Wonder Woman - Analysis and Review

Wonder Woman is a fantastic addition to the DC Extended Universe. Where Man of Steel succeeded as a science fiction movie, Wonder Woman succeeded as a war story and a fantasy film. Join me as I delve into this story, discussing the themes, praising the balanced tone that maintains the depth of Man of Steel and Batman V Superman while adding character-centric humour, and see how the film connected emotionally with me on a level I was not expecting.

Transcript

Welcome to Nerd Heaven.

I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of the stars

And I am a nerd

 

This is episode 31 of the podcast

This is episode 32 of the podcast

 

Today, we continue our look at the DC Extended Universe with Wonder Woman.

 

The description on IMDB reads

When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, Diana, an Amazonian warrior in training, leaves home to fight a war, discovering her full powers and true destiny.

 

The screenplay was written by Allan Heinberg

From a story written by Zach Snyder, Allan Heinberg and Jason Fuchs

The film was directed by Patty Jenkins

And it first released on the 25th of May 2017

 

So let’s talk about Wonder Woman

 

We are introduced to Wonder Woman in present day Paris. Working at the Louvre.

And we immediately get our first bit of connective tissue with the DC universe as the Wayne Enterprises van pulls up.

That photo that Bruce found and emailed to her in Batman V Superman. He’s found the original. He thought she might like it. Isn’t that sweet.

He still wants to hear the story.

 

And that takes us to Dianna’s childhood.

Thymiscera looks awesome. All those waterfalls and stone buildings. Incredible visuals.

They cast young Dianna quell. Not only is she a coll little actress, but I recently saw a photo of her beside a childhood shot of Gal Gadot. They look very similar.

It’s so cute seeing young Dianna mimicking the actions of the adults as they battle.

You’ll notice that this entire sequence in Thymascyra gives us no sense of time, all the way until Steve arrives. That makes sense. This is a world to itself. Completely cut off and self-sufficient.

To them, the outside world doesn’t exist. 

But I find myself wondering. How old exactly is Dianna when she meets Steve? When are these childhood scenes set? We know Amazons don’t age like humans. We know Dianna was created by Zeus in the times of the ancient greeks. So how long was her childhood? Did she take centuries to grow up? Or did she mature at a normal rate and then simply live as an adult for thousands of years?

Anyway, we get some backstory. The stories of Greek Mythology are already considered ancient at this point, having happened a long time ago. 

So this movie canonises the existence of the Greek gods as real in the DC universe.

The marvel movies present the Norse gods as real, but aliens.

This movie doesn’t make that claim. It leaves it a little uncertain, but the implication seems to be that Zeus and his mates were actual gods.

The implication also is that human beings were created by Zeus. At least, Antiope believes this.

After Ares corrupted the hearts of mankind, Zeus created the Amazons to influence men’s hearts with love.

So, did humans, male and female, not already know love? Or is the suggestion here that the Amazons were the first, females? Perhaps that human females are descended from them? Again, it’s not completely clear.

We know the gods can die, given that Ares killed all but Zeus, so they are in some form mortal beings. 

With his dying breath, Zeus created a weapon that could kill a god, just in case Ares returned.

The movie cleverly doesn’t explain exactly what the weapon is yet.

The look on Antiope’s face when Dianna asks to see the god killer means so much more on repeat viewing.

Note she never actually calls the sword the god killer. Dianna is the one who says it. She assumes, though clearly pushed in that direction.

Hipolita is hesitant to let Dianna train as a warrior, but when she eventually agrees, she insists that she be trained harder than any Amazon before her. But she must never know the truth about herself. This, of course, is our first clue that Dianna herself is the god killer.

But because she’s never been told the truth, when her powers begin to manifest, she has no idea what’s going on.

 

And then we hear the buzz of a propeller plane, as it passes through the forcefield protecting Thymiscira.

Chris Pine was a great pick to play Steve. I was surprised how easily I was able to seperate him from Captain Kirk. Possibly because, to me, Captain Kirk will always be William Shatner.

 

I love the visual contrast we the camera passes through the forcefield. The bright world of Thymiscira gives way to the dark fog surrounding the German ship. Does Thymiscira have the same day/night cycle as the rest of the planet? Because it looks like night time out there. Of course, fog does make everything a lot darker.

And the shot as the German officer puts his head in and out of the forcefield is cool.

