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LTTP: Wonder Woman (Spoilers) - My Goddess

So, I have been frantically trying to see this film before it left theaters (life and scheduling keeps me from seeing pretty much anything in theaters), and finally I got my chance to see Wonder Woman (beware, GIFs ahead!).

I was inordinately excited for it (Wondy's been my 2nd favorite CB character next to Spiderman for a long time), but also worried that it wouldn't live up to the hype. Glad to say that I was completely wrong there.

The movie is so well paced and has great contrasts from scene to scene (the transition from Themyscira to London was stark, and yet both environments felt real, and very well done). Then as they trudged forth to "The Front" it captured the contrast of the beauty of Diana's home, the bustling New York vibe of industrialized London, and then the desolation of war-torn Europe spectacularly. The cinematography was so on-point.

Going from this:

Wonder-Woman-Movie-Themyscira-City.jpg

To this:


Was such a great contrast. I loved the WW1 setting, and I love Greek Mythology (one of the reasons WW is among my favorite comics). I never thought a mix would work, but it did.

I was one of the fence-sitters when Gadot was picked for the film and was worried we'd have another Cavill (beauty with no brains), but I ate my words for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She nailed the role perfectly. It was one of those "born to play it" performances that you only get seemingly once a decade (the easiest one to spring to mind is RDJ as Tony Stark and before that, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine). Seeing her go from excited and goofy (a baby!), to confused (when the assassins showed up and she saw the misogyny of the early 1900s), to horrified (when seeing the injured soldiers), to determined (when talking to the people fleeing from the front lines and the looting/pillaging), was great. Chris Pine nailed his role as Steve Trevor and played off of Gadot so well. I knew Pine was a good actor, but I had no idea Gadot had so much range in her, I was laughing at the fish-out-of-water one minute then going "yea fuck up some proto-Nazis!" the next. They were splendid together. "Can we freeze him like they did Steve Rogers?", I thought., wistfully

And then this shit happened:



...

I was shook, to the core. I just sat there with my jaw about to disconnect from my face.

How could anyone make Wonder Woman in a WW1 setting using the Lasso of Truth look legit on film? Patty Jenkins should be arrested for sorcery.

I had heard a few people griping about the "last act" and still wasn't sure when or what they even meant. After viewing it, I honestly still don't. Was it the bar/night scene with Diana and Steve? That was beautiful. The singing and her seeing snow for the first time and the joy in humanity's hearts in the midst of war was so well done. The Gala/Castle scene had me on edge because I was wondering if it was gonna be some huge shitshow of Diana fighting a bunch of German soldiers in the middle of a dance party, and I was wondering if there was any foreshadowing to Steve saying Diana might not know for certain if Ludendorff is Ares (but the cutaways to him huffing the gas and glowing like some kind of demon kept me distracted). The scene where they gassed the town was stark in showing the horrors of war, and I thought Gadot did a great job showing Diana's horror at seeing what mankind is capable of. You could see the seeds of doubt planted in her mind as to what she truly thought of humanity (setting up the penultimate scenes with her and the big-bad perfectly). Her fight with Steve and their separation had me wondering pretty hard what was to come. Anyway, I digress.

To the ending!

While I typically can see most twists a mile away, I did not see the Ares one coming. When she stormed the airfield/poison factory, and battled with Ludendorff, at first I was kind of annoyed because the film had been so great up to that point... I thought "Man there's no way Ares goes out like some fucking jobber..." and I thought back to the 2008 WW Animated Film (which I adore) that ends with that epic fight between her and Ares.

I had come to peace with the fact that I would never get to see Diana, Princess of Themyscira, and Ares, God of War, go toe-to-toe. It was still an awesome film up to that point and I figured hell maybe Dr. Moreau (is that how its spelled? kind of funny if so) turns into Cheetah or something. And then...

SIR PATRICK IS ARES WHAT!?!

That guy I dismissed as the kooky guy that bankrolls the team's adventure and then wants to control them but knows he can't, the archetype you find in some films...

IS ARES!!!

