Friday, March 6, 2009

First thoughts on Wonder Woman movie

I just finished watching the new animated movie based on the comic book character Wonder Woman appropriately titled Wonder Woman.

First impressions: It's not a bad movie but it's an origin story for a character that doesn't really need an origin story. I'm not saying that everyone knows who Wonder Woman is but the majority of the people who will be interested in this movie do. Truthfully her origin could have been handled with a few lines.

I get the feeling that the makers of this movie wanted to show Diana as a "strong" woman but didn't quite know how to do that. Instead they threw her into a couple of situations that would 'normally' place a woman at a disadvantage and let her overcome them. I would love to quote specifics but that would involve watching the movie again, while stopping it to make notes, which would extend the viewing time to around two hours, which would mean I would finish this post around 5am, which is much to late if I intend to see Watchmen tomorr..er..later today like I want to.

Will tell you about my favorite part of the movie which was right before the credits and unfortuantly only lasted a minute. (BTW I don't consider it a spoiler to reveal that not only does she not die in her own movie but she ends up living outside of the Amazon's paradise island)

Diana is shown with dressed in normal clothes (and wearing glasses) coming out of a building with Steve. (That would be Steve Trevor Wonder Woman's love interest form the comics) He opens a taxi door for her and she says she can lift cars and can lifting a car door handle. He says that they have talked about this in a friendly "indulge me" voice. She says, "I know, sorry," before smiling and continuing in an overly sweet voice, "Oh thank you Stevie. You're such a gentleman," and she flips her hair.

A police car swerves around the corner joins others surrounding a building. A police officer smashes through a window followed by Cheetah. (The Cheetah is one of Wonder Woman's classic enemies who in her modern incarnation is a human/cheetah hybrid) She begins attacking police and even snaps one's neck. Diana hands Steve her glasses and takes off running while saying she'll see him at his apartment. He shouts after her to call if she's going to be late, he doesn't want supper to get cold.

She runs into an ally while pulling her blouse open with both hands, revealing her costume underneath. (What's next a small child pointing and shouting look it's Wonder Woman?) She exits the ally now fully outfitted in her costume and runs past the young girl she met at the beginning of the movie who points and shouts, "Look it's Wonder Woman." (I had to ask) Wonder Woman leaps from car roof to car roof before sending her lasso sailing to catch Cheetah's leg. Wonder Woman yanks her up into the air and toward herself, setting Cheetah up for a punch to the kisser, which we don't see as the scene fades to black and the credits start.

Now, this is the start of the movie I'd like to see. Diana living off the island being a superhero while in a relationship with a normal man. Done right this would be a kick ass movie. Alas it's only a minute long.

That's all for this one.

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