Wonder Woman (spoilers)

[Wander]

There are lots of things to like. Gal Gadot is up there with Robert Downey Jr as the best leads in these recent comic book movies. The fight scenes are cool, as was the WWI focus on mustard gas and trench warfare. The movie deserves all the praise it's getting for having a great female superhero, something badly needed in the genre and a category where it has instantly embarrassed the MCU. Dr. Poison is a cool villain that I'd like to see more of in the future.

But... there's no way it's as good as the Nolan Batman trilogy or Civil War, which is what the review scores suggest. The ending act where Ares appeared and WW turned Super Saiyan against him was way too silly for me. I know this is not what the writers intended, but to make myself feel better about the movie, I'm telling myself that the last sequence fighting Ares all took place in WW's head and just represented her acceptance of humanity's nature.

I'm interested to see where Udaman ranks it in his list of comic book movies.

[BD80]

There are lots of things to like. Gal Gadot is up there with Robert Downey Jr as the best leads in these recent comic book movies. The fight scenes are cool, as was the WWI focus on mustard gas and trench warfare. The movie deserves all the praise it's getting for having a great female superhero, something badly needed in the genre and a category where it has instantly embarrassed the MCU. Dr. Poison is a cool villain that I'd like to see more of in the future.

But... there's no way it's as good as the Nolan Batman trilogy or Civil War, which is what the review scores suggest. The ending act where Ares appeared and WW turned Super Saiyan against him was way too silly for me. I know this is not what the writers intended, but to make myself feel better about the movie, I'm telling myself that the last sequence fighting Ares all took place in WW's head and just represented her acceptance of humanity's nature.

I'm interested to see where Udaman ranks it in his list of comic book movies.

We wonder no longer whether worldly Wander finds Wonder Woman a wonder of the world.

[JasonEvans]

Long semi-rant to follow... sorry.

So, while Wonder Woman is clearly the best of the recent DC movies -- not even close -- I agree that it is not in the very top of the pantheon. Looking at the past 10-12 years (since comic book movies became the biggest thing in Hollywood), I think Civil War, Winter Soldier, Avengers, Dark Knight, Deadpool, Iron Man, DOFP, and Guardians were all clearly better... though there is no shame in slotting WW just beneath those excellent films.

To me, the biggest problem with Wonder Woman is the climactic battle with Ares. It is just bad in a million different ways. It takes too long and it involves characters with undefined powers (this is my biggest pet peeve and it happens far too often in superhero movies). I mean, Wonder Woman was straight up flying/hovering in the air throughout much of that battle. She gets thrown 100+ feet numerous times and crashes into the ground hard enough to create a giant pothole of rubble (or hard enough for her body to destroy a nearby vehicle) but not only does she not break bones, she just stands up without even a scratch on her. She shows powers and abilities that are far, far beyond what she traditionally possesses and does not jive with what we saw in the BvS film. I mean, she never did her "huge shock wave when I clang my wrist bands together" when she was helping to fight Doomsday... and where was her ability to shoot a massive bolt of energy out of her body in that battle? The powers and abilities she used to defeat Ares should have been old hat to her 80 years after World War 1. This film clearly portrays her as a god, pretty much on par with Superman, not a "meta-human" who merely has extra strength and some cool gadgets (which is what she traditionally is in the comics). Placing her on the same team with Batman is laughable.

Ares was a terrible villain. I still don't really understand exactly what his big plan was or even if there was a big plan. The film shows his ghost-like whispering in the ears of Germans so he seemed to be egging on the war, but it also seemed he was trying to negotiate an armistice. He is the one who allows Diana and Steve to hunt down Ludendorff, which leads to the end of the war. Without Ludendorff, the Germans are perfectly willing to agree to Ares/Sir Patrick's armistice. I know Ares tried to explain that he was allowing man to have free will and that man chose war, but that explanation didn't really make sense to me and doesn't jive with Ares being the big bad guy who must be killed. I'm just confused by motivations and plans and when that kind of thing happens, it takes you out of the film. The best action/adventure movies don't force you to stop and wonder and try to figure things out.

