by Nathaniel R
I've spent a bit of time this summer reconnecting with friends, many of whom are only casual moviegoers rather than cinephiles. Everyone has wanted to see or been talking about Wonder Woman. I think it's fair to say, after a second viewing and hearing similar enthusiasms repeated again and again, that it's a better cultural object than a movie. It's shocking to realize that there just aren't any movies like it even though it's not very original. That's proof that a little (big) thing like a female lead and a female director can make an enormous difference. While the cinema has given us many strong female icons (to pretend otherwise, as some voices seem to be doing, is to be supremely ungenerous to the artform and/or to reveal either one's extreme ignorance of movies made prior to, say, 2004 or a very limited taste in film genres).
But, yes, the superhero genre has been shockingly non-representative of the real world where women make up half of all humanity. Nevertheless you can't be a great cultural object as a movie without having some true pizazz as a film so let's give Wonder Woman its due after the jump...
TEN BEST MOMENTS IN WONDER WOMAN
10 Diana's "Disguise"
Yes, that brief homage to Lynda Carter's 70s Wonder Woman with the specs, as if they'll hide her inarguably exquisite beauty, is good fun. But the entire dressing sequence is more complex than that. It lets Oscar winning costume designer Lindy Hemming show off a bit (she does fine work throughout the picture), it functions as fish-out-of-water comedy, serves as an introduction to Steve's secretary Etta Candy (Lucy Davis having great fun on the sidelines), and reinforces Diana's own comfort with her sexuality (as when she attempts to undress right there on the showfloor to try on the clothes). Thanks to Gadot's performance and Jenkins direction this never plays as exploitative but as an empowering character trait (as with her later "sex scene" of sorts with Steve Trevor which might have played much differently without these early comic conversations about bodies and sexual pleasure.)
09 Dr Poison's Experiments
Wasn't it a kick to see Elena Anaya in this role as a mad scientist instead of the victim of one as in The Skin I Live In? She's deliciously unnerving in every scene where she watches her cruel experiments play out, particularly when she cackles at the deaths of the German officials whom she's watching lunging for gas masks. Anaya also serves just the right tricky balance of enigma, backstory pathos, and suspicion when face to face with both Steve (at the gala) or Wonder Woman herself (in the final battle). The presence of a woman on the villainous side prevents the movie from devolving into weird binaries of evil men vs good women, too.
08 Amazons vs The Germans
Though the action scenes are Wonder Woman's weakest element, all filmed in Zach Snyder's style (surely not by accident) that's verging on self-parodic now given the constant stop and start frame speed adjustments, excessive CGI, and confusing "what just happened?" nonsense (the final battle with Aries is an utter mess as action cinema goes, however invested we are in Diana's triumph and power). Still, the first big action sequence as German soldiers chasing Steve Rogers (who has absconded with Dr Poison's formula) storm Paradise Island and those powerful sisters leap, swing, kick, shoot, throw, and conquer is thrilling. Patty Jenkins understands and harnesses the novelty and thrill of watching an all female army at work. She amps up the pleasure at watching The Princess Bride herself (Robin Wright) become the fierce General Antiope. And, finally, she doesn't let Steve or even Diana's mini-heroics become the focus of the battle (as a dumber film surely would).
07 Linguistics Battle
Saîd Taghmaoui is one of my personal favorites (having loved him emphatically if not frequently given his filmography since La Haine in 1995) so it was a weird kind of thrill to see this dependable and ridiculously underused actor square off with new star Gal Gadot in multiple languages and prove the MVP of the supporting cast outside Paradise Island. Patty Jenkins has spoken at length about the glory of Gal Gadot's casting and admitted that she herself wouldn't have thought to look outside of America. Gadot's international fluidity and Israeli accent gives Diana just the right spark of otherness within the context of a Hollywood superhero picture. Bonus points for Taghmaoui's "clever girl" in Chinese.
