Kangas were retconned out of existence after Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Not so with the Invisible Plane, however.
Her lasso definitely didn’t act like a regular rope. It was moving independent of the wrist motions she used to throw it. It wrapped around people and objects so she could throw them around, and during the final battle she was using it to deflect and engage. It looked awesome, but no way was it anything other than some kind of magical control.
I’ve just seen it. I was disappointed. The part with her growing up was mostly pointless. They completely forgot that there was a honking great German battleship off the shore during the fight. And then there was her getting a tow from Themiscyra to London overnight. The villain was a cliched mustachioed Briton. And a man, of course. The ‘whispers in the ear’ would have been better if Hades had taken the form of a woman, and it would have fit the film better.
The German ship sank before it reached Themiscyra – you can see it already heeling over in the background as it passes through the barrier. Presumably, since it was unaware of the island, it plowed its way into the rocky shoals.
Edit: According to the novelization, that’s exactly what happened. It blundered into the shoals, tore itself open on a reef and sank:
Saw the movie a while ago, but haven’t had the time to sift through the comments.
This movie reminded me A LOT of the the first Captain America movie…and that’s not a compliment.
My problem with this (and that) movie is the hero is so unrealistically and unbelievably lucky that it throws me right out of the movie. My biggest problem with WW was the damn sniper in the tower. You’re telling me a profesisonally trained sniper misses not once, but TWICE at people who are right in front of him? With nothing else coming after him?
She runs through “no man’s land” and runs in a straight line and wins? I’m supposed to believe no one thought to, I dunno, flank her? She stood still for something like 5 minutes just taking a straight on machine gun, no one shot to her side? Come on.
(Also, is there any evidence of a handful of people overtaking an entire bunker by jumping inside it? I see that all the time in movies and video games and it seems unrealistic to me. That being said, I also literally do not know, so feel free to educate me if that’s a real thing.)
Chris Pine and the United Nations of Benneton infiltrate an entire German complex, filled with observation towers and everything, just that easily? Or that the entire complex is just sitting and watching Lupin have a Dragon Ball Z fight with WW?
It’s been mentioned but her aging really annoyed me. She’s a little girl for a bit, then a woman while no one else ages. Then she stops aging and is the young woman forever.
I enjoyed Batman vs. Superman MUCH more than I enjoyed this movie. (although, to be fair, WW was the best part of BvS by a mile)
But during the battle it was still afloat. And it still had guns.
Yeah … In WWII, numerous Japanese pillboxes on various Pacific islands were reduced / destroyed / conquered by relatively small numbers of U.S. Marines – in some cases, just a single Marine.
No, it wasn’t. Diana pulls Trevor ashore and he’s asking where they are. Diana hears a loud metallic grinding noise and turns her head to see the battleship, already sinking, with the couple small boats coming to shore. The ship was torn open the moment it entered the barrier (hence the noise) and was going down fast.
Image brought to you courtesy of blurry Chinese cam-phone-o-vision.
I guess it was “still afloat” in that it wasn’t completely under the waves yet but I’m guessing the sailors on the ship rapidly going under and at a 45 degree angle had other concerns than trying to maneuver to shell the beach.
And shelling the beach where your troops are fighting seems a poor tactical decision.
Shelling the beach after all your troops are dead is a different matter. And, IIRC, they were soldiers on the beach, not sailors.
Not sure what that has to do with anything. The soldiers were in the small boats, I’d assume the ship had sailors. The soldiers came up to shore and got killed by Amazons, the sailors went down with the ship when the ship sank. They’d either drown or maybe make it to one of the outcrops but, either way, they weren’t part of the fight.
Anyway, the movie is clear on what happened with the ship. You hear it tear open on the rocks (Diana turns her head at the noise) and you see it rapidly sinking.
I can just see the Anti-Monitor, in the back of a ute, toting a rifle and doing a kanga cull on Paradise Island. “Bloody mongrels, eating all the sheep fodder,” he mutters, swilling another beer. He then accidentally shoots The Flash.
Saw it. Gal Gadot is stunning and a pleasure to behold. Chris Pine was great too, and the first third of the movie - the human part - was great, fueled by the chemistry between these two.
After it turned into a CGI-rendered assault on the senses, it was a crashing bore and thus indistinguishable from virtually every other super hero movie that’s been released in the past 10 years.
Saw it yesterday. Liked it very much - a good movie. Not a great movie, but a good one.