The movie also treats us like we are idiots, putting twists in place that anyone could see coming. "Wonder Woman is the god-killer, not the sword??!?!" "Ludendorff isn't Ares! Ares is actually that fairly minor character played by a really famous actor that we saw earlier in the film!!?!?!" I mean, come on! It took me about 15 seconds (maybe less) to figure both of these out. If you want to surprise me, pull it off better than this... please!

All that said, I really enjoyed the film and thought it had some excellent performances. Chris Pine brought a ton of humor to the plate and knocked it out of the park. His scenes on Amazon island were fabulous. Gal Godot is magnetic and really looked the part in her fight scenes (though a couple of them contained some weak CGI that reminded me of the plastic-looking Neo/Smith in Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions). I loved the scene where Steve puts glasses on Diana and Etta Candy sarcastically says, "Yeah, that's the way to keep her from being the most beautiful woman you've ever seen." Oh, and the WW fight scenes were all awesome (up until the very end).

I really look forward to seeing more of this character in stand alone films. She deserves more story. We need to understand why she does not age (if she is a god, that would explain it). I also want to see how she continues to impact humanity while remaining completely anonymous. Remember that when she shows up in BvS, both Bats and Supes have no idea who she is or what she can do. Is it believable that hundreds of American and German soldiers as well as Belgian townsfolk (many of whom got killed by the gas attack) never talked at all about the super-human woman with the blue and red costume who single-handedly destroyed no-man's land and then defeated scores of German soldiers at a top secret base, killing Germany's top general at the same time? Really? No one wonders who killed Ludendorff?

Sigh... it was really great, but still really flawed.

-Jason "one last comment -- why was the Irish sharpshooter guy who could not pull the trigger even in the film? What was the point of that character if you are not going to give him some purpose or redemption at the end? And why did we barely get to know the American Indian guy? He's treated lesser than the other members of the crew... because he's an Indian? Bothered me" Evans

[BD80]

Long semi-rant to follow... sorry.

So, while Wonder Woman is clearly the best of the recent DC movies -- not even close -- ...
To me, the biggest problem with Wonder Woman is ... it involves characters with undefined powers ...

... The movie also treats us like we are idiots, ...

“No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

Henry Louis Mencken

[camion]

“No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

Henry Louis Mencken

Jim the Waco Kid: [to Bart, after the old woman insults him] You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know...morons.

[weezie]

Jim the Waco Kid: [to Bart, after the old woman insults him] You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know...morons.

Lol, yeah, how much did it make so far this weekend? 100 million and counting? Husband is clamoring to take me to see it soon.

[duke74]

The moral of the story - don't mess with a beautiful, Israeli woman - especially one that served in the army. Can't get more wonderous than that. (Think Natalie Portman could have played the role? Nah...)

[Udaman]

Sigh.

I had really high hopes for this movie. And JE pretty much nailed my experience by sharing his own.

It wasn't a bad movie. It was mostly enjoyable. There were parts that were really good. But overall, I was disappointed by it, and several times I was massively disappointed. I guess I would probably put this in my Top Tier of Superhero movies, but it would be at the very bottom of that tier (and quite possibly at the top of the 2nd tier). To followup with JE's comments, my biggest issues were:

1) The first two minutes. You had what was CLEARLY (and I mean CLEARLY) CGI effects of the Amazon women fighting each other. It was almost like bad claymation from 25 years ago. They couldn't get either real people to play the part, or at least get much better graphics?

2) It never explained the Amazons. Were they like Gods? Clearly WW was (as we find out), but the others could be killed with a simply bullet? And yet they didn't age...or at least they aged very, very slowly.

3) What was up with WW's bracelets? Never explained whey they (and only they) could deflect bullets.

4) So, so, so tired of being able to figure out plot twists a million miles away. The very moment that Lupin was shown as the British royalty, I said "He's the bad guy." And it was clear the Lieutenant was not the bad guy (and on that...what was the stuff he sniffed that gave him super human strength? That made no sense at all, other than to make you think that he was Ares."