06 Steve's Ultimate Sacrifice
Chris Pine is having a good year. What a way to follow up his best performance yet in Hell or High Water, huh? In short: He's above average.
Anyway, that final scene of his is moving. That terrified sense of purpose and panicked but peaceful smile is just right.
05 Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. (Reversed)
Steve: Welcome to London.
Diana: It's hideous.
Steve: It's not for everyone.
This exchange as they entered a grimy polluted black and white city in such stark contrast to the saturated color of Paradise Island (like Dorothy's journey in reverse) was hilarious. So curious as to the reaction this received in London cinemas. Do tell, UK readers! Can we assume it was big peals of self-deprecating laughter?
04 The similarities to Captain America
Cheating a bit as this is less a moment than a collection of them exuding a particular feeling. The films Wonder Woman borrows most from, are, I think, the first two Captain America pictures. This is not only because the movie doubles as both a superhero origin picture and a period war film, but due to the innate goodness of the hero (Diana Prince and Steve Rogers are a far cry from the more typical snark or broodiness of their spandex peers) and their fish out of water innocence as characters born in different eras or lands than the ones that they find themselves living in. They react to the world around them with similar moving humanity; they're all at once saddened by, delighted with, and devoted to defending this world they don't quite understand. Neither of them were my favorite characters from my youth reading comic books. Yet both of them, largely I think due to this innocence and earnest heroism (which could have so easily been lost in the transition to contemporary cinema), have made smashingly good movie characters.
03 That oft-referenced 'sculpted in clay' origin story
"Well, that's neat." Superheroes often have ridiculous origin stories so Steve Trevor's bewildered reaction is aces. Still women ought to be allowed to be just as ridiculous and Wonder Woman's origin is a doozy, however it's been told (and, as with all superheroes, the exact origin keeps shifting).
You can count the American superhero pictures with solo female leads on just one hand: Supergirl, Elektra, Catwoman, and Wonder Woman. While there have been other comic book derived female pictures (Tank Girl, Ghost World) the others haven't really been superhero films. The first three were largely regarded as terrible movies and also obviously male in their point of view. Given that backdrop, Wonder Woman appears to our cinematic landscape as if she's bursting full grown from the head of Zeus (rather than being molded from clay as her mother suggests). It's a sly and inspired screenplay move that the origin story Wonder Woman believes in about herself is viewed with something like mockable amusement and yet the "real" origin story is just as silly but delivered earnestly.
02 "What I do is not up to you"
A hugely satisfying quotable. Gal Gadot delivers this (and other similar lines) with just the right purpose and inflection. Her Wonder Woman is not so much angry at the world's sexism, or victimized by it, but head held high above it and able to see it for what it is. With supreme confidence she's thus able to ignore it and help others course-correct.
01 "No Man's Land"
The film's single greatest sequence by a huge margin was, if you believe the reports, nearly cut from the picture. It would be extra to compare this structural fragility 'what if' to the stories about "Over the Rainbow" nearly being cut from The Wizard of Oz but it's alarming and worrisome in the same way. It reminds us to be grateful for every great movie (in Oz's case) or zeitgeist gift (in the case of WW) because corporations are often ill-suited to making artistic decisions and its a miracle when movies work sensationally well. It's almost as if no one in an executive suit has ever known where the soul of a movie is located... or even what a soul is! This one sequence does so much of the heavy lifting for the rest of the movie, making the Amazon princess both an iconic cinematic figure, an sturdy pop culture sensation, and a heroic role model all in one sober march/run, especially when she leans hard into that shield taking all the fire for the soldiers.
The "SHIELD!"/sniper coda to this war scene is just as strong, in a way serving as its own course correction to decades of the superhero genre's sexism. The final explosive beat turns a team of men into the cheerleading section / staff support for one supremely powerful woman. In a wonderful narrative chemical reaction, their collective lack of ego makes the men in the scene look yet more heroic.
In short: Everyone wins... especially the audience.