This really wasn’t clear, but I don’t think that Ares (in his British politician role) was pushing for an armistice because he actually intended for the war to end. I think the idea was that Dr. Poison and General…von Evil’s gas attack would seem extra horrific if it came just when everyone thought the war was about to end, and that this would make the British even more determined to keep fighting and never accept peace with Germany. This certainly could have been explained better, though.
Maybe that’s what the movie was going for, but it really didn’t seem that way to me. It’s my recollection that the Germans seemed relieved and friendly after Ares died, not frightened and awed.
Since I did think the movie was overall pretty good, I feel I should mention something about it I liked. The movie stars a beautiful woman wearing a fairly revealing costume – it would be difficult to make a movie about a character who was recognizable as Wonder Woman were this not the case – but manages not to get all cheesecake-y about it. I personally would have liked to see some slightly more practical-looking costumes on Diana and the Amazons, but at least it didn’t seem like they were being leered at by the camera. It also amused me that it wasn’t the beautiful Diana who wound up trying to flirt with a villain to get information, it was instead the handsome Steve Trevor.
Thinking of clothing, this is totally nitpicky but it bothered me a little that we didn’t see how Diana got that evening gown from the party guest. IIRC we just see them encounter each other in the woods and then Diana is next shown already all dressed up. It seems unlikely that the other woman would willingly swap her fancy gown for Diana’s cloak, and Diana seemed way too moral to resort to threats or trickery.
How often did they do the “slow down the action for dramatic effect” thing? The promos showed a lot of that. I thought it was lame back when the 6 Million Dollar Man did it, and that was like 40 years ago.
It seemed like several times per fight scene. I forgot to include that in my list of things I dislike about contemporary action movies, but…it’s something I dislike about contemporary action movies.
It was pretty common throughout, though it didn’t bother me that much. It was usually that thing during an action sequence when the hero is slowed down for the wind up and then the payoff (punch/block/impact) is normal speed.
I thought it was okay, but not as good as Man of Steel or B v. S (ultimate edition), but then I enjoyed both of those a lot. MoS more.
That one was much more cringey than funny to me. Other bits were funny, but that was not to me at all.
Agree with your entire assessment here.
Agree, but I knew he was going to die from the get-go, so I can’t really be disappointed about it.
So much yes. Very frustrating.
I’m going to split the difference here. I think he had a plan and and a backup plan. Primary plan was the gas attacks and for them to ultimately all kill each other with the gas. Secondary plan, in case he couldn’t get that to work was a deliberately bad armistice to achieve a peace that wouldn’t hold: basically going with what I was taught in high school (but later learned was inaccurate) that the treaty of Versailles led to WWII.
I liked the Amazons fighting the Germans on the beach - and how much more quickly/capably they reacted than Diana did because they knew war and death and she did not. I like the battle in the village, too. I loved Diana wanting to see the baby - that was cute. Likewise “can I drive please?” was fun.
Wondered if the super strength formula would play in again in later movie, but I think that formula got destroyed?
I liked it a lot. I cared more about Diana than the vast majority of superheroes. I was especially glad that after the start, they stopped having Steve Trevor try to rescue Diana when she was by far the more competent/dangerous person. He acted like she was a legitimate badass, not a damsel in distress. He had his own shit to do. That was such a relief.
I was thinking Dr Poison was really Ares for awhile too, but Sir Patrick does make more sense. I was also expecting Dr Poison’s disfigurement to me much worse (ala the lines of Harvey Dent.)
There also all biologically immortal; that’s an even bigger difference to standard humans.
Good point.
Given that Ares can teleport I wouldn’t be surprised if he was also serving as one of the Kaiser’s advisors (& also to the Tsar, Ottoman Sultan, etc.).
Well the backup planned worked like a charm too. And humanity has proven that we don’t need gods to corrupt us and drive us to kill each other.
I do with they stuck with the WWII setting, but apparently DC thought that would be too similar to the Marvel Universe.
Agreed, a Zeppelin would’ve been much cooler & more accurate. Did a plan with that size/range/capacity even exist in 1918? But on the other hand that action sequence would’ve more complicated to shoot and Trevor would had an entire crew to deal with (granted he wouldn’t need to take over the airship just to blow it up).
Note to Hollywood: That whole trope where the one character is dying, you know? And they have some information the main character needs, you know? And they manage to say
" Listen, listen, you’ve got to. . ."
about 17 times, but never quite get out the five word message that the main character needs desperately . . .
You know, THAT scene? Well,
[Monty Python Screaming voice] WE’RE BLOODY WELL SICK OF IT!!! [END monty python screaming voice]
It just took me right out of the movie and it was a while before I got back into it again.
I did have a great laugh at the watch scene. and “It’s hideous!!”
I hadn’t the first tiny clue that Lupin=Ares, and I’m quite curious how you all guessed? I’m not a comic reader, so is there some cultural norm I’m not privy to?
