A Geeky Dad's Movie Guide to Wonder Woman.
Yesterday my wife, 12 year old son, 10 year old daughter, and I went to see the movie Wonder Woman (2D).
After seeing (and hating) Suicide Squad, I swore I would never pay money for another DC universe movie ever again. But it wasn't all The Suicide Squad's fault. The main culprit was its precursor Batman vs Superman:Dawn of Justice. I am convinced that Batman vs Superman vs the audience's intelligence is one of the worst movies I have ever suffered through.
As a result, I had absolutely no interest in seeing Wonder Woman. Even though she was the only watchable part of Dawn of Justice, I simply was not impressed by the commercials. It looked like the film had the same look and feel of the two previous disastrous wastes of my time and money.
Then something unexpected happened. I began to hear through the grapevine that it was actually a pretty good movie. The main point that caught my attention was hearing people say, "It was more like Marvel movies than the previous DC movies."
OK, that sounds intriguing. Maybe DC figured out that comic book movies re supposed to be fun and at least make a little bit of sense. Then I checked Rotten Tomatoes. Wow! It was scoring a very impressive 92.
So I decided to give it another shot. My wife really wanted to see the film. After overhearing my conversations with my wife, even my son Timmy was interested. My daughter MJ really enjoys movies with strong female characters so she was already in.
Great! We could have a nice family outing that we would all enjoy!
There was one problem. Apparently we didn't see the same Wonder Woman movie that the members of the grapevine and the reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes had seen.
The movie was yet again, another utter waste of my time.
The best thing I can say about Wonder Woman is that it was better than Dawn of Justice.
But that is like saying having 1000 paper cuts on your left hand is better than on your right because you write and eat with your right hand (amongst other things). Hurray!!!!! ...but you still have 1000 paper cuts.
My first problem is that I think that as an actress, Gal Gadot is a great model. She is very pretty. I think she was a little too small to pull off a believable Amazon warrior, but that really wouldn't be a big deal... if she could act well. Perhaps some day she will be an outstanding actress... but she isn't there yet.
Because it is real, I wasn't bothered by Gadot's accent. I thought it odd that a Greek Goddess would not have a Greek accent, but it is a comic book. Anything is possible. My real problem was that the other Amazons had to use horrible fake accents in order to match Gadot's real one. The incredibly miscast Robin Wright's accent was probably the worst. She was supposed to be the fiercest of all the Amazon warriors. Yes. Robin Wright was the fiercest Amazon. I am all for suspension of disbelief, but that is Princess Buttercup! She is no action hero. I am not sure if her character, Antiope, was Greek, Middle-Eastern or Transylvanian. Whatever the accent was, it was terrible and distracting.
The first thirty minutes of the movie take place on "Paradise Island". Aside from a narration of an animated book that rewrote Greek mythology, I believe the island sequence was supposed to explain Wonder Woman's origin story...except it really didn't (DC seems to have a problem with that concept: explaining things).
Finally after approximately 30 minutes of nothing happening and very little being explained, there is a brief (but really cool) beach battle scene. The Amazon warriors take on some WWI German soldiers. There are actually some really cool shots of Amazons firing multiple arrows at a time and using expert hand-to-hand combat to defeat armed soldiers. The scene is especially good if you like slow motion shots every 10 seconds (I do not).
Cool. The writers Allan Heinberg and Zack Snyder and director Patty Jenkins had got my blood going. I was excited and ready for more action. That action came 30 excruciating minutes later. Unfortunately, that alley fight lasted approximately 60 seconds. Thirty seconds of which was due to... you guessed it... slow motion!
During the first hour and 10 minutes (I am positive on the exact time because I checked my phone) Wonder Woman spent more time trying on clothes than she did fighting. I am not kidding. After some very awkward and "sexually charged" dialogue between Wonder Woman and American spy Steve Trevor (both on the island and on the boat while leaving the island) the movie devolved into a near ripoff of Pretty Woman or My Fair Lady. I seriously didn't know what I was watching.
After she learns how to dress like a modern woman (I can't believe I had to write that), there are some delightful scene of her being introduced to ice cream, snow and dancing. Please read that line again. Are you ok with a super hero movie using valuable battle time on those types of scenes? I am not. It was laughable... and I did laugh out loud in utter disbelief.