 

Dianna’s sense of wonder as she sees a man for the first time is nicely played.

Here’s a question. Why didn’t the Amazon’s continue to advance their weapons technology? We’ll learn later that they are at least somewhat aware of what is going on in the outside world. They know many languages of the outside world, including English.

They’re a race of warriors, so certainly not against fighting.

Don’t get me wrong, they clean the floor with the German soldiers, guns or not, but they pay a hice price in casualties. Do they consider bows and swords more honourable, in some way, than bullets? Because that’s a perspective I don’t quite understand.

Of course, there’s no denying that swords are cool.

And so Antiope dies, sacrificing her life, taking the bullet to save Dianna. As she dies, she knows the time has come. War has consumed the world. Ares has returned.

 

The Amazon who argues against killing Steve on the spot is wise. “If we kill him, we learn nothing of who they are and why they came,” she says.

 

And we’re introduced to the laso of truth. A potentially cheesy addition to the Wonder Woman mythos, and yet this movie makes it work.

The scene as Steve tries desperately to avoid revealing that he’s a spy. He has a duty. He can’t willing reveal classified secrets in war time, but ultimately we has no choice. I like the way it’s portrayed as he endures as much as he can before the truth finally bursts out of his mouth.

Can I say that I love that they set this movie in World War 1. World War 2 has been used so many times, in so many stories, it’s practically a cliche. I mean it was a practical good idea to set this apart from Captain America, which was set in World War 2, but from a creative standpoint, I just enjoyed the earlier setting. I guess since the fairly recent century of the first world war, I’ve been thinking a lot more about it than I used to, when I was younger.

 

Steve is on a very important mission. If he doesn’t get word of Doctor Poison’s plan back to the British, millions will die.

Apparently, the Amazon’s haven’t been playing much attention to the outside world for a while, because they’re not aware of the great war.

And you can understand that from their perspective, hearing of this horrific war, truly a war like none the world had ever seen, it’s obvious that Ares has returned and is messing with humanity.

 

Dianna starts off this story as quite naive. But that doesn’t mean she’s wrong in wanting to go with Steve and help. This is why the Amazon’s were created. This is why Dianna was created. But, like the monks of old, the Amazons have shut themselves off from the world, rather than allow themselves to influence it.

 

This movie doesn’t quite portray Wonder Woman as being able to fly, in the same sense that Superman can fly, but she can certainly jump like no human ever could.

 

So she breaks in, steals the lasso, shield and sword, and armour.

She’s wearing the wonder woman costume from this point on, but it’ll actually be quite a while before we see it.

We see a lot of Dianna’s character when she says “I’m willing to fight for those who cannot.”

In the end, Hipolita knows what Dianna must do, so she lets her go with her blessing.

As a parent, I understand her reluctance. Who wants to willingly let their children go out into the wide world where they might get hurt? I haven’t faced this challenge yet, but for Hippolita, it’s greater, because there is so much danger out there.

 

Steve kinda plays along a bit. He doesn’t believe for a minute that Ares, the greek god of war literally exists, but he’s also seen the power of these people, so he knows there’s something to them.

Again, we see Dianna’s naivete. As soon as Ares is dead, the war will end and men will be good again. I mean, she’s not exactly wrong, but it’s nowhere near as simple as she thinks. She’s going to have to face up to the hard reality that things are more complex than she sees if she’s going to have a hope of fulfilling her destiny.

 

Steve has a bit of a cynical view of marriage. And if you look at the statistics, it’s not hard to understand why. But despite what he says, plenty of married couples still do love each other up until death.I fully intend to do so.

 

So Doctor Poison has developed a serum that gives Ludendorf greater than human strength. Okay. I can suspend disbelief enough for that. But the way his face glows, I dunno. It looks like something supernatural or alien. Not like a chemical concoction that could believably have been developed by a human in the early twentieth century.

 

It makes sense that Steve, though American, is working for British intelligence. The Americans didn’t enter World War 1 until very late in the game. Even now, as it’s nearing its end, they haven’t been involved that long. It’s interesting that not a single frame of this movie takes place in America. I kinda liked that. Not that I have anything against movies taking place in America. A lot of my favourite movies do, but it just made sense for this story that it took place elsewhere in the world, and frankly, there’s a whole planet out here. Not every Superhero story has to take place in America.