After she killed Luderwhatzit I could hardly keep track because I was inwardly chanting “Go get your sword, honey . . . sweetie, you still need your sword . . . don’t leave your sword in the bad man dear, run and fetch it . . .”
Did nobody else notice that an age-old question was answered once and for all?!? We now know what a Scotsman wears under his kilt! (Well, I was paying attention!! :wolf whistle: )
Likewise. But, much like the super-saturated Cyan/Orange color palette, realize that it’s something I have to live with if I’m going to watch new movies.
The island actually wasn’t that bad for it and I thought “Hey, maybe this won’t be the same muddled blue-orange mess…” but then by the time they hit London it was back to the status quo.
I didn’t have a clue either, but one of my friends said she guessed when he noticed Diana in the conference room that he recognized her as being more than she seemed, and another friend said something about his reaction to the notebook (with Dr. Poison’s notes) being suspicious.
Thinking back, this was arguably a case where the Law & Order rule (the character played by the most famous actor is probably guilty) would have given me a hint. David Thewlis isn’t a huge star, but thanks to his role in the Harry Potter movies he’s fairly well-known and was more recognizable to me than the actors playing the other villains.
He did have to rescue her. Typically after she made Very.Bad.Decision no 118. I liked it. It was realistic that she would make those errors that she did.
AK84, there was no need to use an ethnic slur in this post. I realize that “kraut” isn’t the worst slur out there (Wikipedia lists it only as “derogatory”, not “highly offensive”), so I’m not making this a Warning, but don’t do it again.
Saw it last night and liked it alot. A couple of criticisms:
I thought the first half of the movie was too slow paced. I liked the Amazon girlhood scenes and thought it was portrayed very nicely (loved that the women were not all caucasian and were bad ass warriors). But just a touch slow, and then even slower when they got to Germany(?).
One awful thing that really yanked me out of the movie was one of the scenes where she’s riding a horse through the woods in Europe. For no reason whatsoever the camera was turned sideways so all the trees were horizontal and she rode from the bottom of the frame to the top. That was just stupid, especially since they used un-fancy “normal” camera work for all the rest of the movie.
Loved Gal also in the title role. She was gorgeous and was very good at portraying both naivety and sweetness and also raging justice fighter. I’m of the generation who sees Wonder Woman as Lynda Carter and all others are cheap imitation, but Gal won me over. I also didn’t have a problem with the Amazonian costumes. They were sexy but not excessively, ridiculously so.
I love the trend of showing the heros in Heroic Action Poses that you’ve seen in the paper comics, and they did it with her here, too. The stop-action was a bit overdone, but more importantly in my opinion, they just had bad timing on them. They stopped the action scenes just a touch too long before moving forward again with the final blow/punch/kick.
This was the best superhero film since “The Dark Knight.” Wonder Woman (a superhero I never cared much for) was the first in a long while that got the persona of a superhero right – not a sad, mopey “woe is me; I have problems” whiner, but someone who does what is right and does not let her personal drama get in the way.
The key sequence was the attack to free the village. All logic was for her to ignore it, but she was a superhero, and couldn’t let the Injustice stand. When she was pinned down by the machine gun and the others joined in to help, it was one of the most stirring moments in any superhero films and I’d rank it close to the singing of the Marseillais in * Casablanca.*
Even the fight scenes were good, and I hate fight scenes. The final confrontation was the usual routine, but the others were the best since * Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*. I think it was partly because the kept the CGI to a bare minimum (the final battle was CGI, and had no gravitas).
The movie also had some meat to it, the point that Ares didn’t cause the war; humans did. When WW spared the scientist, it actually meant more than just being an obvious trope.
Considering how formulaic superhero movies are, this managed to vary the formula and add something new. And,even more amazing, it did it as an origin story, the dullest type of superhero story.
This is the gold standard. It, The Dark Knight, the Christopher Reeve * Superman*, and Tim Burton’s Batman are the Mount Rushmore of the genre.
I’m not a fan of comic books or comic book movies, but we saw it last night anyway, and enjoyed it greatly.
The slow-motion fight scene, with slow bullets whizzing, seemed like it borrowed heavily from The Matrix, but I loved it anyway. Like most such scenes, the big CGI fight at the end was just a blur of nonsense. But WW’s charge across No Man’s Land was amazing, and surprisingly moving. I was all verklempt.
Shoot, I’d pay $10 just to stare at Gal Gadot for 2 hours. She is absolutely stunning.
I was glad when Ares put on his armor, because up to that point it looked like WW was beating up a middle-aged Englishman.
We stuck around through the end of the sea of credits hoping for a stinger (I left Kong: Skull Island early and didn’t want to make that mistake again.) Disappointed.
Okay so I think we need to settle a debate: at the very end of the movie was Diana flying or jumping very high and far? It looked like jumping to me but many people seem to be saying it’s flying. I can see why but I think it was a jump.
I assumed jumping of the “Leaps tall buildings in a single bound” early Superman style. Close to flying but not actual flying. I’m in no way familiar with WW besides invisible jets and Lynda Carter though so I don’t know what her current flying status is.