This post is
a mess. I just sat down and wrote about everything I could think of
about this brilliant, brilliant movie. As such, he aware there are a
lot of wild, unrestrained spoilers here. There might not be any sort
of coherent structure but there are spoilers.
Batman and
Wonder Woman: OTP 4EVA
Okay, not
really, my OTP in the DC Universe will always be Tim and Steph (its
generational) but I love that this whole film is a flashback brought
on by Bruce sending Diana a photo her her Steve and the WWI gang.
Being Bruce, of course, this sweet gesture is delivered by armoured
car in a secure briefcase carried by armed guards because Bruce is
the most extra person who ever lived.
I despise
the pairing of Diana and Clark with a fiery passion but I have always
had something of a soft spot for a bit of Bruce/Diana. I know this is
probably not meant to be taken as a romantic gesture because this is
Batman on film and he is TRAUMATIZED and CAN NEVER KNOW LOVE and
MAAAAARTHA but I can live in hope.
Weeping
Manly Tears
I admit it,
the No Man's Land section brought a tear to my eye. Every last second
of that scene is just liquid empowerment. Its a huge moment not only
for Diana but for Steve and the rest of their ragtag little group.
Everything from her climbing the trench ladder to demolishing the
sniper nest is amazingly directed.
Diana in
battle is probably the best thing to point to when someone asks how
much having a female director on this film makes a difference. She's
always shot in ways that keep her properly centred in the shot and
accentuates her actions: the sweep of her sword, the direction of a
leap, and so on. There are no scenes shot to give us a good angle on
her breasts or her backside. There have been something like five
Marvel movies with Black Widow in them and every damn fight scene, I
swear...
27
countries
There are
certain realities of the First World War that just get... well,
whitewashed is a pretty appropriate word. When Steve is explaining
the war to the Amazons he makes a specific point of how twenty-seven
countries are involved in the conflict. I don't know about you, but
wheb I learned about this in school the list was pretty much
abbreviated to the UK, Germany, France, Russia and the United States.
There's a
scene early in the film with a massive crowd of British soldiers
about to take ship for France and in amongst them are Indian soldiers
in turbans. There's also a substantial set piece set in the Ottoman
theatre, instead of everything being about the Trenches as in just
about every other WWI movie I've ever seen.
How cool
is Steve Trevor?
The scene
where we're introduced to the Lasso Of Truth is a great set piece for
establishing Steve Trevor's character. In this version of events, the
lasso is something that can be resisted but it causes pain. Steve
manages to bite back the truth several times before blurting out that
he's a spy. It shows us how strong a personality Steve is and,
frankly, why he's worthy of Diana's attention (and, yes, that's the
way it works because its her name on the film and he's the love
interest).
The
conversation about sleeping together on the boat is comedy gold, as
well. Too much of Steve and Diana's funny scenes later are cringe
comedy where he tries to force her to fit in with a patriarchal world
and... I understand why those scenes exist and I like the bit with
the glasses but I've never liked the cringe thing.
Oh, and I
love the bath scene. I love that for once the guy is naked (and it is
no chore looking at Chris Pine shirtless).
I adore
Etta Candy
Probably the
biggest departure from source material (other than the change of
World War) is Etta Candy, here reimagined as an English suffragette
with a dry sense of humour. I adore her and I wish there had been
more room for her but Lucy Davis squeezes every moment of comedy from
her scenes.
Allan
Heinberg Returns
Allan
Heinberg wrote the screenplay and, for those unaware, Heinberg is a
very good screenwriter who sometimes moonlights as a very slow comics
writer. He created the Young Avengers
for Marvel where he made a twenty-four issue masterplan last six
years. He was also writer on the post-Infinite Crisis
Wonder Woman which stalled after four issues with a fifth being
released something like a year later as an annual. For all that,
those five issues were a bold statement of intent for a revitalised
new direction... that totally stalled out because a year's worth of
guest writers had to leave their options open as to what they were
actually following up on.
Still,
he had a fine sense of what Wonder Woman was about and I'm glad we
finally drew some dividends from that.
BTW,
Philippus is in it
I
don't think she's named in any dialogue but IMDB tells me that the
Amazon played by Ann Ogbomo is Philippus. So, if you were worried
Queen Hippolyta might get too lonely with her sister dead and her
daughter out in Man's World, well...
Part of me
wishes Ares wasn't there
I can't help
it. I like David Thewlis and what he does with the role and I
acknowledge that there had to be someone about the place at Diana's
power level for a final confrontation but...
I prefered
the idea that there was no great supernatural conspiracy at work in
the end, that the Great War really was just a mess of people being
stubborn and shit at each other. That war genuinely was one of the
greatest human tragedies in history and part of me feels that that
could stand on its own. I'm not sure I'd call it disrepectful,
exactly, but there is a part of me that questions the taste.
That
having been said, it was a good idea to set the story just before
Armistice Day. What Diana is foiling is explicitly the last ditch
attempt of a German general to keep the war going when the end was
all but a done deal. That means that Diana isn't ending the war all
by herself which I think genuinely would have been disrespectful.
*****
Now,
I don't doubt I'll have more to say about this movie in time, at the
very least I'm likely to see it again with some friends some time
next week, but that seems a decent amount to be getting on with.
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