5) As JE said, the biggest issue by far was the disconnect between this movie and Batman V Superman. It's clear in that movie that none of them have ever heard of Wonder Woman. And I can actually buy that to a degree. The village she saved later had everyone killed. Not a lot of soldiers saw her (and many of them died as well). So what did she do from WWI until Batman V Superman? And at the very end, it shows her gearing up to fight in Paris, and she even says "I fight for them." But she didn't do that for 100 years? How and why is that possible?

And yes, it's clear that she's a God. Like Thor. Can't really be killed (at least not easily...and not by bullets). And yes the big fight with Ares (which I actually kind of liked) showed that she had massive powers that she then did not use in SvB. Consistency? Please!

This movie doesn't hold a candle to The Avengers or Iron Man, Deadpool, Civil War, X-Men 1 and 2 and Days of Future Past. Not even close.

And part of the reason it was enjoyable, if I'm being honest, is that it was a DC movie that wasn't awful. That's how much I've lowered the bar with these movies.

Alas, it will make our Top 5, and I didn't vote for it, so I'm out. But please don't call this a great movie. It was mediocre, at best, with some good dialogue, and a good performance by Pine (though his death seemed unnecessary and also didn't fit into what he had just said, which was that if the gas was destroyed it would kill everything in a 50 mile radius...and then he blows it up about a mile away), and was clearly heavily edited, which is they the secondary characters seemed so...secondary (JE, I'm CERTAIN there's a scene that was cut that shows the sharshooter actually shooting someone at the end. CERTAIN).

This gives me no hope at all in Justice League. None. Guess we are now on to Spiderman Homecoming.

[trey]

Long semi-rant to follow... sorry.

So, while Wonder Woman is clearly the best of the recent DC movies -- not even close -- I agree that it is not in the very top of the pantheon. Looking at the past 10-12 years (since comic book movies became the biggest thing in Hollywood), I think Civil War, Winter Soldier, Avengers, Dark Knight, Deadpool, Iron Man, DOFP, and Guardians were all clearly better... though there is no shame in slotting WW just beneath those excellent films.

To me, the biggest problem with Wonder Woman is the climactic battle with Ares. It is just bad in a million different ways. It takes too long and it involves characters with undefined powers (this is my biggest pet peeve and it happens far too often in superhero movies). I mean, Wonder Woman was straight up flying/hovering in the air throughout much of that battle. She gets thrown 100+ feet numerous times and crashes into the ground hard enough to create a giant pothole of rubble (or hard enough for her body to destroy a nearby vehicle) but not only does she not break bones, she just stands up without even a scratch on her. She shows powers and abilities that are far, far beyond what she traditionally possesses and does not jive with what we saw in the BvS film. I mean, she never did her "huge shock wave when I clang my wrist bands together" when she was helping to fight Doomsday... and where was her ability to shoot a massive bolt of energy out of her body in that battle? The powers and abilities she used to defeat Ares should have been old hat to her 80 years after World War 1. This film clearly portrays her as a god, pretty much on par with Superman, not a "meta-human" who merely has extra strength and some cool gadgets (which is what she traditionally is in the comics). Placing her on the same team with Batman is laughable.

Ares was a terrible villain. I still don't really understand exactly what his big plan was or even if there was a big plan. The film shows his ghost-like whispering in the ears of Germans so he seemed to be egging on the war, but it also seemed he was trying to negotiate an armistice. He is the one who allows Diana and Steve to hunt down Ludendorff, which leads to the end of the war. Without Ludendorff, the Germans are perfectly willing to agree to Ares/Sir Patrick's armistice. I know Ares tried to explain that he was allowing man to have free will and that man chose war, but that explanation didn't really make sense to me and doesn't jive with Ares being the big bad guy who must be killed. I'm just confused by motivations and plans and when that kind of thing happens, it takes you out of the film. The best action/adventure movies don't force you to stop and wonder and try to figure things out.

The movie also treats us like we are idiots, putting twists in place that anyone could see coming. "Wonder Woman is the god-killer, not the sword??!?!" "Ludendorff isn't Ares! Ares is actually that fairly minor character played by a really famous actor that we saw earlier in the film!!?!?!" I mean, come on! It took me about 15 seconds (maybe less) to figure both of these out. If you want to surprise me, pull it off better than this... please!