After this, all I wanted to do was get to the epic final battle scene. Actually that is lie. I really just wanted to go home. But my kids were actually semi-entertained so I was just hoping for a few more action scenes.
The director obliged and tossed in a scene of Wonder Woman running across no man's land between two trenches. Miraculously, the German machine guns were unable to fire at Wonder Woman's legs and she was able to deflect every machine gun bullet first with her bracelets, then with a shield that was less than three feet in diameter and only covered her from the waste up. I have to hand it to the Germans. They were perfect shots. They were clearly aiming for the middle of her shield and they hit it every time!
There is another scene of her and her rag tag band of male side kicks fighting in a village and then finally the epic final battle occurs.
The final battle is actually very cool. I honestly can't criticize it very much aside from how much the word "love" was used during this intense battle (but at least no one screamed "Martha" repeatedly). I would have preferred they simply end the dialogue and let the explosions (of which there are many) do the talking.
Although the final battle was exciting and the special effects and sound were impressive, I was so bored by the time that final battle rolled around that I couldn't fully enjoy it.
In case you can't tell, I despised this movie. My wife was entertained but was also bothered by the snow and dancing scene (she was fine with the ice cream one however... odd). She did not think it was a waste of her time. My son was very bored. He almost never talks during a movie but in addition to talking to me, he was actually singing during a couple of points. He claims he liked it... but he was freaking singing and shifting in his seat nearly the entire final 90 minutes (which seemed like a month to me). I actually had to tell him to stop. He did. Surprisingly, my daughter liked it the most of all of us. However, at one point, she did announce that it felt like it was a good time to "take a nap" during one of the many slow parts.
If I had to do over again, I would not have even brought MJ to see this movie. It was too violent for a 10 year old. There is no blood... but that doesn't make it ok. Many people are killed with swords, arrows, guns and poison gas. I honestly feel like I dropped the ball on this one.
We did some research and had decided not to take her. Then we heard from word of mouth that it was fine and the ratings we had looked at were over exaggerating things. I honestly wish we had followed our gut and not taken her. In addition to the violence, there was some talk about sex that made me uncomfortable. If my 10 year old were not there, I would not have thought twice (except it was bad dialogue) but she was there... and it was completely unnecessary for the "story".
Unless you were a big fan of the two previous DC movies or are simply a huge Wonder Woman fanatic, I would not waste my time on this movie.
Geeky Dad's Movie Guide
Number of times I fell asleep: 0 (I needed to stay awake so I could tell my bored son to be quiet.)
Number of eye rolls: 5
Number of face palms: 1 (Shoot her in the legs!!!!)
Number of times my kids asked to go to the bathroom or get food out of sheer boredom: 0 (They just fidgeted in their seats and talked way too much.)
Number of times I checked steemit: 0 (There were people around me. I did not want to distract them. I did check the time three times.)
Number of times I said "That's ridiculous": 2
Did my kids like it: 12 year old son: He gave it an unenthusiastic "thumbs up" but his behavior during the movie told a different story. My 10 year old daughter said she wants to buy the movie and watch it a few more times.
Would I see it without my kids: No chance. They didn't even enjoy it enough to make the experience better.
Full price/Matinee/Rental/Free/Not worth the time: Not worth my time. If my daughter were older, we could have rented it for her.
DC and MARVEL are going to fuck up the minds of a whole generation. Can't stand any of that fantasy bullshit. (didn't read)
Is this posted anywhere else than Steemit ? 175 views, pretty lame.
Got to love "slo-mo"?!?!
Agreed. Dc and Marvel lost their way a long time ago .
Haha, you do have a way with words!
You do realize that you just spoiled a lot of people's plans for this weekend. Now what are they going to do? Indulge in paper cuts?
Thanks for another great review. We've shared it on our social channels and resteemed here to make sure the warning spreads far and wide!
Lol. As far as ruining anyone's weekend... I think the writers did that! Lol.
Thanks for the kind words and for sharing this. I am curious to hear what others think. I could just be too biased.
This actually saved me time. Must watch... Not.
I went to watch this too. Agree better than Dawn of Justice.