Dianna’s arrival in London is truly fantastic. This is an incredible exotic world to her, and she drinks it all up.

I love the idea of Superhero period pieces. I always have. There haven’t been many. I’ve got to admit, this one is my favourite.

 

It’s very sweet when Diana gets excited at the cry of a baby. She’s never seen a baby before. She’s been surrounded by adults all her life. Of course she’d want to see it.

I heard a lot of praise for this movie from female viewers, because it allowed Wonder Woman to be powerful, strong, and a mighty warrior, without being masculine. She was still allowed to be feminine, with all the varied things that means. They really appreciated that. And I think I can understand that.

 

And we’re introduced to Etta.

Etta is totally awesome.

She brings a lot of the humour to this film, but it all flows naturally out of her character. This movie had a lot more humour than Man of Steel or Batman V Superman, but unlike Suicide Squad, the humour was all character-based and natural. Much of it came from Dianna’s being a fish out of water, the rest came from Etta’s great personality.

 

So they make a little joke about slavery. The way Etta describes her job as Steve’s secretary does sound like the definition of slavery to Dianna, but I think she left out some important details.

Now, I’m not going to suggest that the world of 1918 was in any way an equitable society. Far from it.

But there Is a big difference between somebody who voluntarily enters into employment, offering services, for which they are paid money, and a slave. I think to seriously confuse the two runs the danger of understating the evils of true slavery.

But I may be reading too much into this. It’s a joke.

 

It does make sense for Dianna to put on setting-appropriate clothes to help her blend in.

I do love the scene of her walking through the building in her street clothes holding her sword and shield.

 

And the scene in the alley, where they are confronted by the german spies, and Dianna saves Steve, is awesome. It’s very reminiscent of the scene in Superman: The Movie, where Clark and Lois are mugged. The way Dianna catches the bullet. I’m pretty sure that was deliberate. It’s a great scene.

 

Steve realises in that moment just what an asset Dianna is in a fight. He doesn’t need to protect her. She ends up protecting him.

 

Her naivete continues as she asks the german spy where she can find ares. She’s taking everything at face value, assuming people know what she’s talking about.

And now we meet Sir Patrick Morgan. He’s telling everyone they need an armistice. Which is quite ironic if you know who he really is.

He sees Dianna and is taken aback. He says it’s because there is a woman in the room. But it may be that he recognises her.

And it’s Steve who comes up with her secret identity name, Dianna Prince. This is done in a realistic way. She can’t just walk around calling herself Princess of Themyscira.

Due to Dianna’s linguistic expertise, they learn of Doctor Poison’s plan. The creation of a dangerous gas against which masks will be useless.

Morgan continues to argue for the armistice, but by doing so, he prevents Steve’s mission to stop Doctor Poison. Dianna’s passionate argument to the generals is very satisfying.

And yet, after Steve tells Dianna he’s taking her to the front against orders, and recruits some backup, he shows up and helps them.

Given what I know about Morgan, I’m not quite sure why he’s helping Steve and Dianna. But as I watch I’m going to pay close attention and see if I can get my head around it.

Anyway, he gives them money to fund their illegal mission.

I love the moment when Dianna tries ice cream for the first time. Another one of those nice little moments that show her innocence.

I don’t think Steve believes that the greek god of war is behind all of this, not really, but he’s seen enough to know that Dianna and her people are powerful, more so than any normal human. He knows something is going on, and he knows she can help him. So he’s bringing her along, and acting as if what she says is true.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that it had to be world war 1 in this story. This is a war like none the world has ever seen. This is just what it would look like if Ares was trying to destroy the world. That wouldn’t have worked for world war 2. Don’t get me wrong. WW2 was horrific but wasn’t as unprecedented as WW1.

So once they meet chief, a nickname that would probably be considered politically incorrect in today’s world, we’ve assembled the team we first saw in the photo in Batman V Superman.

We see a little glimpse of the reality of war with charlie. He’s clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress.

Dianna has an eye opening experience as they near the front lines and she gets a sense of what war really looks like.

It’s a powerful moment as they walk through the trench.

Dianna learns about the town of Veld. The inhabitants have been enslaved.

Steve is not unsympathetic but helping those people is impossible.

Dianna doesn’t understand.

And yet, she has the power to do what nobody else can.

And so , she takes off her coat and finally, we see her in the wonder woman costume.