YES!!!

But would they go all out? Is this Ares' disembodied form after she killed his physical one? What's going on?

And then... LIGHTNING EXPLOSION... and then...


After 30+ years on this Earth, I finally get to see Diana battle Ares!!

Would they fuck it up?

No! This is Patty Jenkins!


So I wondered - what will happen? Along with thoughts of "I hope Steve lives, I love Steve!"

Sadly it was not to be. His acting at the end, saying goodbye to Diana, and then in the plane, had such range within such short time. I shed a manly tear when he took his final breath.

And then... OH HELL NO NOT STEVE!!


And then... wait... a moment of clarity in the midst of Diana going apeshit? What's happening?

I loved this scene. It showed such contrast between the hero that Diana is and will become, and the monster that Ares is (while the entire time trying to convince her otherwise).

Then... FINAL BATTLE!

Just like the No Man's Land scene, I was stuck to my chair, having my brain melted by what I was seeing on screen. They did it! The crazy bastards brought out the real Ares!! Him assembling his armor from the wreckage of everything around him was glorious, and the final fight was by far the most satisfying of any comic book film I can remember since Spider-Man 2. Diana going full DBZ on Ares and blasting him into a dust-crater was so fucking satisfying. I had been waiting so long to see this happen in live action and they finally did it, and they did it so well.

The decision to show her recalling these events in modern-day, and looking back on her origin was fantastic. I really hope they do the next DCEU films justice (no pun intended) because Wonder Woman set one really high bar.

Gadot, Pine, and Patty nailed it. What a great movie. My new favorite CB film, overtaking even the glorious Spider-Man 2.


*apologies for any typos or rambling as I am sick at work writing this up so I can stay awake :D

Not to be a dick, but the film is still in theatres so I think you could just bump the OT.

Yeah, not really LTTP when the movie is still in theaters and still hasn't even opened in all markets (Japan premiere still yet to happen).

It's been almost 3 months since the film came out, its coming to digital at the end of the month, and bumping the OT for a post this big seemed silly, sorry
 

AndersK

Member
So happy to see WW get a good movie.

Made me give a shit about the character in much the same way Cap 1 did.

Well fucking done.
 
Yeah, not really LTTP when the movie is still in theaters and still hasn't even opened in all markets (Japan premiere still yet to happen).
 
As good as time as any to bring it up, but the ending battle kinda rushed some of WW's development.

...did they ever establish she could fly? Or does she just randomly start flying?

Wait, is Ares WW's brother? She calls him this near the end. Does she mean brother in a vague sense? How would she even know if he was her brother??

Not that it detracts too much from the great parts of the movie, but the ending was really confusing.
 
As good as time as any to bring it up, but the ending battle kinda rushed some of WW's development.

...did they ever establish she could fly? Or does she just randomly start flying?

Wait, is Ares WW's brother? She calls him this near the end. Does she mean brother in a vague sense? How would she even know if he was her brother??

Not that it detracts too much from the great parts of the movie, but the ending was really confusing.

She knew from the beginning of the film that she was a child of Zeus and so was Ares. And the final fight definitely gave the notion that she discovered her powers as it went on (and from seeing Ares do it). I felt it was pretty well laid out.

I find Dr. Poison strangely attractive.

That is all.

 
She knew from the beginning of the film that she was a child of Zeus and so was Ares. And the final fight definitely gave the notion that she discovered her powers as it went on (and from seeing Ares do it). I felt it was pretty well laid out.

Yeah, I think we're past the point where every single power a character has needs oodles of exposition. The MCU movies don't really do that at all. It's pretty apparent that she's learning about / developing new abilities during that scene.

---

Good write up, Zebra! I feel similarly. I can't wait to revisit this film on Blu-Ray. It's one of my favorite superhero movies of the decade. I really, really, really hope that this is a good sign for the DCEU going forward. I gotta admit that I'm much more interested in JL than I was before this film, and that's largely because I just wanna watch more Wondy!
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Yeah, I find the complaints about the final Aries fight absolutely ridiculous. The movie delivered a big battle with a god of war. A villain they had been setting up since the intro. it was a bad ass fight too. People dont like to see cool action scenes in a movie nowadays which blows my mind. Her moving fast as fuck taking out those german soldiers was Snyder like and such a big improvement over the slow mo sequence in the French village.

