Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Q99 »

LadyTevar wrote:
EnterpriseSovereign wrote:A minor niggle, but Ares' moustache looked totally stupid and I couldn't take him seriously as a villain. :lol:
I actually thought that made him more ironic, because he was born a God, but looked so mousy. You'd expect a God of War to look more like Lundendroff, a soldier with many years experience. To have him turn out to be the quiet one, the sneaky one, working from shadows? That is more fitting with the Greek mythos of Ares -- a warrior who turned coward at the first sign of defeat. A manipulator who only took the field when he felt he had an unfair advantage over his foe.
I heard an insightful though- He looks like the type of person who were actually behind WW1. Not the soldier or the warrior, but the ones in the offices and such that made the calls.


Also, this tweet by Patty Jenkins is heartwarming
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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EnterpriseSovereign wrote:I just got back from seeing it and I agree it's very good. Like The Avengers, they took their time waiting until fairly late in the film when they played her theme at full blast.

One thing I never figured out was where and how she got her sword for fighting Doomsday. The one she had here was revealed to be nothing extraordinary (at least for Amazons) since Ares destroyed it very easily, yet she obtained one for BvS that was capable of slicing off Doomsday's hand. If we're to infer that Ares is more powerful he didn't seem that way since they were both capable of similar levels of destruction.

A minor niggle, but Ares' moustache looked totally stupid and I couldn't take him seriously as a villain. :lol:

Well, Amazonian smithing is really good - her shield was capable of blocking concentrated machine gun fire, and we even see some bullets bouncing off her leg armor (greaves?). I'd imagine that Diana can probably make her own weapons and armor - lots of time to learn in the centuries or millennia between her birth and leaving Paradise Island.

Now, the question that remains is whether said weapons and armor are that good because they are just crafted that well, whether there are some rare super alloys only found on Paradise Island, or whether magic (subtle or overt) plays a role in said crafting...
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

EnterpriseSovereign wrote:
One thing I never figured out was where and how she got her sword for fighting Doomsday. The one she had here was revealed to be nothing extraordinary (at least for Amazons) since Ares destroyed it very easily, yet she obtained one for BvS that was capable of slicing off Doomsday's hand. If we're to infer that Ares is more powerful he didn't seem that way since they were both capable of similar levels of destruction.
Ares-energy might be in a different category than Doomsday-meat :P
LadyTevar wrote:
EnterpriseSovereign wrote:A minor niggle, but Ares' moustache looked totally stupid and I couldn't take him seriously as a villain. :lol:
I actually thought that made him more ironic, because he was born a God, but looked so mousy. You'd expect a God of War to look more like Lundendroff, a soldier with many years experience. To have him turn out to be the quiet one, the sneaky one, working from shadows? That is more fitting with the Greek mythos of Ares -- a warrior who turned coward at the first sign of defeat. A manipulator who only took the field when he felt he had an unfair advantage over his foe.
That's nice. It's a nuanced take on the whole characters of people who start wars and command them, versus the character of those who are actually doing all the fighting IN the wars...
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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LadyTevar wrote: That is more fitting with the Greek mythos of Ares -- a warrior who turned coward at the first sign of defeat. A manipulator who only took the field when he felt he had an unfair advantage over his foe.
No, that's not the Greek depiction of Ares. Sparta (and probably some other cities such as Thebes) seems to have a more positive view of him, but not much of that survives. He's depicted in most sources as blood thirsty, violent, and a dumb thug, not a skillful manipulator. For cunning in war you go to Athena, who in the Iliad kicks his ass several times.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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EnterpriseSovereign wrote:One thing I never figured out was where and how she got her sword for fighting Doomsday. The one she had here was revealed to be nothing extraordinary (at least for Amazons) since Ares destroyed it very easily, yet she obtained one for BvS that was capable of slicing off Doomsday's hand. If we're to infer that Ares is more powerful he didn't seem that way since they were both capable of similar levels of destruction.
To expand on what Shroomy said...

Ares, being a god, might have exceptional resistance to magic, especially magic that is part of the Olympian mythos, like the magic that would go into Amazon weapons. Doomsday, being a Kryptonian alien with no special status in the Olympian mythos, might have much less resistance to the same magic.
ShroomMan777 wrote:
LadyTevar wrote:I actually thought that made him more ironic, because he was born a God, but looked so mousy. You'd expect a God of War to look more like Lundendroff, a soldier with many years experience. To have him turn out to be the quiet one, the sneaky one, working from shadows? That is more fitting with the Greek mythos of Ares -- a warrior who turned coward at the first sign of defeat. A manipulator who only took the field when he felt he had an unfair advantage over his foe.
That's nice. It's a nuanced take on the whole characters of people who start wars and command them, versus the character of those who are actually doing all the fighting IN the wars...
That, to be fair, is a good interpretation.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Simon_Jester wrote:
EnterpriseSovereign wrote:One thing I never figured out was where and how she got her sword for fighting Doomsday. The one she had here was revealed to be nothing extraordinary (at least for Amazons) since Ares destroyed it very easily, yet she obtained one for BvS that was capable of slicing off Doomsday's hand. If we're to infer that Ares is more powerful he didn't seem that way since they were both capable of similar levels of destruction.
To expand on what Shroomy said...