Can you believe this is the first time we see Wonder Woman? I didn’t realise until this moment that he hadn’t actually seen it. The character kept us so engaged. 

But it’s a wonderful moment.

So triumphant and heroic. 

And yet there’s not the slightest hint of cheese. It plays wonderfully.

I get a whole lot of goosebumps watching this scene. Words can’t do it justice. I can only say it’s awesome.

And we see her do a few of her super jumps.

So they arrive in Veld. 

This is a fantastic action sequence.

And finally we get a reprise of the amazing wonder woman theme from Batman V Superman. That music was incredible and I’m so glad they brought it back in this movie.

It fits even better here than it did in the previous movie.

Interesting fact, did you know it’s not actually an electric guitar playing those notes, it’s a cello put through the same kind of distortion usually applied to guitars. Very cool.

What a great moment of celebration as Dianna realises she has saved the people of the town. They’re all feeling the elation.

And we see the famous photo being taken. Wonderful.

And we get a nice little reminder that few of these people wanted to be soldiers. They all had different aspirations and dreams.

Morgan is insistent that Steve not go near the meeting to jeopardize the armistice. But if Steve doesn’t, and the poison weapon is deployed, there will be no armistice. Which, of course, is what Morgan wants. He wants to war to continue. So why did he give Steve that money to help him go?

Dianna thinks, quite logically, that Ludinorf is Ares.

So Steve and Dianna finally have a quiet enough moment to really draw close to one another. And they spend the night together.

Love is a tricky thing in a movie. In a TV show, you have time to let people slowly and naturally fall in love over a course of multiple episodes, just like in real life. But a movie has very limited time.

You almost have to make it happen faster than it logically should.

A good movie somehow makes it work despite that. I’m not sure how or why. But for me, in this movie, it works.

You know what I like about their relationship. It’s sweet, it’s genuine, and there’s not a hint of angst.

Dianna wants to storm into the castle, guns blazing, and take out Ludinorf. Steve is wise to advise a more subtle approach.\

Some stories with female heroes, Star Trek Voyager comes to mind, try to make their heroes perfect. They can never be wrong.

Wonder Woman doesn’t take that approach. It allows Dianna to be flawed. To be naive and to make mistakes. By allowing her to be human, in that sense, I think this movie portrays Wonder Woman as a more satisfying female hero. And I think that's what a lot of the female viewers who praised this movie appreciated. Certainly I appreciated that approach to Superman in Man of Steel.

 

So anyway, Dianna finds her own way to sneak into the palace. And to her credit, she is blending in.

Steve’s primary objective is to stop the gas weapon from being used.

Dianna’s primary objective is to kill Ares. Then everything will be good again.

Their objectives are at odds. Steve can’t let her kill Ludinorf until they find the gas.

Maybe Ludinorf is not Ares.

Or maybe Ares doesn’t even exist.

 

And then they test the gas weapon on Veld.

And we have that heart-breaking moment as Dianna goes and sees that all the people of that town, who she had saved, are dead.

It’s a tragic moment.

And Dianna blames Steve, because he stopped her from killing Ares.

In her mind, Steve has been corrupted  as well. Which kind of is some growth for her, because in any war, there aren’t really pure good guys and bad guys.It’s never entirely that simple.

 

This movie had a very successful tone. It had those comedic moments (which actually were funny) to satisfy those who prefer the light-hearted stuff, but it still had a lot of depth, and gritty emotion that I crave in a superhero movie. It was the perfect middle ground that seemed to work for everybody.

 

We have another great action scene as Wonder Woman battles Ludinorf.

So she kills him.

It’s over.

Except …. Nothing happens. No great world-shattering change.

The war is still raging.

And Dianna is forced to come face to face with the truth. She was seeing things in simplistic terms. The truth is a lot more complex than she had been able to see.

It’s a terrible moment of self-doubt for her. 

“Maybe people aren’t always good, Ares or no Ares,” steve ays. “Maybe it’s who they are.”

Dianna can’t accept this. After all she’s seen. People killing people they can’t even see. Civilians. Children.

Humans can’t be that bad on their own. Can they?

Her mother was right. MAnkind doesn’t deserve her.

 

It’s not about deserve. Maybe we don’t. Maybe it’s not about what we deserve. Maybe it’s about what we believe.

Don’t you think I’d like to believe it was all just due to one guy.