[ul][li]Gal Gadot was great. When I first saw her in images, I thought she wasn’t big/strong/strapping/butch enough, but she really sold the character.[/ul][ul][/li][li]The whole notion of “killing Ares isn’t enough to end war” was really good. WW is naïve enough at the beginning to think it will work, but she is disabused of the notion and becomes a wiser person. I think that was why it was set in WWI - “the war to end all wars”, everybody thought, but it doesn’t work that way.[/ul][ul][/li][li]I could never figure out why some plot holes in comic book movies are funny and forgivable, and some pull the bottom out with a clank. The battle with the Germans on Paradise Island was stupid (why would these bad ass Amazon warriors leave a defensible position on the cliffs and charge the soldiers on the beach?), but it was redeemed for me by the scene where Whozit the trainer jumps up into the air, does a back flip, fires three arrows at once, and kills three Germans. It’s a comic book. And it sets up the gag at the end where Steve yells “Shield” and Wonder Woman jumps up and smashes the bell tower with the sniper in it. OK, OK - the amount of downward thrust to enable Wonder Woman to jump five stories in the air would smash everyone under the plate like cupcakes, but let’s not quibble.[/ul][ul][/li][li]At one point on Paradise Island, there is a shot of armadillos that comes out of nowhere. Why armadillos? The only thing I can think of is the original film Dracula, where there is also a shot of armadillos in Dracula’s castle. Tribute?[/ul][ul][/li][li]If Steve Trevor isn’t really dead, I am going to be pissed. He needs to be dead so that Wonder Woman can be uninterested in men, and thus explain why a gorgeous woman never marries or is in a relationship for the rest of her life.[/ul][ul][/li][li]The multi-ethnic sidekicks didn’t bother me - war pictures always have a motley group of misfits who are there to offer comic relief. [/ul][ul][/li][li]Same objection as I often have in super hero movies - if WW can emit mighty bursts of energy by crossing her wristbands, why is she wasting time doing anything else? Same thing as when she is charging the machine gun nest. Rifle fire she deflects with the magic bracelets, all the while carrying her shield on her back. Then someone opens fire with a machine gun, and then she uses the shield. Why wait? [/ul][ul][/li][li]The Ludendorf magic gas that gives him super-strength was wasted. Was that supposed to be a foreshadowing of the Super Soldier formula for Captain America? I thought this was DC. [/ul][ul][/li][li]As a huge Harry Potter geek, it took me several minutes to adjust to the idea of Professor Lupin as a bad guy. The actor did a good job of presenting the nihilistic “let the humans kill each other and return the earth to a paradise”, but it would have been stronger if it had been “let the men kill each other”, and play off the fact that Paradise Island is a paradise because there aren’t any men. [/ul][ul][/li][li]Why would Wonder Woman react so strongly to the sight of a baby? She has never seen one, has no experience with any, and nothing resembling a nuclear family. I get why she would be upset that women and children are suffering, but apart from that, I didn’t see why she would be sentimental.[/ul][ul][/li][li]I am glad Steve Trevor wasn’t a complete sexist jerk, and didn’t feel the need to rescue Wonder Woman. She needs a character who will be her entrée into an unknown society, and an ally, and a love interest. Steve was flawed like everyone else is flawed, but Steve is trying to make the best of a horribly bad situation, and his insight becomes Wonder Woman’s insight. [/ul][ul][/li][li]“It’s not what you deserve, it’s what you believe, and I believe in love”. Ho hum. Every movie needs a cliché.[/ul][ul][/li][li]OK, I am a bad person. An island full of beautiful, half-naked women, with no men in sight. And WW mentions reading the twelve volumes of whatever-it-was, that concludes that men are not necessary for sexual pleasure. I realize it has to be PG-13 for a mass audience, but still, perhaps just a little…[/ul][/li]
All this notwithstanding, I liked it, and hope for good things from Justice League.
Regards,
Shodan
There were animals on Themyscira, and those weren’t all female. I’m sure Diana has seen animals mating as well as the product of that mating. Baby animals are cute. I’m sure Diana reacts the same way to a calf or a foal or a kid (the goat kind, that is).
I am actually glad she WASN’T “big/strong/strapping/butch” because a woman doesn’t have to be any of those things to be brave, smart, strong, effective, or a leader.
^ like
Also note that it took just one Amazon to shield launch another Amazon, but it took three ordinary men to do the same.
Or maybe she’s a lesbian?
