NS: Wonder Woman has arrived
Jun. 2nd, 2017 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lucean posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_dailyGreetings to one and all,
So the Wonder Woman movie finally arrived this week and today opened on most theaters in the Western World. As I just came back from watching it, I thought to make a discussion post for those of us who managed to catch it in this opening weekend as there is so much I want to say about this movie. Most naturally there are spoilers abound after the cut.
Now as context I'm a person who loved both MoS and BvS, so while I was also nervous going in to the movie, I was a different reason as I was worried that they would take away from that epic, operatic nature of the two movies. Yet I have to admit, I absolutely loved that movie at the end of it, and that choice of words is very deliberate. In my attempt to somehow not make this feel like a novel, I'll try to contain those thoughts in a few bullet points below.
-The Screen Junkies review of this movie made an interesting point in that while the movie is really long, it needed to be that long and while watching it, I completely understood. The first half at times irritated me because I didn't understand some of the location transitions and it had this almost breezy nature to it, which I didn't at times enjoy, but when we hit the second half, that first half was absolutely necessary. It in many ways allowed us to understand what it meant for Diana to truly understand war for the first time and what that meant.
-And speaking of that war, I saw a lot of the negative early reviews compare this to Captain America: First Avenger, but I feel that comparison is not accurate at all and also actually is negative towards that Captain America movie as this movie does attempt to make war just feel ugly instead of this easy divide 'Here be goodies, here be baddies, everything is bizarrely clean'.
-The one thing I disliked in this movie was Ares, but I don't know how fair my dislike is. I completely understood what he represented here, this power that had no faith in humanity which directly tied to Diana's great realization, but there have been so many great versions of Ares in comics that having this very barren version of him here just struck me in a bad way. Especially since David Thewliss could have done such great things with, for example, the Azzarello Ares. Still, that would have required a very different movie, so again I understand the decision.
-The action is just beatiful in this movie and, while it was without a doubt a Patty Jenkins movie, you could feel Zack Snyder's influence there in the best possible way as it managed to really capture the sense of power whenever Diana spruing in to action. In addition, I thought the Jezebel review made a really good point about how Jenkins would frame the female action in a comic book panel way where they always centered it on the woman while they hit the slow-mo.
-Gal Gadot was absolutely perfect as Diana and while this is a breakout role for her, it will also be the role that will probably define her going forward. What I really liked was that while Diana was a very assertive character in this movie, she also had a clear arc that required from Gadot with her managing to really rise to the occasion. Chris Pine was also great in this movie and the two of them truly made even the cumbersome bits really work.
-Something that was also pointed out was that instead of trying to have Gadot get rid of her accent, they essentially had all the Amazons adopt that accent. It really added a lot because it felt like all the Amazons were of the same people while making them feel distinct.
-Finally, something that I really appreciated was that while this was a true standalone movie outside the initial framing device, it has a really interesting relationship with BvS as both of them really added to each other. This movie gives us a deeper understanding of Diana's character in that movie and that in many ways she had fallen as much as Bruce had by having lost that faith in humanity that allowed her to overcome Ares at the end of this movie. That really enhanced her decision to stand with Bruce and Clark at the end of that movie. However, even moreso, I felt having seen BvS really added to Diana's final moments here as it made you understand what Diana meant with her response to Bruce. For her, Bruce returning Trevor to her wasn't about the picture, but him having reminded her of how humans can overcome their internal darkness. It also made me really intrigued about the Diana/Bruce relationship heading in to Justice League movie as there is a really interesting dynamic there.
With that, I finish this post and would love to hear others thoughts on the movie.
So the Wonder Woman movie finally arrived this week and today opened on most theaters in the Western World. As I just came back from watching it, I thought to make a discussion post for those of us who managed to catch it in this opening weekend as there is so much I want to say about this movie. Most naturally there are spoilers abound after the cut.
Now as context I'm a person who loved both MoS and BvS, so while I was also nervous going in to the movie, I was a different reason as I was worried that they would take away from that epic, operatic nature of the two movies. Yet I have to admit, I absolutely loved that movie at the end of it, and that choice of words is very deliberate. In my attempt to somehow not make this feel like a novel, I'll try to contain those thoughts in a few bullet points below.
-The Screen Junkies review of this movie made an interesting point in that while the movie is really long, it needed to be that long and while watching it, I completely understood. The first half at times irritated me because I didn't understand some of the location transitions and it had this almost breezy nature to it, which I didn't at times enjoy, but when we hit the second half, that first half was absolutely necessary. It in many ways allowed us to understand what it meant for Diana to truly understand war for the first time and what that meant.
-And speaking of that war, I saw a lot of the negative early reviews compare this to Captain America: First Avenger, but I feel that comparison is not accurate at all and also actually is negative towards that Captain America movie as this movie does attempt to make war just feel ugly instead of this easy divide 'Here be goodies, here be baddies, everything is bizarrely clean'.
-The one thing I disliked in this movie was Ares, but I don't know how fair my dislike is. I completely understood what he represented here, this power that had no faith in humanity which directly tied to Diana's great realization, but there have been so many great versions of Ares in comics that having this very barren version of him here just struck me in a bad way. Especially since David Thewliss could have done such great things with, for example, the Azzarello Ares. Still, that would have required a very different movie, so again I understand the decision.
-The action is just beatiful in this movie and, while it was without a doubt a Patty Jenkins movie, you could feel Zack Snyder's influence there in the best possible way as it managed to really capture the sense of power whenever Diana spruing in to action. In addition, I thought the Jezebel review made a really good point about how Jenkins would frame the female action in a comic book panel way where they always centered it on the woman while they hit the slow-mo.
-Gal Gadot was absolutely perfect as Diana and while this is a breakout role for her, it will also be the role that will probably define her going forward. What I really liked was that while Diana was a very assertive character in this movie, she also had a clear arc that required from Gadot with her managing to really rise to the occasion. Chris Pine was also great in this movie and the two of them truly made even the cumbersome bits really work.
-Something that was also pointed out was that instead of trying to have Gadot get rid of her accent, they essentially had all the Amazons adopt that accent. It really added a lot because it felt like all the Amazons were of the same people while making them feel distinct.
-Finally, something that I really appreciated was that while this was a true standalone movie outside the initial framing device, it has a really interesting relationship with BvS as both of them really added to each other. This movie gives us a deeper understanding of Diana's character in that movie and that in many ways she had fallen as much as Bruce had by having lost that faith in humanity that allowed her to overcome Ares at the end of this movie. That really enhanced her decision to stand with Bruce and Clark at the end of that movie. However, even moreso, I felt having seen BvS really added to Diana's final moments here as it made you understand what Diana meant with her response to Bruce. For her, Bruce returning Trevor to her wasn't about the picture, but him having reminded her of how humans can overcome their internal darkness. It also made me really intrigued about the Diana/Bruce relationship heading in to Justice League movie as there is a really interesting dynamic there.
With that, I finish this post and would love to hear others thoughts on the movie.