This is all wonderful thematic stuff.

 

So while Dianna questions everything she’s ever believed, Steve has to go. Someone still has to stop that gas.

And that’s when Morgan shows up.

And we learn the unexpected truth.

Morgan is Ares.

I thought this was a brilliant move.

 

First of all, I’m glad they didn’t make a German Ares. That’s too easy. Too black and white.

The charming posh old british man. Who would ever have expected him to be Ares?

 

So now we know that Morgan is Ares, we still ask, why did he help Steve come here to stop the gas? He wants the gas weapon to be used. He wants the war to continue.

 

“All I wanted was for the gods to see how evil my father’s creations were.” He says.

“I am not the God of war, I am the God of truth.”

There is so much here that resonates with me spiritually. So much biblical parallel.

 

As the sword burns, Dianna finally learns that it isn’t the god-killer. SHE is the god killer. She is the weapon Zeus left behind to protect the world from Ares.

 

We find that humans never needed Ares to make them fight. War and evil ARE in the hearts of man. It’s our sinful nature. IT always has been.

But he gives a little push here, and little push there. Gives them the weapons and let them use them.

All he did was engineer an armistice he knew they could never keep.

I think, in the end, he recognised Dianna when he first saw her in London. He wanted her to be here, and let her naivete make the war worse, not better.

I think that’s probably why he gave that money to Steve.

 

When Steve sees them fighting in the distance, he believes. Finally he has no doubts. Ares is real, and he’s here.

 

Steve has a plan. A way to get that gas out of here. He’s got to fly the plane out of here.

It’ll likely be a suicide mission, but that’s what soldiers do.

They make the ultimate sacrifice.

 

I like the intercutting between Dianna’s battle with Ares and Steve’s attempt to hijack the plane.

 

It’s a heartbreaking moment as Steve fires the gun that destroys the plane, the poison, and himself.

 

Was that necessary? I dunno, but it at least makes as much sense as Steve Rogers crashing the plane in Captain America. Probably more.

 

Ares’ aim here to to prove to Dianna how pathetic humans are. How evil and undeserving they are of her sympathy.

Doctor Poison ends up being the symbol of mankind.

And he’s right. The humans don’t deserve mercy. They don’t deserve her sympathy.

It was an interesting film-making technique to obscure the sound of Dianna and Steve’s final conversation, only to reveal it now in this moment. But he makes a good point. He can save today, but she can save the world.

 

“They’re everything you say, but so much more,” Dianna says. “It’s not about deserve. It’s about what you believe. And I believe in love.” This all lines up so well with what I believe. We ARE undeserving, but we are the recipients of love.

 

I didn’t expect this movie to be so thematically relevant. I really connected with this.

To use a Christian word, Dianna exercises grace. Undeserved favour.

I don’t mean to constantly bring my personal beliefs into this, but honestly, each of these movies just connect with me so personally in these moments. I can’t not talk about it.

 

Well, Ares is now dead.

And the war is over. Without the devastation of that gas weapon, the armistice has been signed, just as history records.

 

But the death of Ares is no quick and easy fix to the world’s problem. The sin in human hearts is still there. Each person must make their own choice every day. No hero can do this for them.

 

And that brings us back to present day, the framing device.

This is her mission now, to help where she can. And to help people daily make that decision.

 

As she dives into the air and sails over the Paris skyline, she appears to be flying. Properly flying. Not just jumping.

There is a lot of speculation that in the next Wonder Woman movie, which would have been released by now, were it not for COVID 19, she will gain the ability to fly. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s the case. Anyway, that movie will be set before the present day scenes here, so it’s conceivable.

 

This movie doesn’t have an after-credit scene, but there is an epilogue on the Blur-ray, in which Etta sends the team out to recover a cube-shaped artefact found near the western front, which if course, is a set-up for Justice League.

 

I love this movie.

Where Man of Steel triumphed as a science fiction movie, Wonder woman triumphs as a war movie, and a fantasy. It’s a mashup that I really really like.

 

Well, it’s been a wild ride. Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, Wonder Woman, even Suicide Squad. I count them all as great movies.

 

Next up, we’ll take a look at the theatrical version of Justice League. I’ll talk about what works for me, and what doesn’t, and try to settle in my mind exactly what it is that I hope for from the Snyder Cut which we’ll be getting next year.