Wonder Woman was filled with as much thought as action. And there was a lot of action.
I won’t repeat what everyone else is saying because it quite obvious that Wonder Woman is a great movie but just to cover the bases: “Wonder Woman is a great movie, you should see it.” There, happy now? Now let’s focus on some of the details. And yes just so everyone knows, SPOILER ALERT INCOMING! SOUND THE ALARMS!!
There are a lot of things I would like to talk about. Will I get to them all? Maybe. We will see how long this turns out. So the first thing, although not the most important thing, I would like to talk about is the sword named Godkiller. Let me just say thing right now. I am a collector of movie weapons. I have the staff of Gandalf and Saruman. I have the sword from Troy, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and numerous swords from The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Yes, I even have an E-11 blaster rifle from Star Wars. I say this so you don’t think I’m crazy when I say that when I saw the close up of the sword I thought. “I want that sword.” The cross guard has the look of true craftmanship. Aside from the fact that its Wonder Woman’s sword, it looks beautiful.
Let’s keep things light a bit longer before I get to the heavy stuff. I didn’t watch any of the trailers beside the first, and I’m glad. Watching the trailers afterwards I realize just how much of the movie they showed. People might say “but you didn’t see it in order or how they got to that point.” I don’t really need to. Part of the reason I enjoy movies is the “what happens next” moments. Watching a trailer, or multiple ones, you already know “That can’t happen yet, we haven’t seen that one part.” I like to be completely lost in the movie, not lost as in I don’t know what’s going on. But lost as in I feel like this is happening right now. What is happening on the screen, is actually happening in front of me.
Now let’s talk about the little girl that played Wonder Woman as a little kid. I thought it would have been a quick “here is Wonder Woman as a kid. Okay, flash forward to her as a teen and now we introduce the adult Wonder Woman.” No, they actually gave her lines. And she got to play Wonder Woman, just as a kid. And her reaction from she was told she was not meant to handle the sword was amazing. I am not trying to steal the spotlight from Gal Gadot, I just want to give credit where credit is due. And credit is due here.
Zack Synder has been taking some hits from past movies like Sucker Punch and Superman. Most recently, Batman v Superman. And for the most part they are correct. You do have to wonder “Dude, what were you thinking.” Yet he has also done the movies 300 and Watchmen which found great success and have a following. So I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see him get a “Story by” credit. I shouldn’t, but I am. If Justice League is along the same lines as Wonder Woman, we should be safe. Then again it could be another Batman vs Superman with Wonder Woman saving the film. And speaking of storylines and dialogue, it was nice to seem a bit more humor in a DC movie. Although it does stay dark for most of the film, literally and figuratively, it is broken up with a few one liners.
One thing I heard before we entered was someone talking about a sequel? Is this a thing? I haven’t heard anything about it. Plus, the movie ends in a way that it could stop then. Movies like Warcraft and Batman vs Superman end in a way that you have to ask “What happens next? When is the sequel coming out?” I am not saying there shouldn’t be a sequel, there are plenty of other villains they could tell a story with. Even Ares could be brought back. Remember from horror movies: If you don’t see a body, they aren’t really dead. Plus, let face it. Patty Jenkins and Zack Synder seem to work great together.
Another thing I liked was that Chief, the Native American, was the only one that said “Yes, she is a daughter of Zeus. Accept it.” I liked this because the Native Americans are very spiritual people. I honor and respect that. It also reminds me of how in the role playing game Shadowrun, magic and creatures of fantasy and myth come back to Earth. The Native Americans in the game are the first to be able to use the magic, since they have always been connected to the Earth. Thus, they become experts on magic.
Since we are talking about the Native Americans, it was fascinating to see Chief talk about how his land was stolen. Then when Wonder Woman asks who stole his land, without missing a beat he points at Steve Trevor and says “Him.” I would have like for Wonder Woman to explore this a bit more, but I the way it was done also speaks for itself.
Now let’s get into some heavy stuff. As I mentioned before, I only saw the first trailer and I was done. I wanted to see this movie. So I had no idea it would be set in the First World War. I applaud that move. So many movies take place during the Second World War, nice that the first one gets some attention also. And the best thing they did was not glorify it. It was a horrible war. It is because of that war that it is an international crime to use nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons during a war. Yes, wars have rules. It may not look like it, but they do. And a lot of them came from “the war to end all wars.” You can tell they did their homework to find out how terrible the conditions were in the trenches. Just an FYI, the term “in the trenches” or “back into the trenches” became popular because of the First World War.
There was a scene where the townspeople ran towards Wonder Woman and her team, thanking them, overjoyed that they had been freed from the Germans. I remember this because that is what I experienced when I was in Iraq. People can say what they will, even I think the whole thing was for oil, but when we rolled into cities and people are clogging the street wanting to thank us. It’s quite a sight. It’s one thing to see it on a screen and think “Yes, they did a great thing. They deserve it.” But when they come up to you saying “Thank you” and “USA number one” in very broken English, it’s a bit surreal. Now you are their hero.
Okay, enough heavy stuff. Let’s lighten things up a bit again. When they started doing the romantic thing with Diana and Steve at first I thought “No, don’t do that. She can’t be with him.” But then I remembered that she and Steve were a thing for quite some time. And he wasn’t the only one. Diana Prince has made a boyfriend of almost all the guys in the Justice League.
Another great thing was how Steve told Wonder Woman that she saved the town and she said it was a team effort. Everyone help out and as a team the liberated the town. Before the movie was released there was some controversy because there would be two showings for women or people who identified as women. Some people got upset because it was exclusion based on gender, but it wasn’t. It was a publicity stunt. That’s all. And this movie even shows that men and women can work together and apart and achieve marvelous things. Even the bad guys had a girl and a guy working together. So if women or men or any other gender wants to do something together, let them. Then later we can all get together and celebrate how great life really is.
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