Wonder Woman is the Super-Heroine Movie Marvel Should Have Made Years Ago

When the best thing about Batman v Superman was a powerful woman who comes two hours into the movie and puzzles the two main heroes, it's a sign that finally a good movie about Wonder Woman can be made.

The only question is...can it? Is Gal Gadot, former Miss Israel who appeared in a few Fast and Furious movies, the heir apparent to Lynda Carter? Can a woman direct this project, even if she directed Charlize Theron to an Oscar? Can Chris Pine be a less cheesy Steve Trevor? Most importantly, can it be a good DC movie after the scars left from Suicide Squad?

By Hera, they did.

The best idea was to make a solid origin story, framed by a picture that was part of BvS. It has Diana Prince (of Themyscira), Steve, and two other people somewhere in the First World War in the fall of 1918. Bruce Wayne discovered it, and wondered how Diana could be there. He finds the original glass negative and sends it to her in Paris. He includes a note hoping she'd tell him someday.

Well, he could see this movie and find out. It tells about her early days, her training, her first meeting with Steve when he crashes off the island in a plane followed by a bunch of surprised Germans, and her decision to find Ares  in order to end the war.
It's more than just an origin story. It's how a "sheltered" princess grows up when she learns the world is much bigger than her home, and what she knows may not be the whole truth.
Oh, and she's a brilliant fighter who can face down a German battalion, toss a tank (!), and use a rope as a very deadly weapon.

The toughest part is how to bring Wonder Woman to life. Gadot portrays Diana as someone who may be on Earth but is certainly from another world. She believes in strength and power, being a warrior who can fight when she must. When she leaves her home, she is puzzled by clothes that are too tight to let her fight. She's also horrified by the sights of war and how they affect people. She thinks it's the work of Ares, the God of War, corrupting the Germans who want an eternal war. She'll learn, though, that's it's a bit more complex than that.
She is still someone who has a mission and will see it through. When she and Steve are surrounded by German spies, she stops a bullet aimed at him. He's stunned but he'll go with it. He already knows how good she is as a fighter.  It also means her disguise with glasses is blown, but it doesn't work with her anyway.
The best part is when she crosses No Man's Land, and plows through the Germans with some help from Steve. She also makes quick work of other soldiers at a small town. That section has inspired a lot of fans, and may be a turning point in the DC Verse. We'll know for sure in five months.
Then there's the look on her face when the town she saved gets gassed, and that Steve doesn't believe in Ares. She wonders if anyone is aware what's happening, but she can get confused, too. Gadot is flat out the best super-hero debut since Chris Evans as Captain America and (yes) Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool.

Chris Pine also does a great job playing Steve Trevor as a spy with scruples. He's wise not to take advantage of Diana, but he's also helping in guiding her through an alien world that's basically our world. They also have great chemistry together, even talking about things like how Diana was born without a father (even though she knows how it's usually done), why people need watches, and whether Ares is real, He's also pretty good at espionage, especially when he does some small talk with Dr. Maru (Elena Anaya), who's come up with the most poisonous gas ever. She's as deadly as she looks, with a face mask that hides the sacrifices she made for bio-warfare.

The big bad seems to be a German general called Ludendorff (Danny Huston), who wants Maru (aka Dr. Poison) to come up with a weapon that will turn the tide for his country. She's already come up with something he sniffs that's more powerful than a warehouse of  Red Bull.

In the end, Diana is right. Ares is to blame...but whose face the god uses actually makes a lot of sense. It leads to an intense battle that's also typical in these movies, While Ares says mankind isn't worth protecting, someone's sacrifice convinces Diana that it is.
While the Ares reveal is a bit surprising, it would have been better if the real face of Ares was different than the one he used.

Another good thing about this movie is that it can stand on its own. It's not the "first chapter of Justice League" that BvS was, or a jumbled mess with the wrong big bad that Suicide Squad was. This was one hero's story all by itself. Maybe that's why Warner Brothers decided not to add a post-credit scene to tease people about Justice League in the fall.  It would have taken a bit away from her.

Oh, and let's talk about Lucy Davis as Etta Candy, who is Steve's secretary. She's clearly the typical post-Victorian woman but really likes Diana and how she carries herself. Let's hope Etta had great-grandkids, and one of them meets Diana in Justice League or Wonder Woman 2.

