other superhero movies don't do anymore, and actually illustrate how much the hero cares about saving people's lives. Wonder woman's face cracks into a huge smile when she sees a human baby for the first time, and it is that same Amazonian warrior who is then confronted ten minutes later by suffering, downtrodden soldiers marching back from the front line. Whilst we are often told that a superhero is doing something to save the world, we are never actually shown how much they care about people - nor are we made to think that in a superhero movie, its not only humanity itself that are the villains, but also the ones who are going to save the day.

If I had any criticism of the movie, its that the special effects sometimes let it down. This is more obvious in the beginning, with some unconvincing looking moments in the Amazon's home world, and at the end, where a final showdown with the super super villain is full of cheesy fire and lightning. Other than that, it is a good movie that knows how to explore a gritty setting the proper way, how to provide big action, and how to explore the bigger themes without sounding too preachy. Watch it. Watch it again, and then buy the DVD.


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