All that said, I really enjoyed the film and thought it had some excellent performances. Chris Pine brought a ton of humor to the plate and knocked it out of the park. His scenes on Amazon island were fabulous. Gal Godot is magnetic and really looked the part in her fight scenes (though a couple of them contained some weak CGI that reminded me of the plastic-looking Neo/Smith in Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions). I loved the scene where Steve puts glasses on Diana and Etta Candy sarcastically says, "Yeah, that's the way to keep her from being the most beautiful woman you've ever seen." Oh, and the WW fight scenes were all awesome (up until the very end).

I really look forward to seeing more of this character in stand alone films. She deserves more story. We need to understand why she does not age (if she is a god, that would explain it). I also want to see how she continues to impact humanity while remaining completely anonymous. Remember that when she shows up in BvS, both Bats and Supes have no idea who she is or what she can do. Is it believable that hundreds of American and German soldiers as well as Belgian townsfolk (many of whom got killed by the gas attack) never talked at all about the super-human woman with the blue and red costume who single-handedly destroyed no-man's land and then defeated scores of German soldiers at a top secret base, killing Germany's top general at the same time? Really? No one wonders who killed Ludendorff?

Sigh... it was really great, but still really flawed.

-Jason "one last comment -- why was the Irish sharpshooter guy who could not pull the trigger even in the film? What was the point of that character if you are not going to give him some purpose or redemption at the end? And why did we barely get to know the American Indian guy? He's treated lesser than the other members of the crew... because he's an Indian? Bothered me" Evans

I saw WW twice this weekend. What can I say...I'm a superhero movie junkie. I agree with almost everything you say here, but she does use her gauntlets once against Doomsday. You can see it here, around the 2 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si4_HHsLDho

Overall, I loved it. But like you, my biggest complaint was with her powers. I didn't really understand what she was capable of and why. I just chalked it up to not being familiar with the Wonder Woman comics.

The Irish guy made no sense though. He was a good sniper who couldn't pull the trigger? Why was he having nightmares? Why do we care?

[budwom]

how could you possibly have a "spoiler" comment regarding a movie like this? I'm going to take a wildazz guess and assume she doesn't get killed (or if she does she comes back to life)
because the ONLY discernible goal in making movies like this is to make another one, and another one...

[Indoor66]

how could you possibly have a "spoiler" comment regarding a movie like this? I'm going to take a wildazz guess and assume she doesn't get killed (or if she does she comes back to life)
because the ONLY discernible goal in making movies like this is to make another one, and another one...

Yeah. It can't be for the classic nature of the character or story...

[JasonEvans]

how could you possibly have a "spoiler" comment regarding a movie like this? I'm going to take a wildazz guess and assume she doesn't get killed (or if she does she comes back to life)
because the ONLY discernible goal in making movies like this is to make another one, and another one...

Well, there are some spoilers about the story... though apparently Google does not mind revealing the biggest spoiler in the film. Take a look at David Thewlis' credit when you google Wonder Woman cast:

[BD80]

...

To me, the biggest problem with Wonder Woman is ... She gets thrown 100+ feet numerous times and crashes into the ground hard enough to create a giant pothole of rubble (or hard enough for her body to destroy a nearby vehicle) but not only does she not break bones, she just stands up without even a scratch on her. She shows powers and abilities that are far, far beyond what she traditionally possesses and does not jive with what we saw in the BvS film. I mean, she never did her "huge shock wave when I clang my wrist bands together" when she was helping to fight Doomsday... and where was her ability to shoot a massive bolt of energy out of her body in that battle? The powers and abilities she used to defeat Ares should have been old hat to her 80 years after World War 1. This film clearly portrays her as a god, pretty much on par with Superman, not a "meta-human" who merely has extra strength and some cool gadgets (which is what she traditionally is in the comics). Placing her on the same team with Batman is laughable. ...