It’s also a fact that WWI had people other than white guys fighting in them. Not a lot of them, it was of course European-dominated war, but Turks have been in Europe forever and were allied with Germany in WWI. Over 300,000 African Americans fought in WWI in segregated units with the US military, and the French were open to including them in non-segregated units like the Lafayette Escadrille, with over 150 Americans of African descent earning the French Legion of Honor (the French also had a centuries-long history of Afro-French men serving in the military, including at least one general). 10,000 Native Americans volunteered to fight in WWI. So yeah, it was a multi-ethnic war and it would make sense that a Turk might be involved in spying activities
Gee, I dunno, maybe she can’t so the crossed-wrist blast often or continuously? Maybe it’s one thing to deflect one bullet but another to deal with a hail of them? I can easily dodge a drip of water falling off the eave of a roof by stepping aside or holding up a hand but if it’s actually raining I’ll use an umbrella.
The name of the island is “Themyscira”, not “Paradise”. The only one calling it “Paradise Island” is Steve Trevor, probably because “Themyscira” doesn’t roll off an English-speaker’s tongue that easily. Also, male fantasies about an island of woman with no men (it’s actually pretty clear that the Amazons don’t need men, don’t need rescuing, and a sub-set are outright hostile towards men).
It’s BECAUSE she’s never seen a human (or Amazon) baby that she’s so excited. She’s heard about them all her life, but never seen one. They might as well be unicorns from her perspective. If someone was walking a unicorn down the street you’re telling me you wouldn’t be the least bit interested or excited?
A LOT of people are incredibly glad about this.
Yeah. The Amazons are either lesbians or celibate. This is not a huge leap of logic. This has been a sub-text in WW since 1941 and if Diana Prince does engage in heterosexual activities she’s probably a pervert by the standards of her culture. Although I expect her culture is probably a lot more tolerant of “perverts” than most societies have been in history, and for purposes of reproduction probably regard heterosexual activity as a necessary evil, or at least something you just put up with to get a baby. Figuring this out doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you a logical person.
(a) She’s still learning about what she can do. She didn’t know she could do the wrist thing until it happened.
(b) The first time she DID do the wrist thing, it was uncontrolled and a shock to her. It happened in a moment of loose emotion.
(c) The first time she did the wrist thing, she hurt someone she cared about. She doesn’t know how much damage it does or how to control it. Note that, through much of the movie, she was effectively pulling her punches so it’s doubtful that she’d want to let loose with a bunch of barely controlled energy blasts. It wasn’t until the town is gassed that she really lets loose.
(d) Of course most of that goes away by the time she fights Ares. She knows more about what she can do, she’s not worried about hurting Ares and the fight between divine beings is the full realization and focusing of her new powers.
When Robin Wright’s character, Antiope, is killed on the beach fighting Germans, Diana runs over to her body, clearly more upset than the rest of the Amazons, because Antiope was her aunt. Hippolyta runs over, clearly more upset than the rest of the Amazons, because Antiope was her sister. And a third woman runs over, clearly more upset than the rest of the Amazons, because Antiope was her… really good friend?
Somewhere in the run-up to WW releasing, someone from the film or DC made the point that, if Themyscira is paradise and most people’s concept of earthly paradise includes physical intimacy, then it stands to follow that the women of Themyscira engage in physical intimacy with one another. QED and all that.
My point exactly. Like I say, I recognize the need to stay on the safe side of PG-13, but still…
I know the old Wonder Woman comics came under a certain amount of fire back in the day, but IIRC that was more for bondage and S/M. I’ve never gotten around to reading Seduction of the Innocent - perhaps I should.
I suspect a unicorn would be par for the course for Wonder Woman. But this is a person who thinks she was molded out of clay and brought to life by Zeus, and is the only child in her whole society. Her whole impression of heterosexual relations is academic - she has allegedly never seen a man before. There was that throwaway joke about Steve Trevor’s watch and his being “above average”, but that is just curiosity on Diana’s part - she doesn’t seem to have a strong emotional reaction as she does to the baby.
It was pretty strongly implied that she and Steve did the deed. OK, maybe that was experimentation on her part, and she would settle back into celibacy or being what would appear to be normal for her society, and be a lesbian. That would make for an interesting movie, but more like Game of Thrones and, as mentioned, probably prevent the mass appeal of a PG-13 rating.
On a related note, the very first glimpse we get of an Amazon in the movie appears to have the right breast exposed. I must be getting old - my instant reaction was not “A boob!” but the memory that some Greek historian claimed that the Amazons removed the right breast so as not to interfere with drawing the bow. And if the Amazons were to leave the breasts intact and just cover one, it would be the left one exposed. Maybe it was just the lighting or the costume. It was the only moment in the film that I regretted the absence of Linda Carter.
Regards,
Shodan