Not as good as I thought but this one is for to bring the lady.
Requires less of understanding of the complication compared to other plots.
Hope I'm not offending anyone mentioning that though I know there are enough of ladies who enjoy and understand all these comic plot things.
This is the best response! You solved the mystery for me. I actually understand the huge gap between my perception and others. I am a total geek. I know the story of Wonder Woman very well. So the entire beginning was very boring for me. That set the tone for the rest of the movie. However, if you didn't know the story very well, the beginning was interesting. So if you were interested in the first 30 minutes, you were in a much better mood than I was for the rest of the movie.
I now see why there are so many positive reviews. For many people, this was all very new and exciting. For me, it was the 100th time I was seeing/reading it.
I still did not like it... but the movie wasn't aimed at me. That explains why my wife enjoyed it more than I did. She likes Wonder Woman but didn't know a great deal about her.
Thank you for this comment!
I don't think you were being offensive at all. In your case it was your significant other who did not know very much about the back story. I am sure there are many men as well who did not know it. I don't think it is a difference based on gender, I think it may be based on previous experience with the character.
There is always a problem comparing the movie against the source of the book or comic in this
The fans always love the original better. :-)
For sure!
Thanks for sharing this review, it's more interesting than the movie going by what you say. Have been a Marvel fan like forever and haven't watched most of the recent DC movies.
You haven't missed much with skipping the last 3 D.C. Movies.
Did you see Logan. It's dark but very good if you like wolverine.
Honestly i say @hanshotfirst, im not really like the boldwonder woman before, but when i read in some articles about DC, its amazed and shocked me. Yeah, Gal gadot will starring in this movie and she is the wonder woman 😍😍
Im agree with you about DC, yes they've got some terrible to explain the original story.
This great, brother. U analyzed this movie so detail. Im waiting for another movie analyzing from you ^^
Thank you for the kind words. I may just be biased against DC after the last two movies. I'm curious to see what others have to say.
My family really enjoys going to the movies. I'm sure you will see some more of these this summer.
Yeah brother, like i'm curious to see Gal gadot in wonder woman 😁
Yap, i'll be waiting for your next post.
I'll see the movie later.
It wasn't for me... but there are a lot of people who liked it. I hope you do.
From the start I was too skeptical about this movie, we have the same gut, maybe I'll just watch it with no expectations at all. Great review! Two thumbs up!! 👍👍😊
I think that is the best strategy. If you have very low expectations, you might be pleasantly surprised. Mine were too high going in. That was a mistake.
Can't blame comic book and Wonder Woman fans not to expect though, we haven't seen her solo onscreen in ages. I'll consider watching it as a chick flick, or a genre or category of its own. Looking forward to more reviews!
Haven't seen this film but it's being advertised everywhere I go. Will give it a shot once I get a chance. DC is producing on a massive scale these days. Every other movie in our cinemas is DC and Marvel.
It seems like at least 25% of the movies I see are connected to DC or Marvel in some way. I hope DC improves.
Hey @hanshotfirst thanks for your thoughts I have been wondering about this movie, I never really been a big wonder woman fan but maybe like yourself heard good things about it, plus I would of thought it would be a hit with the female audience.
It might be a good date movie if your significant other is into super heroes at all. I'd like to read a review on here from the female point of view.
First bad review I've seen. Everyone I know keeps raving about it. I'll see it anyway simply because it's Wonder Woman. Btw, you might want to add spoiler alert to your title.
I think I may be in the minority on this one but when I sit down to write these I think, "What would I tell a friend who was thinking of going". At the worst, I hope I help set the expectations a little lower than mine were. Then hopefully my friends will walk out saying, "It wasn't that bad. I kind of liked it." I think a big problem for me was that I got my hopes up that it would be awesome... so even if it was "OK" I was still incredibly disappointed. Even with this bias, I don't think I would have ever said it was "OK". I was simply too bored most of the time.
But I really do hope you see it and enjoy your experience. Movies are a matter of taste. I always wish for people to have a great time doing whatever they choose for their leisure activities... even if they aren't my cup of tea.
If you do see it, please report back. I would love to hear some other opinions.
Good. I appreciate it. I have to wait until all the hype dies down. Thank you.