Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2017. That movie is "Wonder Woman".
Now, I should admit something before I even get into this movie. I am not the biggest fan of Wonder Woman, as a character. In fact, out of all the Justice League members, I find her to be the most bland of the group. I could get into Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, the Flash, and the Martian Manhunter. But anytime that Wonder Woman is involved, I just never find her to be, in any way, interesting. That being said, I do happen to remember last year when I covered the Captain America movie from 1990, I said, just about, the exact same thing about Cap. And I ended up kinda liking that movie, so I was able to appreciate him more as a character. Wonder Woman can also do the same thing tonight, as I take a look at her outing that came out some years ago.
I also know that this movie is, essentially, a part of DC's own Cinematic Universe. Which also includes films such as "Man of Steel", "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", "Aquaman", and "Justice League". I'm pretty sure I'm missing something else, but I honestly don't care. And the reason why I don't care is because I am not a huge fan of the concept of Cinematic Universe's anyway. Because then, it gives more of a reason for superhero films to continue existing. Thankfully, it looks like DC and Warner Bros. have slowly backed off from this. Marvel and Disney, on the other hand, well...all they're doing at this point is just beating a dead horse until fans eventually get sick and tired of their films. Which a lot of people have already grown sick and tired of anyways. However, fanboys will continue to keep beating off to their shallow Cinematic Universe movies, and keep claiming them as "The best Marvel movies to date". But I'm getting WAY off track here by talking about my distaste for Cinematic Universes. I should just be focusing on this movie.
Now, I've heard a lot of good things about this movie. So, I may be in for a treat here. But then again, I also really enjoyed "Man of Steel". It had a few problems, but I was still able to overlook them, because the movie was really good. And, as I mentioned earlier, I didn't care for Captain America until I watched the 1990 movie, and I ended up kinda liking it. So, if this movie can do the exact thing, then I think this thing is going to end up being a really good film. However, I am also prepared for this thing to suck, if it ends up turning out that way. I'm hoping that it doesn't, but there is that slight chance that this thing could be a massive turd. So really, let's just see if thing ends up being any good. And the only way I'm gonna find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Wonder Woman".
9 minutes later
OK, guys, my history with Wonder Woman is a little bit muddy here, but I'm gonna try to explain this. So this backstory involving Aries, the God of War, that we were just told ended up with Zeus creating this island, far away from the rest of the world. Is this the reason why men are not allowed on Themyscira? If so, then that's kind of a stupid reason. I mean, OK, I get that you don't want Aries and his army to discover where the amazons have been hiding, but that's not still a plausible reason as to why men shouldn't be allowed on Themyscira. It just seems a little bit odd to me, but hey, I guess maybe that was just a rule that the amazons created for themselves. I may be wrong on that, but until this movie explains that part, then that's what I'm sticking with.
5 minutes later
OK...I didn't know that Wonder Woman's bracelets were powerful enough to cause a knock back of that magnitude from a sword strike. That was certainly cool.
20 minutes later
All right, you know, I wasn't totally sure what Diana was going to do at first, and it seems-oh wait, no, she's falling to her death.....OK, never mind, she's still holding on. Well, I gotta give Diana some props there for holding on. She certainly is a trooper.
18 minutes later
So wait, Diana is actually going to entrust her sword and shield to this random lady, whom she's met all of, what, 10 minutes or so? I understand that Diana is still trying to get accustomed to our way of life, but it just seems a little bit irresponsible to me that she would let this random woman hold on to her most powerful weapons. I mean, I'm pretty sure that her mother would throw a huge fit if she found out about something like this, you know?
10 minutes later
OK, I kinda liked that little battle of languages between Diana and Sameer. And I guess, apparently, Sameer doesn't really know the ancient Greek language. That was sorta cool.
14 minutes later
You know, guys, as cool and as awesome as this is with Wonder Woman crossing No Man's Land, I think it would kinda suck if one of these German soldiers was lucky enough to shoot one of her exposed legs. I mean, granted, she's doing an awesome job on holding off all these bullets and bombs, but I still think it would kinda suck if at least ONE of these bullets managed to hit her weak spot. I understand that it's all trivial, and stupid, but it's just something that I kinda noticed, you know?
19 minutes later
OK, I have a bit of a stupid question here. It's probably nothing, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. So, Trevor's deciding to go undercover as a German soldier. And he's currently talking with Dr. Poison. How the fuck does she not recognize what Trevor looks like? Barring that, does Trevor not realize that if any German soldier recognizes his face, then he could be under some serious shit? It's very possible that at least ONE person at this gala recognizes Trevor's face. So again, I'm gonna ask this, how the hell does Dr. Poison not know what Trevor looks like? I'm really curious here.
3 minutes later
All right, I gotta another question, and it's actually a serious one this time. Does anybody not notice that there is a sword hiding behind Diana's back? There's no way in hell anyone could notice that and go "Oh, well, that's just part of the dress". No, that thing is fucking noticeable! Now granted, Diana could probably take care of herself, but it just seems really stupid to me that nobody would notice the striking hilt that's behind Diana's back. I just wanted to mention that.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Wonder Woman". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Well...that was certainly a lot better than what I was expecting. Um...what to start with first?