... I also want to see how she continues to impact humanity while remaining completely anonymous. Remember that when she shows up in BvS, both Bats and Supes have no idea who she is or what she can do. Is it believable that hundreds of American and German soldiers as well as Belgian townsfolk (many of whom got killed by the gas attack) never talked at all about the super-human woman with the blue and red costume who single-handedly destroyed no-man's land and then defeated scores of German soldiers at a top secret base, killing Germany's top general at the same time? Really? No one wonders who killed Ludendorff? ...

... I agree with almost everything you say here, but she does use her gauntlets once against Doomsday. You can see it here, around the 2 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si4_HHsLDho

Overall, I loved it. But like you, my biggest complaint was with her powers. I didn't really understand what she was capable of and why. I just chalked it up to not being familiar with the Wonder Woman comics.

...

Just rewatched BvS, and it does not seem her powers are inconsistent. She gets battered around by Doomsday much like Superman does and digs up pavement and crushes cars with the impact of her landing. She uses her bracelet blast which knocks back a being comparable or superior to Superman in powers. Her lasso holds Doomsday at bay for the final strikes.

At the funeral she tells Bruce she walked away from "Man" 100 years ago. There's no telling how much more of WWI action she participated in. She apparently was active in covering up her WWI activities, as that is what brought her into contact with Bruce Wayne, trying to recover the photo of her in WWI.

[Troublemaker]

Yeah, it was a bit disappointing, for sure. WW is really a 2.5-star movie that somehow has 3.5-star ratings and reception -- probably because it has a female superhero lead and a female director, and everyone wants it to be good. And it IS good but also contains lots of weaknesses that Jason and others have explained so well upthread already. I'll add a few thoughts of my own here.

The movie got the most important thing right, in that Gal Gadot is a great Wonder Woman and likable, and Chris Pine is a great Steve Trevor and likable. Is Chris Pine dead? Maybe, but we ARE dealing with Greek mythology here. I seem to recall it is a bit of a trope for protagonists to fight their way down to Hades in order to bring back a loved one. (Maybe that could be a mission for Diana in WW2, and then she and Pine could do a role-reversal bit where he's all confused about the modern world and she has to explain things like twitter to him.)

Her powerset got too powerful too fast. Diana finding out that she's a goddess seems like something they should've saved for WW3 (or not done at all). They actually had really good action scenes prior to the final battle with Ares. The fight in the alley in London was good. The fight when she took out Ludendorff and all his men in that tower was very good. And, finally, the battle when she crossed "no man's land" and took machine gun fire to allow the Allies to take the village was awesome, one of the best scenes I've seen in a superhero film. But can we even have those types of scenes anymore given her powerset at the end of the movie and if we're now operating under "only a god can kill a god" rules? Will all of her fights from now on be boring CGI super fights?

The movie makes the audience ask "Why?" way too often. Diana, if you leave the island, you can never come back. Okay, why? Diana, you can't just kill Ludendorff at the gala. But why not? After he gas-bombs the village, he's okay to kill? You knew he was capable of that beforehand. Why can Diana's bracelets do all the wonderful things they can do -- metal bracelets should not be a proper defense against Ares' lightning -- were they a gift from Zeus? Etc.

All that said, I was actually really happy with the film up through the liberating of the village. The last half-hour and "climactic" battle with Areas were just so bad.

[budwom]

as a certified, card carrying geezer, I continue to find movies without endless CGI and other crap to be much scarier and more interesting.

This weekend we watched Get Out on pay per view; absolutely terrific, even with the required suspension of disbelief.

[JasonEvans]

Is Chris Pine dead? Maybe, but we ARE dealing with Greek mythology here. I seem to recall it is a bit of a trope for protagonists to fight their way down to Hades in order to bring back a loved one. (Maybe that could be a mission for Diana in WW2, and then she and Pine could do a role-reversal bit where he's all confused about the modern world and she has to explain things like twitter to him.)

Her powerset got too powerful too fast. Diana finding out that she's a goddess seems like something they should've saved for WW3 (or not done at all). They actually had really good action scenes prior to the final battle with Ares.

