Wonder Woman (2009)

I don't remember how I found out about the existence of this version of Wonder Woman, but I'm a sucker for comic books movies and animated movies, and if you combine those two you get a film I can't say no to. 

After defeating Ares (voiced by Alfred Molina), the God of War, and stripping him of his powers, the Amazons led by Hippolyta (voiced by Virginia Madsen) reside in peace on their secret island. Then one day a pilot named Steve Trevor (voiced by Nathan Fillion) crash-lands on the island and Princess Diana (voiced by Keri Russell), the daughter of Hippolyta, is assigned to take him back to his world and capture Ares who has managed to escape and is planning his revenge.

Though I haven't read the comic books and it's different from Patty Jenkins's movie, the plot is fairly predictable and I found that many aspects of the story have been overly simplified, and it's a little corny too at times, but the fast pacing makes it enjoyable.

The characters, on the other hand, are way better than I was expecting. While the film's length does not leave room for a lot of depth --Diana isn't as clueless and naive as she is supposed to, and isn't that shocked about the differences in man's world, and Steve isn't as sensitive--, the characters have enough development and characterization to make us like them but most important care about them.

The voice acting, however, is what made this film more watchable for me. Each actor fit the role very well, and they do a pretty good job. Nathan Fillion's Steve Trevor is hilarious and easily the highlight of the film.

Warner Home Video

The animation, just like the plot, is kept quite simple and yet it's good. Each character has a unique design that makes it easy to keep up with them, especially the Amazons. The action scenes are quite good too.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)

Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman isn't the only movie about the famous superheroine that made it to the big screen last year. There was also Angela Robinson's Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, a biopic about American psychologist William Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman. 

It's 1928. William Marston (Luke Evans) and his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) teach and work on their research at Harvard and Radcliffe College. Williams hires one of his students, Olive Bryne (Bella Heathcote), the daughter of Ethel Bryne and niece of Margaret Sanger, as a new teaching assistant. The three of them fall in love, which was forbidden at the time, and these two women will be his inspiration for the Wonder Woman comics.

Just like Jenkins's film, this is a work of fiction. It is Angela Robinson's interpretation of Marston's life since the account of their intimate life was never made public. That being said, whether it's accurate or not --it's probably the latter since Marston's granddaughter didn't approve of this--, the story Robinson brought to the screen is interesting and provides a nice background to the character of Wonder Woman. 

And it's surprisingly erotic as the film mainly focuses on the sexual part of the relationship between Marston, his wife and their lover. That, however, doesn't do the film any favour. If anything it makes it looks kinda cheap, and I would have liked Robinson to focus a little bit more on the publishing process and legal issues they faced. Also, there's a subplot about a neighbour that isn't developed at all.

Also quite surprising is that there's very little explicit sex considering the film's topic, and Robinson handled the soft-core sex scenes quite well.

Annapurna Pictures

A weird thing about Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is that it is supposed to be about Marston but it ends up being more about his wife as Robinson's script puts a lot of focus on the inner struggle of Elizabeth. This is both a good and a bad thing. Bad because the film isn't supposed to be about her; good because Rebecca Hall gives another great performance, delivering both Elizabeth's intellect and sensitivity.

In addition, Luke Evans gives a good performance as Marston, charming as usual, and Bella Heathcote does very good as Olive, portraying both her determination and vulnerability quite well.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Genres

Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Director

Patty Jenkins

Country

USA

Cast

Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya, Lucy Davis, Said Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremmer, Eugene Brave Rock, Lisa Loven Kongsli

Storyline

When an American pilot crashes and tells of a conflict raging the outside world, Amazons princess and warrior Diana (Gal Gadot) leaves home to fight a war to end all wars.

Opinion

Wonder Woman was one of my most anticipated movies of the year yet I didn't have any expectation. Actually, that's not true, I expected it to be a disappointment because that's all they do at DC Comics, they disappoint. Then, earlier this week, something completely unexpected happened, critics liked this movie and, although I'm not one of those people who let others' opinions influence theirs, it made me expect a great film. And Patty Jenkins's movie is that, a great DC movie that is way more than a superhero, superheroine in this case, flick.

The truly outstanding aspect about Wonder Woman is arguably the writing. It simply blew me away! And it's hard to believe Zack Snyder was part of it. I mean, the story is simple yet very well-thought and developed, it does have a nice final twist and it will hold your attention from beginning to end as it flows smoothly. It is a fantastic origin story and I feel safe to say that it does all the justice in the world to a character with so much to say. And it's way more involving than Superman's origins in Man of Steel.

And along with the story goes the characters. Although most of the characters are pretty shallow and underdeveloped - especially the villain I didn't even bother hating because we just don't get enough of them -, this is a film about Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman and her character is great. The character buildup is amazing and it allows the character to truly emerge and Gal Gadot to give a brilliant performance.

The best part, however, is what the film has to say. As Ares says, there are no good or bad guys when it comes to war, everyone is at fault. But most important is the message of hope and love the film manages to convey.

Wonder Woman still has some problems. There's a part that lingers way too much on humour and most of the time the jokes aren't even that funny. The visual effects are good but I feel like they could have done something more. And at last but not least, the action - I always complain about this in DCEU films. While "No Man's Land" battle is beyond spectacular - and gave me chills -, the final battle is great and the fighting is well choreographed, the slow motion is overused and annoying. Also, at times it feels like the action goes too fast.

All of that being said, kudos to everyone involved in this for making such a great and powerful movie that makes such a bold statement against the dominance of men, both in the superhero universe and in the real world.

MUST WATCH: New WONDER WOMAN Trailer!

It's finally here and it's looking like WONDER WOMAN may be getting the movie she deserves! I'm not sure what to make of the storyline yet as we just don't know the details, but visually the trailer rocks!

Gal Gadot is absolutely stunning in the role as we saw in BvS and the addition of Chris Pine here will pay off I think.

I'm loving the production quality, the attention to detail and of course, WW's Bracelets of Submission which, as you can see, easily deflect oncoming bullets.

Enjoy!



WONDER WOMAN is slated for release June 2, 2017. Stay tuned for more!

When Push Comes To Shove: Warners Moves WONDER WOMAN And JUNGLE BOOK Launches

Some pulling up going on too. WONDER WOMAN is being pulled up to a slated release date 3 weeks earlier to June 2, 2017. Showing us some confidence? I hope so. I really enjoyed Gal Gadot's performance in the role in BATMAN v SUPERMAN - one of the few aspects of that movie that I didn't have any issues.

Meanwhile, Andy Serkis' JUNGLE BOOK: ORIGINS has been pushed out a full year from October 6, 2017 to October 19, 2018. I also view this as a positive with not only giving Serkis more time to deliver on his performance capture promises but also allowing audiences some breathing room from Jon Favreau's THE JUNGLE BOOK offering (which looks amazing) opening next week on April 15. It will feature the voices of Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett among others.

Said Serkis: "I’ve got to say that personally I’m absolutely thrilled that Warner Brothers have changed the delivery date of our movie. The ambition for this project is huge. What we are attempting is an unprecedented level of psychological and emotional nuance in morphing the phenomenal performances of our cast into the facial expressions of our animals."

Further to Warner Bros announcement of these changes, they added dates for a couple of untitled DC Comics launches: October 5, 2018 and November 1, 2019.