Oftentimes here at The Comic Shop Blog I take time before I publish a full-out review of something. Now part of this is laziness, and part of it is a lack of free time; however, the bulk of it (I like to believe) is to take time to consider a film so I can present you my thoughts without them being reactionary. It's been out awhile now so consider spoilers fair game... On to the review of "Wonder Woman"...
Good: Credit belongs to the cast and crew on this film. Director Patty Jenkins got her first big break and absolutely impressed. Her work with screenwriter Allan Heinberg successfully told a compelling origin story and in this day in age that is an astounding feat.
One thing that stood out to me especially was that this was the first major DC film in some time that did not feel like it had to apologize for being a comic book film. The cast & crew here really dug in to the source material, and did their best to understand the unique motives of each character without assigning them a cliched stereotype.
I felt that most of the cast was great. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine really understood their characters and their motivations. I think Gadot's previous military training was likely a great inspiration for her to tap on to bring Diana's quiet strength to life. Chris Pine did what he does and that is provide some much needed comic relief. While some of the humor in these films can be as dated as your uncle telling you the same joke a thousand times the humor in this movie was understated and more conversational in nature.
NO MAN'S LAND... In the history of cinema there are iconic scenes that give you an insight into the character with very little to no spoken dialogue. One need only think of the iconic scene of a fully corrupt Michael Corleone having one of his henchmen close the door in his wife's face ever so slowly, or any number of other accounts of visual storytelling. This scene was one such instance with dialogue only used to set up that the situation was grim & hopeless. With that out of the way it became a character study of Diana of Themysceria. It showed both her naivety & her compassion, and in a grand way explained EXACTLY who this character is and what she stands for. I loved the simplicity of it and how it did so much character work while at the same time using the visual medium to tell a complete story. I could go on and on about it, but then I'd run the risk of repeating myself.
I want to keep this review relatively short, but to add one more good I thought the mix of the Donner style camp with the more modern DC/WB motif was a really great touch. As a kid that grew up on Adam West & Christopher Reeve I appreciate a certain amount of camp to my superhero stories as it's important to me at least to keep things in perspective.
BAD:
To me there was only really one thing I would classify as bad and that was the big CGI battle at the end. I did not feel that it fit the motif of the rest of the movie as it was mostly an understated affair so a giant set piece done in a video game style. I understand why it was there in a big summer blockbuster, but I think the ending would've been a lot more complex with some questions left unanswered and some things left unseen. I think the ghost of "Superman Returns" will keep us from getting an understated & complex film for some time as one of the chief complaints for that film was that it didn't have a big fight.
UGLY:
Not much about this movie would be easy to call ugly; however, the one thing that absolutely floors me is that the NO MAN'S LAND scene I described earlier was one of the things WB wanted left on the cutting room floor. That to me explains pretty succinctly the main issue with the DCEU at this point. WB needs to stay out of the way of the creative team and filmmakers. I give Patty Jenkins full credit for sticking to her guns to keep this pivotal scene in the movie.
So there you have it. Overall I think it was a great flick and probably the second best comic movie of the year so far (to me at least) & the best DC in my mind since The Dark Knight Trilogy. If you haven't seen it at this point I highly recommend you go check it out.
That's all for this week! Happy reading and I will catch you next time at The Comic Shop!
No comments:
Post a Comment