Wonder Woman film review
[***Warning: Spoilers Ahead***]
The Wife and I went to see "Wonder Woman" the other day. It had some well-done action scenes (that were well-spaced throughout the film), the camera work was very good (although the persistent sepia-tone was rather annoying), and the plot was good, basically a reworking of every war movie ever, but with superpowers. Diana's character arc from utter naif to bold ass-kicker was probably my favorite part of the film.
The downsides were the writing (which was kind of bland) and the choice of Chris Pine as Steve Taylor, the male co-star/love interest. Pine is excellent as Captain Kirk in the "Star Trek": his over-the-top, scenery-chewing acting style is perfect for that role. As Diana's love interest in "Wonder Woman", he overshadows her (particularly in the second act where she is supposed to be a fish-out-of-water in WWI London) to the point where the movie feels like it's more about her than about him. Most of the action was good, but the scenes where Diana charges toward machine guns, deflecting bullets as she goes, just come off as silly. She blocks a handful of shots, nowhere near enough to give her time to cover the distance she's running (even at super-speed). Maybe the guys she is charging are just bad shots? I mean, like Imperial Stormtrooper bad??
Some things I'm kind of conflicted about: the movie follows the typical war-movie "assemble the squad" trope, where Our Heroes (Steve and Diana--because at this point he is absolutely the leader of the duo and she the sidekick) pick up the motley crew they will need to complete their task. There is Sammy, the con-man, who is clearly a Sammy Davis, Jr reference (nice touch there); Charlie, the sniper (who it turns out can't shoot); and the Chief, a Native American smuggler who sports some very obvious traditional fashion accessories, and who's primary plot purpose is to track the bad guys and send up _smoke signals_ so Diana can find them. For a movie that's being heralded as a great step forward in the way non-white-males are treated in films, this is a surprisingly sour note. These guys represent the traditional group-of-skills supporting actors that we see in a lot of action movies, but they're overshadowed so much by Diana and Steve that we really wonder why anyone bothered putting them in.
I had really high hopes for this film; the first "real" female superhero movie. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but then I think this whole Zack Snyder DC thing is going to underwhelm me. I'm glad to see a female superhero (and, really, Wonder Woman is _the_ female superhero; there's no other woman in DC or Marvel with anywhere near her following) get her own movie. I just wish it had been a better flick. Three stars out of five.
The Wife and I went to see "Wonder Woman" the other day. It had some well-done action scenes (that were well-spaced throughout the film), the camera work was very good (although the persistent sepia-tone was rather annoying), and the plot was good, basically a reworking of every war movie ever, but with superpowers. Diana's character arc from utter naif to bold ass-kicker was probably my favorite part of the film.
The downsides were the writing (which was kind of bland) and the choice of Chris Pine as Steve Taylor, the male co-star/love interest. Pine is excellent as Captain Kirk in the "Star Trek": his over-the-top, scenery-chewing acting style is perfect for that role. As Diana's love interest in "Wonder Woman", he overshadows her (particularly in the second act where she is supposed to be a fish-out-of-water in WWI London) to the point where the movie feels like it's more about her than about him. Most of the action was good, but the scenes where Diana charges toward machine guns, deflecting bullets as she goes, just come off as silly. She blocks a handful of shots, nowhere near enough to give her time to cover the distance she's running (even at super-speed). Maybe the guys she is charging are just bad shots? I mean, like Imperial Stormtrooper bad??
Some things I'm kind of conflicted about: the movie follows the typical war-movie "assemble the squad" trope, where Our Heroes (Steve and Diana--because at this point he is absolutely the leader of the duo and she the sidekick) pick up the motley crew they will need to complete their task. There is Sammy, the con-man, who is clearly a Sammy Davis, Jr reference (nice touch there); Charlie, the sniper (who it turns out can't shoot); and the Chief, a Native American smuggler who sports some very obvious traditional fashion accessories, and who's primary plot purpose is to track the bad guys and send up _smoke signals_ so Diana can find them. For a movie that's being heralded as a great step forward in the way non-white-males are treated in films, this is a surprisingly sour note. These guys represent the traditional group-of-skills supporting actors that we see in a lot of action movies, but they're overshadowed so much by Diana and Steve that we really wonder why anyone bothered putting them in.
I had really high hopes for this film; the first "real" female superhero movie. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but then I think this whole Zack Snyder DC thing is going to underwhelm me. I'm glad to see a female superhero (and, really, Wonder Woman is _the_ female superhero; there's no other woman in DC or Marvel with anywhere near her following) get her own movie. I just wish it had been a better flick. Three stars out of five.
Labels: Movies
posted by Ted @ 16:41
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