But the best scene has to be the No Man's Land sequence. The way Patty set it up was phenomenal. The build up was great as you see the suffering through Diana's eyes. The music ramps up as she decides to do something about it and then she just climbs up the trenches into the No Man's Land. Brilliant filmmaking.

I wish the movie was a bit more ambitious. It's a pretty standard origin story. the side characters did nothing for me even though Chris Pratt was his usual charming self. the guy needs to be in more movies. Patty is a talented enough director to make a more engaging movie like Batman Begins and TDK. She might even be a better storyteller than Nolan. I truly believe she is the Wonder Woman of this movie. lol

P.S Those are some of the best looking gifs i have ever seen.
 
Maybe all the hype gave me unrealistic expectations but I found this movie barely above average.

I do appreciate that it demonstrated the viability of women superhero films, however.
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
Found Ares somewhat not intimidating. When he transformed he needed to turn into a big bulky linebacker type guy thats 8 feet tall with a voice thats fearsome. Not some skinny brit wrapped in metal who throw swords with his mind.
 
Yeah, I find the complaints about the final Aries fight absolutely ridiculous. The movie delivered a big battle with a god of war. A villain they had been setting up since the intro. it was a bad ass fight too. People dont like to see cool action scenes in a movie nowadays which blows my mind. Her moving fast as fuck taking out those german soldiers was Snyder like and such a big improvement over the slow mo sequence in the French village.

But the best scene has to be the No Man's Land sequence. The way Patty set it up was phenomenal. The build up was great as you see the suffering through Diana's eyes. The music ramps up as she decides to do something about it and then she just climbs up the trenches into the No Man's Land. Brilliant filmmaking.

I wish the movie was a bit more ambitious. It's a pretty standard origin story. the side characters did nothing for me even though Chris Pratt was his usual charming self. the guy needs to be in more movies. Patty is a talented enough director to make a more engaging movie like Batman Begins and TDK. She might even be a better storyteller than Nolan. I truly believe she is the Wonder Woman of this movie. lol

P.S Those are some of the best looking gifs i have ever seen.

Eh. I think it was necessary for a character as important as Wonder Woman. Superman has a classic origin film in the '78 film. Batman has a classic origin film in Begins. Wondy is just as important, and has just as interesting an origin.
 

Monocle

Member
Great OP, outstanding movie. I definitely agree with your impressions of the last act. It felt just right.
 

Solo

Member
It's the cold, detached CG-fest fight that betrays what came before that people don't like. Also, the "twist" was one of the more obvious and predictable ones in recent memory. I remember looking over at my girlfriend fairly early on when I knew and it was clear she knew too.

A great movie, nonetheless.
 
Most people's issues with "the last act" are mostly about the Ares reveal and on (minus the Steve stuff). For me personally, found the last part of the fight extremely boring with Ares just sitting back and throwing shit at Diana over and over, but more importantly, I thought it completely undermined the main theme of the movie that humanity is neither all good, nor all evil and that Ares wasn't causing all this. For one, Ares says he didn't do much at all to turn people evil but he's shown influencing the main villains pretty hard and he's been manipulating events as a high ranking official. But more specifically right after he dies, everyone that was literally fighting 5 minutes earlier (including German soldiers) gets up and starts hugging each other. HUGGING each other! I don't know how to explain that other than that they were under some mental evil influence previously and woke from a stupor.

Other than that stuff, I really enjoyed the movie though. The No Man's Land scene didn't hit me nearly as hard as it seemed to hit most people, but the fight afterwards was pretty awesome. I thought Gal did surprisingly well compared to BvS and her banter and chemistry with Chris Pine was great. It's not my favorite superhero movie of the year, but it's up there.
 