Ares, being a god, might have exceptional resistance to magic, especially magic that is part of the Olympian mythos, like the magic that would go into Amazon weapons. Doomsday, being a Kryptonian alien with no special status in the Olympian mythos, might have much less resistance to the same magic.
And if Ares allowed Wonder Woman to shank him, the effect on his tissues or meat might be different than the effect he had when actively using some (magical) energy power ability thang. It's like saying Vader's meat and prosthetics must be more durable than Mos Eisley spaceport duracrete because (when he was channeling is abilities) his hands were able to parry Han Solo's blaster bolts whereas the duracrete blew up when Han and co. had a shootout...
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Q99 »

Article on the Athletes who populated Themyscira

It sounds like the Amazons had a lot of fun!
Imperial Overlord wrote: No, that's not the Greek depiction of Ares. Sparta (and probably some other cities such as Thebes) seems to have a more positive view of him, but not much of that survives. He's depicted in most sources as blood thirsty, violent, and a dumb thug, not a skillful manipulator. For cunning in war you go to Athena, who in the Iliad kicks his ass several times.
Since Athens left so much of our greek writing, our views are really colored by them. Ares may be a 'dumb thug' because he's the Spartan god. He's their stereotype.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Imperial Overlord »

Q99 wrote:
Since Athens left so much of our greek writing, our views are really colored by them. Ares may be a 'dumb thug' because he's the Spartan god. He's their stereotype.
That's true, but the Spartans weren't exactly shy about direct confrontation. A more positive view of Areas from Sparta isn't going to celebrate a trickster, it's far more likely to emphasize his military virtues and physical prowess. While they probably had a more flattering version of Ares than him just being the adulterer who is caught in a net and displayed by Hephaestus, he's still going to be recognizable as manslaughtering Ares from the Illiad (which was respect and influential throughout the Greek world). He's the patron of the brave, but cruel and bloodthirsty. Ares is not a trickster and manipulator, but the victim of the more clever gods such as Athena and Hephaestus when the come into contact.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Crazedwraith »

So I watched it again. Knowing the twist, the General Amazon's dying words on the beach took on another meaning. And it remained a decent watch.

As to the barrier, I definitely caught that ship was capsizing this time. And I noticed that Trevor's plane didn't seem to take any damage in it's escape from the Ottoman base. So I was wondering if the Island's protection included a fuck up technology effect that was causing things to crash/sink.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Q99 »

Crazedwraith wrote: As to the barrier, I definitely caught that ship was capsizing this time. And I noticed that Trevor's plane didn't seem to take any damage in it's escape from the Ottoman base. So I was wondering if the Island's protection included a fuck up technology effect that was causing things to crash/sink.
That makes a lot of sense. Combined with fog, it isn't an easy place to get to. Probably not limited to higher tech stuff either- a ship doesn't sink just because the more advanced parts break.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by General Zod »

Edit: nah.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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General Zod wrote:Edit: nah.
That just makes me more curious.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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I just saw this on Friday and I enjoyed it. I liked the first 2/3rds more than the ending, but it was an actually enjoyable film set in the DCU, which is a step up from their recent fare.

I do have a question though, does anyone recall where Steve took off from when he first escaped with the notebook? I'm just wondering because the Fokker Eindecker series of planes had around a 240km maximum range (for the E.IV model) and I'm interested in knowing if the writer paid any attention to that.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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Jub wrote: 2017-07-18 08:51amI do have a question though, does anyone recall where Steve took off from when he first escaped with the notebook? I'm just wondering because the Fokker Eindecker series of planes had around a 240km maximum range (for the E.IV model) and I'm interested in knowing if the writer paid any attention to that.
It's been a while since I've seen it, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere in the Ottoman Empire. If it was somewhere in the western side of modern-day Turkey, and assuming Themyscira is in the Aegean Sea (because Greece), that would be in the right ballpark at least.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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Civil War Man wrote: 2017-07-18 09:07am
Jub wrote: 2017-07-18 08:51amI do have a question though, does anyone recall where Steve took off from when he first escaped with the notebook? I'm just wondering because the Fokker Eindecker series of planes had around a 240km maximum range (for the E.IV model) and I'm interested in knowing if the writer paid any attention to that.
It's been a while since I've seen it, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere in the Ottoman Empire. If it was somewhere in the western side of modern-day Turkey, and assuming Themyscira is in the Aegean Sea (because Greece), that would be in the right ballpark at least.
I'm hoping they mentioned an actual location that I missed, just for the whole accuracy factor. Still, the flight isn't nearly as bad as the teleporting boat...
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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Jub wrote: 2017-07-18 09:21am I'm hoping they mentioned an actual location that I missed, just for the whole accuracy factor. Still, the flight isn't nearly as bad as the teleporting boat...
I can't remember whether it was explicit or whether I picked it up from something onscreen, but it was definitely clear the scene was in Turkey somewhere.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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Vendetta wrote: 2017-07-18 09:32am I can't remember whether it was explicit or whether I picked it up from something onscreen, but it was definitely clear the scene was in Turkey somewhere.
Alright, I can wait for the movie to leave theaters or for the script to get dumped somewhere for anything more.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Q99 »