The latest word is that Wonder Woman could hit 100 million bucks in its first weekend, despite possible competition from another super-hero, Captain Underpants. It'll get more stiff when The Mummy (who is a woman and even scarier this time around) opens on Friday, followed by Cars 3 on the 16th.
If Wonder Woman can hold her own this month, she can make history. Marvel may have to decide how to match this quick instead of waiting for Captain Marvel in 2019. Maybe season three of Agent Carter at least, along with lots more Jessica Jones after Defenders?
UPDATE:  For obvious reasons, Wonder Woman 2 will happn, according to Comic Book Resources. Gadot and director Patty Jenkins will be back, just as soon as WB gives permission (before or after a massive march of Dianas?). Still want to see Etta's descendant in a cool job.

P.S. Some fans are surprised Diana was brought to life by Zeus, which was done as part of "the New 52", than the original version. Wanna bet if Diana was born thanks to two goddesses a certain news network will be upset, along with the fact she's not American enough?

Review of Suicide Squad or How To (Almost) Get Away With Bad Filmmaking

When DC comic book fans were disappointed by Batman v. Superman:  Dawn of Justice, they were hoping the next movie, Suicide Squad, would be the one to get the DC-verse back on track and maybe make the MCU look over its shoulder.

That hope continued through Comic-Con and all the promos. If it's gotten to the point that super heroes are battling each other, maybe some villains can be cajoled into helping their fellow man. After all, they can rub it into the faces of the hero that's always bugging them.

Well, it worked as well as B v. S, sadly. Despite really good performances by Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Suicide Squad fell flat because, like B v. S, it was another prologue to the Justice League movie that's really the beginning of the DC-verse. For one thing, the crew faces a villain worse than Zod and Lex Luthor Being the Riddler, and it was sort of the fault of the person who organized the squad. It also inserts two heroes that are featured in the Justice League trailer.

Anyway, the squad is organized by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), who thinks that the best way to deal with an evil Superman is recruit the worst villains to fight against this threat. Along with Deadshot and Quinn (who still misses her Mr. J, played by Jared Leto) the crew includes Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Slipknot (Adam Beach), Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje),   Katana (Karen Fukuhara) and anthropologist Dr. June Moone, or rather the monster that possesses her, Enchantress (Cara Delevigne). The guy directing them on the ground is Rick Flagg, played by Joel Kinneman. He only thinks he's in charge.

Here's where Suicide Squad makes its big mistake.  Waller thinks she can control Enchantress by taking its heart, while Rick thinks he can do the same by loving the human side of her. That's how Waller can get Enchantress to take some key intel from Iran faster than Dr, Strange can travel through portals in his movie trailer. However, she double-crosses them both and revives her "brother." They plan to build a machine that would destroy mankind.
Sound familiar? It's the same Big Bad plan that Batman v. Superman had. It's less complex than Lex Luthor combining his DNA with the body of General Zod to create Apocalypse, but it shows a lack of imagination. Besides, her plan is mostly making soldiers easily broken by Harley's sweet swings with her bat, while dancing in one spot to make her machine like a showgirl. This movie didn't need her, or the romantic angle Waller sort of encouraged.

Waller should have been the Big Bad. It was her idea to create the squad, so have her create a problem to justify her idea and make sure no one knows. Then have the Joker make things more complicated by trying to take over the situation. This would have forced Harley to decide whether to stick with the squad, or go over to Joker...or maybe get him to help when things go really wrong. That would have made things better, just enough to give DC fans hope as we wait for Wonder Woman's movie to be shown.
And why shouldn't Waller be the Big Bad? Viola Davis shows she's about as ruthless as anyone, trying to make her own Injustice League. Still, you have to wonder if Annalise Keating could have done better.

Instead, we have the squad squabbling with each other as they get through the disaster Enchantress has started. In fact, we only get to see her destruction sparingly until the final act. There are pretty good moments, like Diablo explaining how his power has cost him too much, and Harley recalling how she jumped into a boiling vat to show her devotion to the Joker. That was a nice callback to the 1989  Batman movie.