Monocle

Member
It's the cold, detached CG-fest fight that betrays what came before that people don't like. Also, the "twist" was one of the more obvious and predictable ones in recent memory. I remember looking over at my girlfriend fairly early on when I knew and it was clear she knew too.

A great movie, nonetheless.
It's not cold and detached at all though. It's a clash of values as much as a physical battle. Are people just not paying attention to any of the dialogue or symbolism? What the hell.
 
So I wondered - what will happen? Along with thoughts of "I hope Steve lives, I love Steve!"

Sadly it was not to be. His acting at the end, saying goodbye to Diana, and then in the plane, had such range within such short time. I shed a manly tear when he took his final breath.

And then... OH HELL NO NOT STEVE!!


wwreview3.gif

If you told me I would shed a manly tear from Gal and Chris's performance at the time they got casted for this, I would have laughed in your face.
 

RM8

Member
It's honestly one of the best super hero movies I've seen. And I didn't particularly like WW before this movie, I always thought of her as she-Superman. And I don't like Superman, lol.
 

Solo

Member
It's not cold and detached at all though. It's a clash of values as much as a physical battle.

Yes, I got that, but it still suffers from the MoS/BvS final action sequence issue of CG stand ins battling other CG stand ins and lacking weight, both physically and dramatically (although I must say that WW was a lot better than MoS/BvS in this regard). It takes me out of the experience a little bit.
 

yuoke

Banned
Yeah, I find the complaints about the final Aries fight absolutely ridiculous. The movie delivered a big battle with a god of war. A villain they had been setting up since the intro. it was a bad ass fight too. People dont like to see cool action scenes in a movie nowadays which blows my mind. Her moving fast as fuck taking out those german soldiers was Snyder like and such a big improvement over the slow mo sequence in the French village.

But the best scene has to be the No Man's Land sequence. The way Patty set it up was phenomenal. The build up was great as you see the suffering through Diana's eyes. The music ramps up as she decides to do something about it and then she just climbs up the trenches into the No Man's Land. Brilliant filmmaking.

I wish the movie was a bit more ambitious. It's a pretty standard origin story. the side characters did nothing for me even though Chris Pratt was his usual charming self. the guy needs to be in more movies. Patty is a talented enough director to make a more engaging movie like Batman Begins and TDK. She might even be a better storyteller than Nolan. I truly believe she is the Wonder Woman of this movie. lol

P.S Those are some of the best looking gifs i have ever seen.

Well tons of other movies have got the same complaint, so it seems fair for this to also. MoS, BvS, a bunch of mcu movies, etc. Ending with a CGI battle against a typical bad guy.

Overall I thought the movie was fine, it was a typical origin story, but gadot and pine elevated it to being above generic.
 

Timeaisis

Member
The last 30 minutes or so completely ruined the movie for me. It went from interesting, somewhat grounded superhero film to a predictable bore-fest.

Thematically, it felt completely out of whack, too. Diana is trying to protect humanity from some great evil, but is slowly learning that humanity is it's own worst enemy sometimes, but fighting for what is right is what being a hero is about, etc. etc. Just kidding, humanity are just some pawns in some silly comic book god war. I don't know why I expected more from a DC movie, but the first 2/3rds really lulled me into a false sense of narrative hope.

Should've ended right when she killed the general with Steve leaving to save the Allies from a chemical weapons attack. That would've been great. I'll just pretend that's what happened.
 
It's the cold, detached CG-fest fight that betrays what came before that people don't like. Also, the "twist" was one of the more obvious and predictable ones in recent memory. I remember looking over at my girlfriend fairly early on when I knew and it was clear she knew too.

A great movie, nonetheless.
What exactly was cold about it?
 
Most people's issues with "the last act" are mostly about the Ares reveal and on (minus the Steve stuff). For me personally, found the last part of the fight extremely boring with Ares just sitting back and throwing shit at Diana over and over, but more importantly, I thought it completely undermined the main theme of the movie that humanity is neither all good, nor all evil and that Ares wasn't causing all this. For one, Ares says he didn't do much at all to turn people evil but he's shown influencing the main villains pretty hard and he's been manipulating events as a high ranking official. But more specifically right after he dies, everyone that was literally fighting 5 minutes earlier (including German soldiers) gets up and starts hugging each other. HUGGING each other! I don't know how to explain that other than that they were under some mental evil influence previously and woke from a stupor.