I headcanon that there were several offscreen days there and Diana woke up on, like, day 4 or whatever.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

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Q99 wrote: 2017-07-18 10:07am I headcanon that there were several offscreen days there and Diana woke up on, like, day 4 or whatever.
It really feels like they needed another 30-second scene to show time passing or an 'X Days Later' message. A scene of them actually catching that tug would as make for a nice extra on the home release.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by The Romulan Republic »

I've finally seen Wonder Woman, and I regret to say that, contrary to the positive reviews I've seen, I cannot give it an unequivocal endorsement. Perhaps my expectations were too high, in part because I really wanted to love this film. But I was left rather disappointed.

It has its moments, certainly. Gal Gadot is a fine Diana (as we already knew from Batman v Superman). Diana's Spoiler
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. :D I need to watch the Harry Potter films again.
Also, I rather enjoyed the moment when Diana catches the German general's sword with her hands. I doubt it was a deliberate reference (though plus five points for this film if it was), but I was immediately reminded of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's second season, when Buffy pulls the same trick on Angelus. So that was a nice bit of nostalgia. :D
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Q99 »

Re: Those spoilers
Spoiler
"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."

Flipside, fighting for the peace was portrayed as good, and him being peaceful was a front while meanwhile he was literally arming the other side so they'd do a chemical attack in the middle of his peace push. He's actively aiming for bad peaces that'll fail and be discredited so that the wars get worse.

Steve Trevor wanted the Armistice as well, as did the non-evil German High Command (while the British politicians often sounded worse), while Ludendorff was strongly against it.

"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."

Agreed, having one or two in the village talk to Chief as an old friend or something would've been good.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Adam Reynolds »

I saw it a couple weeks ago, and would lagely agree with TRR about my feelings for it. It was certainly good, but there were several major elements that bothered me.

The biggest one was that I plainly didn't enjoy it to the same level as something like the Marvel movies, because I didn't really laugh all that much. While many have stated this as a strong positive about the movie, in that Marvel seems to be undercutting the emotion of their own films, this only occurs in the less effective ones(Dr. Strange being probably the worst example). When used properly, as in Guardians of the Galaxy or The Avengers, it is extremely effective at lessening the tension in a manner that is actually realistic to real life groups like soldiers(see Generation Kill for a nice demonstration). While this can lead to a bit of mood whiplash in that the real emotions never sink in, as somewhat occurred in the Civil War airport battle, I still prefer it to the alternative. I would rather watch Guardians again because it had both strong emotion and humor at the same time rather than just the emotional side.

The second problem was a spoiler one, and where I think the largest misstep took place: Spoiler
Throughout the movie Diana was convinced that humanity was fundamentally good and that Ares was entirely behind the war, despite increasing evidence to the contrary. Ares by contrast argues that humanity is fundamentally toxic, and that cleansing Earth of them is the solution. Steve gives the third option, that humanity is complicated, and that there is no easy solution to the war or anything else. Given what we know about humanity as the audience, his position is almost certainly the truth, and it genuinely appears to be the case. But then when Diana defeats Ares, the German and Allied soldiers embrace each other as if they were under his control all along.

What is especially odd is that the movie treats the death of Ares as the element that leads to peace. This is especially problematic in that it entirely ignores that the ending of WW1 set the stage for WW2, which was even more destructive. Did Diana fight in that war?
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Q99 »

Spoiler
lundendorff and Hindenburg are dead, the RL timeline is borked anyway. I seriously don't know what their history is like from here forward.

And I took it much more as stopping the gas attack saved the day. I mean, that's the whole "I can save today," thing is all about! Killing Ares mattered but the sides were already heading for peace, they just needed an outside influence to *not* kill the peace.
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Elheru Aran »

Q99 wrote: 2017-07-20 11:40am Spoiler
lundendorff and Hindenburg are dead, the RL timeline is borked anyway. I seriously don't know what their history is like from here forward.

And I took it much more as stopping the gas attack saved the day. I mean, that's the whole "I can save today," thing is all about! Killing Ares mattered but the sides were already heading for peace, they just needed an outside influence to *not* kill the peace.
Well, their history can't have changed THAT much as at least up till Man of Steel, as far as we know, the world isn't significantly different from how it is IRL. Ahem, Atlantis and Themyscira aside...
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Re: Wonder Woman- the Reviews are In

Post by Q99 »

Elheru Aran wrote: 2017-07-20 04:48pm Well, their history can't have changed THAT much as at least up till Man of Steel, as far as we know, the world isn't significantly different from how it is IRL. Ahem, Atlantis and Themyscira aside...
Sure, it resembled the modern day, but that doesn't tell us much about wars well over half a century before. Heck, we've got multiple extra large cities around. There is room for some *pretty different history* (not that I expect it to be detailed).
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