Movie Review: Wonder Woman

I realize Wonder Woman has been in cinemas for a while now, and I watched a few weeks ago but I can't help but writing up this late review because I cannot stop talking about how good this movie was. 

Wonder Woman is the first female-led superhero movie we've had in a very, very long time, and had a female director none-the-less. It's such a huge step forwards in female representation in action films and I'M JUST SO HAPPY WITH THIS MOVIE OK IT'S BEAUTIFUL GO WATCH IT IMMEDIATELY!!! (So let's do a list review because lists are cool.)

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Reasons why I loved Wonder Woman

1) A Freaking. Female. Lead. 

This doesn't happen. I (usually) absolutely love any kind of decent female presence in an action movie, hence why I have such an obsession with Agent Carter and Black Widow. But a whole movie where the female has her name in the title? Where she gets a good 80% of the guts and glory? I love seeing these steps forward in feminism in our media. More please! 

2) Wonder Woman herself

Holy smokes dudes. Wonder Woman is %(@(^_)%@ fantastic. One of my main issues with DC is that their heroes are only heroes. They lack the humanity for me to identify with them, for me to stay in the theatre for a reason beyond my ticket price. They are too noble, unreachable, stoic. Wonder Woman is, despite being a god, human. She is fascinated with babies, doesn't understand 1900s women's dress code and feels so deeply for humanity that it hurts when people around her are injured or killed. Screw the patriarchy, she has a job to do and she's going to do it. 

3) Feminism

It would have been so easy for Wonder Woman to turn Diana into a male hero in a dress. I think so often we as a western culture associate character strength with 'masculine' traits, of ignoring the bottom line to complete the mission, of burying emotions so they don't interfere with saving the world. For years, superhero movies have praised these traditional masculine traits and left characters with feminine traits to the sidelines. Wonder Woman retained her 'feminine' traits and time and time again proved that there is strength compassion, empathy, selflessness and kindness. As her mother said, the world does not deserve you, Diana. Diana knows it, and she doesn't care. She's going to save the world anyways, because humanity may not deserve her but they sure need her. 

Besides that, we saw all kinds of women just doing stuff. Women with wrinkles and black skin and who were secretaries who don't usually get screen time but were awesome in this movie. I just loved the fact that older women were represented in this film, it was awesome. 

4) Everything else

The action sequences, the aesthetic, the plot, the character building, the setting, the secondary characters, the time period, the costumes, I could go on and on. It was an epic movie. Period. 

Reasons why I did not love Wonder Woman:

1) The climax. 

I didn't like the villain, and the climax felt too... otherworldly, for me. That may just be a personal preference though. Granted, I did fear the villain at one or two points, which is more than I can say for most Marvel movies, but overall I felt he wasn't great. 

2) Minor little cinematography

I thought there was one too many slow-motion sequences, but once again, that may have just been a personal preference. 

So honestly, this was a majestic movie. There were one or two minor things I thought could have been changed, but come on. This was the Wonder Woman movie the world was waiting. This is the Wonder Woman movie we deserve. 

Tell me your thoughts on the movie in the comments!

Comments

  1. I HAVENT SEEN THIS YET AND I REALLY WANT TO! I'm loving how everybody's telling me this movie is feminism incarnated...I really need to see this. Great post!

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  2. I, too, was pleasantly surprised by Wonder Woman.

    I will be the first to say that I am not a feminist, but I really enjoyed this movie. It did a good job of showing Wonder Woman as, well, a woman, not just someone who did all the "manly things" while happening to be a woman. It also didn't bash men for the sake of bashing men, which I appreciated.

    I was really fascinated by the idea of the world "deserving" or "not deserving a hero" in this movie. It was an interesting take on things. I also appreciated that she teamed up with a bunch of more or less "average Joes" to fight the enemy, rather than relying on high tech, other superheroes, etc.

    I'm with you on the climax. It didn't fit with a lot of the gritty earthiness that was in the rest of the movie. However, I also think the villains were fantastic and also made me nervous for the heroes at more than one point.

    Glad to see someone else enjoyed it unexpectedly!

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    Replies
    1. Wasn't it amazing?? Yes, I really appreciated that, and how it showed different marginalised groups in society (like the Native American).

      I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT!!

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