Other than that stuff, I really enjoyed the movie though. The No Man's Land scene didn't hit me nearly as hard as it seemed to hit most people, but the fight afterwards was pretty awesome. I thought Gal did surprisingly well compared to BvS and her banter and chemistry with Chris Pine was great. It's not my favorite superhero movie of the year, but it's up there.

There's a phrase in psychology, that actually comes from wartime, "an abnormal response to abnormal behavior is normal behavior".

You don't think there's any truthfulness in the idea that people might have a reaction like that to narrowly surviving a situation in which TWO PEOPLE STARTED FLYING AND HURLING LIGHTNING BOLTS AT EACH OTHER???

I think seeing something like that would certainly have some kind of profound affect on me.
 
She knew from the beginning of the film that she was a child of Zeus and so was Ares. And the final fight definitely gave the notion that she discovered her powers as it went on (and from seeing Ares do it). I felt it was pretty well laid out.

Ehhhh, a better script could have gotten this across better. Don't get me wrong, I like the film, but the script is not the strongest part.

And let's be honest, DCU already has the best Flight Power Discovery scene.
latest

It would have been nice to see WW get even half of that scene. Instead her flight just kinda happens by surprise.

I'm still unclear if she can fly or just jump really high. It's not really explained. Did she ever even fly in BvS?
 

brawly

Member
Watched it yesterday too. Really liked it.

It could have very easily sucked had they cast different people. Everyone is great, most of all Pine and the Goddess herself, Gal Gadot.

giphy.gif


Guys in movies fawning over women is a common thing but never have I been more like

tumblr_m09plvItq51rqfhi2o1_400.gif


But she's not just hot as lava, she's also really likeable and sells the action. People eating crow left and right.

And I fucking love the theme. Fight me.

Gonna buy on blu-ray.
 
There's a phrase in psychology, that actually comes from wartime, "an abnormal response to abnormal behavior is normal behavior".

You don't think there's any truthfulness in the idea that people might have a reaction like that to narrowly surviving a situation in which TWO PEOPLE STARTED FLYING AND HURLING LIGHTNING BOLTS AT EACH OTHER???

I think seeing something like that would certainly have some kind of profound affect on me.

No, because they were all still fighting during that whole battle up until WW went Super Saiyan on them. Even if that's the explanation, it muddies how you're supposed to read it. Maybe if they had humanized the German soldiers a bit prior, that would have played more clearly if that was the intent.
 
Ehhhh, a better script could have gotten this across better. Don't get me wrong, I like the film, but the script is not the strongest part.

And let's be honest, DCU already has the best Flight Power Discovery scene.
latest

It would have been nice to see WW get even half of that scene. Instead her flight just kinda happens by surprise.

I'm still unclear if she can fly or just jump really high. It's not really explained. Did she ever even fly in BvS?

Well. I'm not sure I'd call that "the best Flight Power Discovery scene"... That's this scene. But, if that one is so good, why would you want to see the same exact scene in another movie, within the same franchise?
 
I LOVED this movie. Thouroughly engaged through most of it.

I also was hoping for and waiting for ares the whole movie.

Then the ares fight itself was so boring I fell asleep. It was terrible. If I ever rewatch the movie im definitely stopping there or skipping it.
 

jph139

Member
The last 30 minutes or so completely ruined the movie for me. It went from interesting, somewhat grounded superhero film to a predictable bore-fest.

Yeah, I feel like I was more sensitive than average to the finale, but it absolutely soured me on the whole film. I think everything up until the Ares reveal was good, even great. But then... I won't pile on because the criticisms have been raised a million times, but, yeah, completely deflated things.