The biggest crime is that the Joker doesn't play a major role. We see him be evil and nuts. Leto's performance takes a bit from Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger's interpretations, but it's basically him being creepy. At least with Ledger, he went the extra mile because of the story. You think Leto will really make things interesting once he comes for Harley, but the story has other ideas. It may give Robbie a great opportunity to make Harley special by herself, but it ruined Leto's chance to show how special his Joker can be,

There are good parts in the movie, especially how the squad members are introduced. They also do a lot to show how Deadshot may be a very bad man, but he's also a loving father. It's because Will Smith plays him, and winds up being the most heroic of the bad guys. Maybe the Justice League will give him a call. You have to wonder if Deadshot would be darker if someone else played him.

Overall, DC fumbled again because Suicide Squad tried to be just like BvS only with bad guys and a Big Bad who was just like Apocalypse. Besides, couldn't Enchantress go all over the city to pick up parts for her Darkness Machine instead of having her "brother" do all the heavy lifting? If they took another route, like Waller causing the catastophe to justify the need for a Suicide Squad, it would have been better.

There is a post-credit scene that shows what the movie really is:  another prologue for the real start of the 'verse, the Justice League movie. At least all Marvel movies may be connected, but they are also their own stories. Warner Brothers and DC better figure that out fast, or the Guardians of the Galaxy will lap them twice.

Man of Steel Not Quite Shiny

The new version of Superman will fulfill his true destiny: create a Justice League franchise that will put those smug Avengers in their place.

Whether he really does this in Man of Steel.....not quite, but it's trying to be different than Marvel, and maybe riskier, too. That explains how the movie ended. Whether that will work out in the long run remains to be seen.

Man of Steel is much better than Superman Returns because it wants to recreate one of America's greatest icons by using familiar details and mixing new ones to fit current times. That was a better approach that making Superman Returns the semi-sequel to Superman II, complete with Lois having a child that is MUCH more than he looks. I'm guessing the writers of that movie were expecting a sequel to tie up loose ends. That was one of many mistakes.

In the 2013 version of Superman, we get the usual origin story, but with a bit more meat. I kind of wish there was a prequel with Kal-El vs. Zod over the fate of Krypton, plus what the planet was doing before its final destruction. Then you have Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Kal-El, coming to terms with his powers as a child and an adult. It seemed to be confusing, though. It should have been more chronological, especially with one friend who seems to be connected with Clark no matter what. I still thought Cavill played Superman as a hero-in-training, trying to figure out how Earth would accept or fear him, and how he should use his powers to benefit mankind.

I will say Russell Crowe's diving skills were better than in Les Miserables. It made sense for his hologram to tell Clark who he really was, and fill him in on Krypton and Zod. Afterwards, it was overkill, and too much of a plot convenience.

What would be considered unthinkable...allowing Lois Lane to be more familiar with Superman's true identity than ever before...actually works here. She's supposed to be this brilliant reporter, and expecting her not to catch on by connecting the dots is now hard to believe. Remember, in the original cut of Superman II, Lois does figure it out twice. You can't keep her ignorant just because she's a girl.
That being said, Amy Adams is very good as the resilient Lois Lane, much better than Kate Bosworth. It was still odd seeing Lois so deep in the battle between Superman and Zod. Seeing so many differences in the usual Superman myth may be the reason why critics aren't happy with this movie, but customers have been so far.

When Michael Shannon appears as Zod, he was chewing the scenery as much as Sting was in Dune, especially with that "I will find him" remark. He settled down after a while, but he was still a bit too hammy. His explanation of how he got out of the, er, strange-looking cocoons in the Phantom Zone made a lot of sense.

What really drags down Man of Steel is Zach Snyder's apparent need to create more collateral damage than The Avengers. Sure, in that movie stuff got wrecked, but the dialogue kept things interesting.
OK, so what about how it ended?
Some people may say the ending goes against everything the Man of Steel believes in, from his creation in 1938 to now. Snyder made the call, I think, because in this movie, Superman is learning what a superhero is, and what he thinks is right or wrong. A lot of people may disagree with his final decision, but at the spirit of the moment, it made sense.
Also, I think DC wants a movie philosophy where the heroes will make decisions that may not be popular with everyone, but you know why they made them. The template is the Christopher Nolan version of Batman, and it would be applied here because Nolan co-wrote this movie.

So, I'd give Man of Steel two and a half capes out of four. It took some risks to create a new Superman 'verse, but way too much collateral damage towards the end.