first close-up experience of the World War I front effectively conveyed to me, in images more than words, the horror of being a hero in a world where there are more people who need your help than you can possibly help. And the subsequent charge across No Man's Land was quite possibly the most emotionally powerful and awe-inspiring sequence, at least to me, that I've ever seen on film. The evening's celebration in the French village was quite sweet, and in my opinion largely an example of romance done right.
It was also interesting to see how Diana interacted with the sexism of early-20th. Century England- Diana simply being Diana, while the people around her inexplicably treat her differently because of her gender. It didn't quite come off this way in execution, at least to me, but done properly,, it could be a subtle but effective way of showing the absurdity and injustice of sexism.
However, the film suffered from a number of serious missteps in the writing, which undermined what could have been easily the strongest film of the DCCU. The film is riddled with genre clichés and contrivances, and suffers a number of what are in my opinion serious thematic inconsistencies. By far the most glaring, and infuriating, is the conclusion's revelation of the pro-peace British official (I don't recall his name) as Ares. It is a source of frequent irritation to me that in action-genre film and television, pro-peace characters are almost invariably portrayed as naïve, obstructive bunglers at best, and treacherous, evil Quislings at worst. The message, of course, being that Real Heroes always resort to violence, that only someone weak or untrustworthy would ever advocate peace. Apparently this holds true even when portraying a war as pointless as World War I. And as offensive as it is in its own right, its even worse here, where it violently clashes with the seemingly anti-war message that the film is otherwise trying to convey. It is understandably difficult to consistently convey an anti-war message in an action film which relies heavily on the excitement and glory of battle to draw in its audience, but
Wonder Woman made enormous missteps that it did not need to make.
And while
Wonder Woman makes a token effort to show that both sides are corrupt, but not wholly evil, this is severely undermined by the fact that the only two major characters on the German side through most of the film are a level of cartoon villainy that you normally see in depictions of Nazis. A couple ambiguous gestures cannot undo that.
These are hardly the only thematic contradictions and failings in the film, either. Just the most gratingly egregious.
The pacing and character development also seems uneven (for example, the hints of Chris Pine's characters' past which are never really elaborated on). And the gas bomber at the end, and the sacrifice of the male lead to prevent it, are a pretty blatant copy of the ending of the first
Captain America (a film to which comparisons are already almost inevitable, given the period piece setting), except insofar as we can probably safely conclude that their will be no miraculous return from the dead (well, you never know with super hero settings). Also arguably a contrived and needless sacrifice, considering that what we see Diana survive later. Had she discovered her full powers sooner, she could have probably flown the plane to a safe distance, blown it up, and walked away unscathed.
That said, the largely positive response the film seems to have garnered will doubtless help buoy up the faltering DCCU, and hopefully continue the current trend towards more strong female action leads. In that sense, this film can be counted as a win.
A couple more notes:
I managed to sit through the whole film without recognizing that Ares was Remus Lupin.
I need to watch the Harry Potter films again.
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