If they'd stuck the landing it would probably be have earned a spot on "best superhero movie ever" lists. As-is? It's worth a watch. No Man's Land alone justifies it's existence.
 
I LOVED this movie. Thouroughly engaged through most of it.

I also was hoping for and waiting for ares the whole movie.

Then the ares fight itself was so boring I fell asleep. It was terrible. If I ever rewatch the movie im definitely stopping there or skipping it.

Narcolepsy-GAF out in full force I see.
 

Glass Rebel

Member
It starts slow and a bit boring, picks itself up as soon as Steve appears to be Diana's sidekick, gets increasingly better leading into an excellent second act with No Man's Land sticking out as one of if not the best scenes in super hero movies and a great, satisfying aftermath in the village. Sadly, they had those dumb mustache twirling not-Nazi villains and Ares to resolve because the movie falls completely off a cliff for me after that. There's some great stuff still, like Diana killing the German general and realizing that the war still rages on, but all in all it was just messy, unfocused and the DBZ-like fight against Ares was ugly as hell.

I still like the movie but there's still a lot of room for improvement.
 
It's not cold and detached at all though. It's a clash of values as much as a physical battle. Are people just not paying attention to any of the dialogue or symbolism? What the hell.

Yea I'm not really getting that at all. He even stops to talk to her and keeps trying to convince her to come to his side. It wasn't like, "Me good you bad fiiiiiiiiight!".

The ending mixed Jenkins' and Snyder's tendencies in combat/action cinematography really well. And the alternation between the calm of him trying to convince her to join him and them just wrecking shop was awesome.

Easily my favorite final fight/ending in a CBM. I can't think of anything that comes close outside of the end of Spider-Man 2, and this topped it for me.

i love gal



Narcolepsy-GAF out in full force I see.

That always cracked me up. No idea how anyone would fall asleep in most movies, even crappy ones. I do admit I almost nodded out during the Return of the King, though. Whew, loved it but, man.
 
Well. I'm not sure I'd call that "the best Flight Power Discovery scene"... That's this scene. But, if that one is so good, why would you want to see the same exact scene in another movie, within the same franchise?

All I mean is I'd have preferred a retread to

1230144.jpg


It just isn't a great reveal of the power.
Maybe even just a few seconds of WW flashing back, maybe an inner monologue of her coming to terms with her godhood would have been better. There are myriad better ways it could have been presented.

Edit: I'm starting to realize I'm not even sure if she can fly, or just jump in the air really high. Can she fly? Did she ever fly in BvS?
 

eizarus

Banned
All I mean is I'd have preferred a retread to

1230144.jpg


It just isn't a great reveal of the power.
Maybe even just a few seconds of WW flashing back, maybe an inner monologue of her coming to terms with her godhood would have been better. There are myriad better ways it could have been presented.

Edit: I'm starting to realize I'm not even sure if she can fly, or just jump in the air really high. Can she fly? Did she ever fly in BvS?
She can fly in the comics. They didn't show her flying in BvS. I'm guessing they'll have her flying in JL.
 
If you told me I would shed a manly tear from Gal and Chris's performance at the time they got casted for this, I would have laughed in your face.

Agreed. I really had no idea what I was in for with this movie. A lot of unexpected bits, lol.

Edit: I'm starting to realize I'm not even sure if she can fly, or just jump in the air really high. Can she fly? Did she ever fly in BvS?

Yes, she can. However since the Greek Gods didn't really have flight in their powerset its often looked-over with her.

From her powerset wiki:

Flight: Granted by Hermes (God of Messengers). Wonder Woman is capable of unassisted flight through an as yet unknown but probably magical means or through telekinesis. Her aerial maneuverability is not as developed as aerial combatants such as Hawkman or the Black Condor, but she is still a relatively capable aerial combatant as well. Wonder Woman is capable of flying at speeds of greater than escape velocity. She has been clocked at Mach 5 (hyper-sonic) traveling in sustained flight and can go much faster if need be.

Typically the invisible jet that you see her with is for traveling with companions. The jet seems to be fading into obscurity now (as it is kind of silly for her background).
 
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