Geeky Kids Review Wonder Woman

The Otaku Princess and Junior Mad Scientist have now seen Wonder Woman - twice, in fact, and the second time in 3D. They really wanted to do a review on my blog, and I'm glad, as I have not yet had a chance to see it - and may not, with the schedule around here. Special guest appearance by my Mom, since this was written during a family get-together.

SPOILER ALERT - if you haven't seen the movie, save this review for later!

OP: First off, go see it. No matter what, just go see it. You should see it in 3d. It was amazing and gave you a lot more depth. The sparks coming toward you, bullets coming toward you - when she deflects bullets off her gauntlets it was so cool.

Me: So what about the story itself?

OP: it was good. I like WW as a character, I thought she was cool. I have not read many of her stories, so I don't know how accurate the movie is to her stories. It was really cool, they filled a couple of cliches, but they also broke a lot of cliches and mixed up normal movie tropes. On tumblr they were talking about it, a woman who is sexy but naive who needs a big strong man to come defend her... I mean, WW wasn't really feminist. I guess you could see her as feminist, but she was naive at first, but she could take care of herself, she didn't need the man.

Me: So she was naive to start and then you saw she developed a lot of strength?

OP: No, well.. she always wanted to fight, as a girl she learned to fight but they also learned how to be strong people. She was really naive at first, because the other Amazons had seen what men could do. They were created by Zeus to bring peace to the world, and that really just didn't end well. The Amazons were enslaved and had to retreat to the island. She was the ony child on the island and had no clue what the world was like. When she left the island she expected everyone to be like 'women can fight' but it was set in WWI and there were less rights for women and they were held back. She went from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal society. She met a secretary and said 'that's like slavery!"

Me and Mom: But it's not...

OP: No, it was a joke, she just didn't understand how things worked. Like she had never seen a baby and when she saw one she ran up to it and was saying "it's a baby!" all excited. She didn't understand that Ares wasn't at the forefront of the war, and she didn't understand privacy - she was ready to strip down to her armor in the middle of a store. I mean, if you're thrown into a completely different society you're going to be naive too.

Me: I've been hearing that it's the best DC movie in terms of being heroic and... it's not all angsty like Batman.

OP: Batman is meant to be angsty and they are kind of steering him away from that in the comics. (They are marrying him off to Catwoman, did you know? I really hope they don't go with the usual thing like I can't marry you because I have to protect you or you get killed right before the wedding... Me: Or right after)

Me: So back to WW

OP: It's not angsty because that's never been who WW was. She always looks for the best in people, she's trained as a diplomat. She's always been like a peacemaker. I mean there was angst. There definitely was. At the end Steve Trevor dies, who was her love interest in the movie (I can talk about that later with the Romeo and Juliet trope). No good movie doesn't have sadness in it, because life has sadness in it. And Steve Trevor is someone you can relate to. He's trying to be a hero and do the right thing, "My father told me once that if you see something wrong in the world you can either do nothing or something. And I already tried nothing." I mean, that's relatable. It's true. It's not like the other superhero movies DC has been putting out. I do admit, as much as I love DC, live action cinematic has never been their strong suit. Their recent ones have been all dark and gritty, everyone is in pain, and nobody has happiness and what they do have is taken away. It's hard to watch, and it's depressing.

Mom: you want hope at the end.

OP: Yeah! You want to have like at the end of WW and there is flags waving and cheering and she walks up to the memorial of the fallen soldiers and she looks at his photo. She says there is light in the darkness and dark in the light and you know that she hasn't given up on them even though she has seen awful things.

Me: I'd love for you to talk about the Romeo and Juliet trope thing. But you know what, let's make a different post, since there's a lot of backstory...

OP: But I want to talk about in the context of this movie.

:Me: Ok, but we're still doing that post later.

OP: As a simple thing, then. Where two people meet each other, and fall in love very quickly and then one or both of them die and they never really have a relationship. It happened in the movie, basically when Steve Trevor meets Diana, it's literally like 'Wow.' Because she's beautiful and on this whole island of beautiful women. He was the first man she'd ever met. She had books about the pleasures of the flesh, and she knew how traditional reproduction worked, but she was made out of clay. Steve was getting very into her, and her personality. I think he was frustrated because he was used to being able to say 'stay here, I'll keep you safe' and Diana was her own person and used to doing what she wanted to do.

They fell in love really really fast and I think they probably wouldn't have lasted. Their ideals and attitudes were very contrasting and not in a good way. It was sweet in context. Steve seemed lonely to me, I'm guessing his Dad was dead, we didn't see his mom. He was a spy so it wasn't easy to make friends. So I'm guessing that kind of pushed him into the relationship. It would have been hard to make it work. They fought, a lot. Steve thought she was wrong about Ares. After she killed the general, she was confused about why the war wasn't ending, and Steve pointed

Me: I think that if Steve were a spy, it says something that he could trust her so much.

OP: It does say something that he could trust her, and she had the lasso of truth. At one point she is upset that he just lays down and takes order from his superiors, and asks how she can know that he wasn't laying to her and he wraps the lasso around his wrists to prove he isn't. It does say a lot that they trusted each other. And maybe it would have worked. But it was kinda like a bright burning star. it was never going to last long.

Me: And he died so they never really had any bad memories together.

OP: She never really had any fights or bad things to think about him. And that inspired her later because she had his memory. She freaks out when he dies and starts killing all the soldiers, and she is about to throw at a tank at Dr. Poison. But she remembers that Steve told her he'd save today, and she could save the world. It's not about what they deserve, but what they believe. She believed in love, and that as bad as humans were they were also good and deserved her saving them. The love gave her something to fight for.