I guess I should start with something that I brought up earlier. Now earlier, I had mentioned that I was not the biggest fan of the character of Wonder Woman. I said that she was the most bland of the entire Justice League. But I never really went into depth as to why I'm not a fan of her, and I should probably start with that. Really, the only reason why I don't care about Wonder Woman, as a character, was because I didn't care for her backstory. I never really found it that compelling. When I compare it to other superhero backgrounds such as Superman, Batman, the Flash, and Green Lantern, just to name a few examples, I never found Wonder Woman's backstory to be very interesting. How she was this amazon warrior that resided from a land that's only inhabited by women. And over the years, my reasoning for my disinterest of Wonder Woman mostly still held ground, because whenever I would watch episodes of "Justice League: Unlimited" that would focus on her, I still never found her character to be interesting. However, I will say that, in certain aspects of me watching DC's direct-to-video animated films, I have grown to like the character a little bit. When I say that, I mean that her portrayal in those certain movies made me like her character. For example, I really liked her in "Justice League: War". Which was an adaptation of DC's new launch of comics that were tied into the New 52. I know a lot of people didn't really like the New 52 comics, and, admittedly, I haven't really read much of them, but I did really like her in that particular film. So, on the whole, I can say that, while I don't really care about the character of Wonder Woman, I can really like her, depending on her portrayal in certain mediums. And as for this movie, her debut live-action film, I can say that this thing was fucking great. It really is one of the better main title superhero films I have seen in quite a long time. Now, mind you, this movie does have it's problems. However, I am able to say that this movie made me really appreciate the character a hell of a lot more than I originally did before.
Now, with that being said, let's get into the writing. Writing here is really good in lot of areas. As an origin story for Wonder Woman, it's great. It really took it's time in developing Diana's character here, and you really couldn't ask for anything more than that, when it comes to her origin. As for the plot itself, well, Aries, the God of War, created a war out of jealousy for humankind and wanted to see it's hatred. And through this war, Zeus was able to create an island for the amazons that would shelter them from the rest of the world. Which is the island now known as Themyscira. Although if that's really the case, then how come Trevor, before his plane was about to crash in the water, how the hell was he able to go through this, I guess, barrier for this island? Is that something that Zeus never thought about when he created Themyscira? It would make more sense if Aries somehow discovered the island and would be able to go through it with his power. However, if a regular human is able to go through this barrier, then what's to stop anybody else from discovering the location of this island? Mind you, we saw that the German soldiers were able to go through this portal with no problems. Don't you think that Zeus should've thought about that BEFORE he created that island? I don't know, but that's honestly just a minor issue that struck out at me. So anyway, when Trevor's plan crashes down, and Diana saves him, he basically says that there's a war going on, and Diana somehow thinks that Aries has returned. So, she ends up going with him to help bring an end to the war. So, on a narrative standpoint, it's really well done. Everything here, mostly, makes sense. You could probably find minor things to complain about such as when Diana was at this gala, apparently, NOBODY saw the hilt of the sword that was hiding behind her back. I'm still kinda baffled at that. This movie also tries to put in an anti-war message into it's story. However, unlike my other complaints I've had with movies trying to give out a message, this one does it in a subtle way. Because we are seeing the effects that it's having on Diana, as she's viewing the tragedies that were occurring during WWI. And the movie is not blatantly coming out and saying that "War is bad", it's just showing you the after effects through Diana's point of view. And it's done very well. I can also say that this movie doesn't really have a lot of humor. However, unlike a majority of the MCU movies where they have to shoehorn in humor, this movie is also rather subtle on it's humor. It's not trying to force itself to be funny. It's just telling a really good story, and it mostly does just that. The writing is really strong throughout most of it's runtime.