Wanna know what would have been great? If Ares was not in this film at all. Go ahead and keep the story about the gas giving Ludendorf extra strength to make him a more formidable opponent and have her final battle be with him (more swords and action and less CGI energy bursts in the final battle, please). Leave out everything about Diana being a god and only a god being able to kill a god.

The movie ends with Diana lamenting that she has not killed Ares. Steve (or some other character) explains to her that Ares has probably been dead for centuries. The old gods are gone, but there are new threats that are just as evil that must be battled. Diana can find purpose in helping mankind even without the presence of some bad guy god or something like that...

... and then in Wonder Woman 3 (there will be a 2 and a 3, for sure) we find out that Ares is still around. In fact, we see little flashbacks that show how he was impacting the action in previous films. To properly pull this off, there need to be elements of the story in WW 1 and 2 that we can clearly show to have been the work of Ares' meddling, but it is essential that there has been no outward hint of Ares in the previous movies until he is revealed in WW 3. It would be awesome!

Oh well... too late for that.

-Jason "I am yet to meet anyone who felt the final battle was well-done" Evans

[Mal]

I took my 10-year-old son and two of his friends to this on Saturday. Overall I thought the two leads were charming, I liked that it was set during WWI and was something of a period piece, and I thought the ending and mythology/revelation of WW's powers and strengths was muddled and she seemed to grow into greater and greater power with every scene without sufficient explanation as to why. It was enjoyable but not something I ever need to see again.

In any event, I thought I'd offer a couple impressions based on my read of the above posts, as well as viewing the film from a complete outsider p.o.v.: Linda Carter in a super cheesy '70's television show was literally the entirety of my knowledge of all things Wonder Woman going in. I've not seen any Superman movie since the Christopher Reeve ones, and the last Batman movie I saw was the one with Heath Ledger. I've never read a comic book in my life, and my general attitude on films about comic books and superheroes generally ranges from complete indifference to "why does this genre take up 80% of the bandwidth of talent and resources out of Hollywood when they could be making something else" to even more critical. So I come at this film from a totally different angle than many of the rest of you.

- I don't get the complaining about the transparency in some of your minds as to the identity of the real bad guy here. Because of the casting? I know David Thewlis as Maude's bizarro friend in The Big Lebowski, so his presence made no difference to me whatsoever. He's nowhere near "really famous" as JE claims, and 2 of the 3 the kids with whom I was attending had no idea who he was. And I asked the third one about the Harry Potter character Udaman mentions as tipping him off, and turns out it's a good guy. So I don't get that, either. I mean, if the soundtrack was all "Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a mayyyyn...of wealth and taaaaste!" then I would have been pretty disappointed.

- While it was perfectly obvious to me that Leudendorf wasn't actually an ancient Greek god himself, or a current manifestation of such a thing, again, kids didn't pick this up right away. Also, there was always the possibility held out there that "Ares" in the modern world existed only in a metaphorical sense, so the evil General who wanted the war to continue was guided by the spirit of Ares.

- for goodness' sake, you guys, you can't tell a Scot from an Irishman? Charlie was Scottish. He's Spud from Trainspotting, for crying out loud! You should count your lucky stars you could understand a single word out of his mouth.

- I guess one of the hazards of creating a superhero movie is the continuity concerns with other superhero movies, as a number of you have harped on that stuff. For one who doesn't know that world and hasn't seen the rest, I just note that none of that stuff registered at all for me. I do get those criticisms, though, because obviously I'm not the target audience and probably am in the minority amongst its viewers in my ignorance.

- There were two disbelief suspension things that did really bother me. The first was that evidently Steve flying his plane through the protective bubble around the island was the first time any human had penetrated the world of Amazonia or whatever it's called in thousands of years. Yeah, no. I could buy it if it were out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but this is the Aegean Sea, since he was fleeing Turkey and presumably heading for mainland Europe. No way a ship hasn't crossed through there at some point since Hellenic times. That Steve also happened to fly in there while someone was watching was preposterous. The other was that Diana knew modern languages, which she of course could never have learned through reading ancient texts available at the time her island was hidden away.

