Given that it seems to me that no critics have much liked most DC comic hero movies for many years, and I have trouble taking Batman in any incarnation seriously, I had little interest in seeing Wonder Woman at the cinema, despite the good reviews. But I caught it on Netflix last night.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it.
First, I wasn't really expecting it to look so good. Sure, the island of whatever that the Amazons lived on was your typical CGI conglomerate of waterfalls and mountains (still looking more realistic than Lord of the Rings, to my eye), but I was more impressed with the recreations of World War I London and Europe. It looked like a lot of money had been spent on it, with lots of extras who I don't think were CGI.
Second, I didn't know there would be quite as much "fish out of water" humour of the titular heroine trying to make sense of the human world. Remember, I do demand a fair amount of humour in my superhero movies, and this one had just enough.
Third, the actors were pretty good. Gadot is a beauty, and while Pine is an actor who never appears in much that impresses me, he was suitably charming in this role. I felt a bit sorry for whoever it was who played the mad Scotsman. Horrendous haircut and a role that only called for him to look daft and crazy eyed in every scene. Oh well, it's a living I guess.
Anyway, maybe it was also the novelty of a superhero movie set in an era where they normally do not appear, but I thought it was pretty good.
how on earth do you have trouble taking Batman seriously but not an Amazon goddess??
ReplyDeleteBatman is one of the realistic super hero figures which is why he along with Punisher and Daredevil are my favourites. he's basically Punisher with a mask and more money and doesn't kill.
Well, for one thing, if a superhero has a supernatural origin, that can make the silly superhero physics a little more acceptable. She still looked a bit silly throwing a tank, and she seems to not need an invisible plane given how far she can leap, but this is all in the context of her origin being from clay that was brought to life, so what the hey, everything's up for grabs.
ReplyDeleteAs for Batman: maybe it's the OTT villains that bother me more than Bruce himself. Or maybe it's because an angsty crime fighting adult orphan being dressed as a bat is not something that I can take seriously despite the efforts of certain directors?
As for my general rule that I only like superhero movies if they are funny: Batman even fails on that count, since I didn't even like the satire of the Lego Batman movie, and I was pretty cool on the Batman TV show as a kid (and adult).
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