There are a couple of other things that stuck out at me, as I was watching the movie. One thing that really kinda bothered me was when, at one point, we see one of the gas bombs go off on this town where Diana and Trevor were at the night before. And when Diana arrives at this town, she's somehow able to go through the gas without coughing or feeling any side effects from the gas. As I stated earlier, my history with Wonder Woman is rather fuzzy, however, I do not recall Wonder Woman ever being immune to gas. I could maybe understand if it was Superman in this situation, because all he would be able to do is blow that shit out of there. However, with Wonder Woman, I just find that a little bit hard to believe. And I don't want to hear that she's a goddess, because that's just a cop-out excuse. So, if anybody could tell me in any situation where Wonder Woman is able to be immune to gas, please tell me. Otherwise, that just comes across as rather strange to me. Another thing that struck out at me has to do with characters. Now, I will start by saying that, when it comes to Diana and Trevor's relationship, it's damn near perfect. And the character development between the two is great. But when it comes to the supporting cast, such as Trevor's friends, I don't really care about any of them, because their characters are rather weak. We have Sameer, who was the guy that could speak a ton of different languages like Diana, save for the ancient Greek language. The only thing that we learn from him is that he loves to be an actor, but got dragged into the war. Then we have this Native American, and I'm going to assume that he is Native American, who has no real character in this movie. And then we have the Scottish Marksman. He can somehow see ghosts, and he can sing. Besides that, they're all really shallow, and have no real depth in this movie. And they mostly serve no real purpose in this film, other than just being there. I remember at one point, the Scottish Marksman was trying to shoot at this one German soldier from this window. But he never does this because, I guess, he sees a ghost or some such shit. So, Trevor ends up making an improv plan where he, and his other two friends, end up using this windshield as a platform for Diana to jump off from so that she can take out the German solider. And at that point, I was thinking to myself "Why the fuck did Trevor bring these people?" If this guy was suppose to be a skilled marksman, then why don't we see it for ourselves? Oh wait, no, I guess he sees some sort of ghost and that ends up stopping him from doing his job...sure. Makes a ton of sense to me. Beyond that, though, our supporting characters kinda suck. Our villains are really good, though. Especially the God of Truth. I won't reveal his identity for the sake of spoilers. I will say, however, that final fight between him and Diana was amazing, and I loved almost every minute of it.
So overall, the writing here is really strong, and it helps carry a great movie forward. Now, let's get to the acting. Being that this was the first live-action Wonder Woman film I've ever seen, I wasn't totally sure if they got the right actress. And being that this was the first time I've ever heard Gal Gadot act, I wasn't really sure if she was going to do the character justice. Well, I can say that, for the most part, she does a really good job. She's comfortable on camera, and she's able to give a performance that's really believable. Most of the other cast members do a really good job, too. That being said, the acting isn't great. I'm able to say that whoever played the Native American sounded really bored throughout most of the film. I can also say that some of the amazons from the first part of the movie sounded rather weak. However, I don't know if it was because the script they were given wasn't good enough, or if it was because of the noticeable accents that threw me off a bit. Mind you, Gal Gadot also has an accent, but at least she was able to act very well. Some of the amazon actresses, though, could've sounded a little better with a couple of more takes. The worst actress, however, goes to the actress that played Diana as a child. I've talked about this in the past, but most child actors really suck at acting. This little girl was no different. However, that being said, I have heard worse child actors in my lifetime, so I can't really say that she was the worst out of all of the child actors I've heard. So, I'm gonna give her a little bit of a pass, because she could only do with so much with what she was given. So overall, the acting is mostly good, however, some actors here and there could've done better.
Special effects are fantastic. There is a lot of CG in this film, and all of that looks really good. Especially towards the final fight between Wonder Woman and the God of Truth. That looked amazing, and it's probably one of the finer moments in this entire film. So, special effects, as a whole, are amazing. However, I could also attribute that to just being a big budget film made by Warner Bros. So, it would kinda make sense for this movie to look great with it's special effects.
Camerawork here is really solid, although I will say that there is quite a bit of slow-motion in this movie, and I'm only talking about during the fight scenes. And in a lot of cases, when you're doing slow-motion in fight scenes, you want to have a sense of balance of when to use slow-motion in fight scenes. Because if the only reason you have is that your fight scenes can look cool and stylistic, then that's not enough of a good reason. Because if your pacing is shit with these action scenes, then your entire movie will come to a screeching halt. And thankfully, this movie has a decent enough balance of when to use slow-motion for their fight scenes. And most of the time, it's whenever Diana has to jump, or block bullets with her bracelets. Now it's not all the time, but in most cases, it is noticeable, and you are bound to notice it as well. And you might think that this could come across as rather annoying. So, just to warn you ahead of time, this movie has quite a bit of slow-motion during action scenes. So it is there, on the off chance that you haven't seen this movie yet. Beyond that, though, camerawork here is really good. Lighting here is lit well. Sound-mix here is really good, and the music is also done really well, too.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Wonder Woman"? Absolutely, yes. This movie is fucking great. I went into it with low expectations, considering my disinterest for the amazon warrior, and it wound up being an amazing film. I consider this movie to be just as good as "Man of Steel". They both have their problems, but the positives from both of them are just enough to outweigh their negatives, and they both stand on equal ground as a testament to how good they really are. If you are a fan of superhero films, and you haven't had a chance to see this yet, then by all means, check this one out. In terms of live-action superhero movies, this thing stands damn near at the top of it. Now mind you, I am not a fan of the character of Wonder Woman, but this movie made me appreciate her that much more. And this thing is going to have a prominent spot on my DVD shelf. And I couldn't be fucking happier to own a copy of this movie for myself. Now...seeing as how I just mentioned "Man of Steel", I think I'm gonna go watch that next. Because it has been quite a while since I last watched that movie, and I'm kinda in the mood to watch it again. So, I'm gonna go do that. And this movie, as I just stated, will go straight into my DVD shelf.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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