[Troublemaker]

I took my 10-year-old son and two of his friends to this on Saturday. Overall I thought the two leads were charming, I liked that it was set during WWI and was something of a period piece, and I thought the ending and mythology/revelation of WW's powers and strengths was muddled and she seemed to grow into greater and greater power with every scene without sufficient explanation as to why. It was enjoyable but not something I ever need to see again.

In any event, I thought I'd offer a couple impressions based on my read of the above posts, as well as viewing the film from a complete outsider p.o.v.: Linda Carter in a super cheesy '70's television show was literally the entirety of my knowledge of all things Wonder Woman going in. I've not seen any Superman movie since the Christopher Reeve ones, and the last Batman movie I saw was the one with Heath Ledger. I've never read a comic book in my life, and my general attitude on films about comic books and superheroes generally ranges from complete indifference to "why does this genre take up 80% of the bandwidth of talent and resources out of Hollywood when they could be making something else" to even more critical. So I come at this film from a totally different angle than many of the rest of you.

I don't think our perspective differs too much. Your summary in the first paragraph sounds a lot like mine, actually.

- I don't get the complaining about the transparency in some of your minds as to the identity of the real bad guy here. Because of the casting? I know David Thewlis as Maude's bizarro friend in The Big Lebowski, so his presence made no difference to me whatsoever. He's nowhere near "really famous" as JE claims, and 2 of the 3 the kids with whom I was attending had no idea who he was. And I asked the third one about the Harry Potter character Udaman mentions as tipping him off, and turns out it's a good guy. So I don't get that, either. I mean, if the soundtrack was all "Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a mayyyyn...of wealth and taaaaste!" then I would have been pretty disappointed.

- While it was perfectly obvious to me that Leudendorf wasn't actually an ancient Greek god himself, or a current manifestation of such a thing, again, kids didn't pick this up right away. Also, there was always the possibility held out there that "Ares" in the modern world existed only in a metaphorical sense, so the evil General who wanted the war to continue was guided by the spirit of Ares.

Yeah, David Thewlis' fame is debatable. I have to admit, when I saw him on screen, I thought "Oh, VM Varga is in a movie!" i.e., Without watching the current season of Fargo, I'd have had no idea whom this chap was.

- There were two disbelief suspension things that did really bother me. The first was that evidently Steve flying his plane through the protective bubble around the island was the first time any human had penetrated the world of Amazonia or whatever it's called in thousands of years. Yeah, no. I could buy it if it were out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but this is the Aegean Sea, since he was fleeing Turkey and presumably heading for mainland Europe. No way a ship hasn't crossed through there at some point since Hellenic times. That Steve also happened to fly in there while someone was watching was preposterous. The other was that Diana knew modern languages, which she of course could never have learned through reading ancient texts available at the time her island was hidden away.

While those two things would make my master list of unanswered "Why/How" questions that the audience had to endure, they would rank lower on the list. WRT Diana's ability to speak any language, I just treated that as an additional superpower of hers because she did imply that it was an ability bestowed upon all the Amazons by Zeus, so I don't believe she had to read any books to learn them, but the movie could've made that more explicit.

And WRT to the island's protective bubble, I again think it was implied that there is some enchantment or mystical protection that keeps the island from being discovered; however, it was also mentioned that the more Diana trained, the easier it would be for Ares to find her. Therefore, the warring men found and pierced the bubble not long after Diana finally beat her aunt in battle and discovered that slamming her bracelets together would produce a massive pulse of energy. Now, perhaps the movie could've been more explicit or maybe I'm performing a fanwank but I think the pieces were loosely there for explanation.

The big "Why" for me WRT the Amazons would be why would Diana's mother be so protective of her over the years only to allow Diana to leave alone for war instead of following her and allowing the Amazons to provide support? I think character motivation wasn't a strength of this film.

[jimmymax]

How refreshing -- a super-hero / comic-book movie . . . . ahhhhh see ya! Been done with that meme since Christopher Reeve. Special effects won't pry the once Lincoln, now Hamilton out of my wallet.

[Indoor66]

Special effects won't pry the once Lincoln, now Hamilton out of my wallet.

Nor the $0.15, now Hamilton, out of mine. I quit comic books when the price went up to 20 cents from a dime.