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Wonder Woman

08 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by Ben Whittaker in Movie Reviews

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Aquaman, Ares, Batman, Batman v Superman, Captain America, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Cybord, DC, DCEU, Diana Prince, Film, Film Review, Gal Gadot, Man Of Steel, Marvel, Movie, Movie Review, Patty Jenkins, Steve Trevor, Superhero, Superhero Movie, Superheroes, Superman, The Dark Knight, The First Avenger, The Flash, The Justice League, Wonder Woman, Zack Snyder

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via comingsoon.net

“Wonder Woman” is the best DCEU movie so far and in my view one of the best superhero movies since “The Dark Knight”. It’s a joyful, funny, and intelligent film about the fact that humanity is worth fighting for despite its flaws.

“Wonder Woman” tells an origin story about its titular character, giving us a glimpse of her childhood and explaining how she became the hero that we saw in “Batman v Superman”. It’s a story which opens with Diana/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) growing up on the island of Themyscira, which is home to the Amazons. The Amazons are a race of women created by Zeus to protect humanity against Ares (the god of war), and it’s clear from the moment that this backstory is revealed that Ares is going to be the film’s main villain.

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via dccomics.com

From here the film shows Diana’s grown both physically and emotionally over time, initially on the island as she learns how to use her strength to become a powerful warrior and then in our world during World War One. Having this movie set during that time period is very beneficial to the character of Wonder Woman, as it allows Patty Jenkins to concentrate on developing the character’s personality rather than wasting time with nods to other DCEU franchises.

As a character Diana is extremely well-developed by the end of this movie; we understand her background, her personality, and most importantly her motivations. She’s a character who at her very core wants to fight for justice and she believes that people are inherently good despite the fact that they do bad things. Her faith is tested throughout the movie, (particularly in the final act), and by the time the credits roll she has a much more realistic opinion of humanity, but the relationships that she builds prior to the movie’s close are strong enough to make her believe that despite people’s flaws they are worth saving.

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via semprefamilia.com.br

In a worse film the character that I’ve just described would come across as condescending or too good to be true, (this is the way that I feel about Captain America as depicted by Marvel ever since “The First Avenger”), but Patty Jenkins does a great job of making Diana Prince relatable in spite of her perfection, thus making Wonder Woman feel like a superhero rather than a Mary Sue. By taking the character out of her comfort zone and throwing her into an alien environment Jenkins is able to portray flaws in Diana’s character which come across as sweet and well-intentioned, bringing a naivety to her which is completely understandable and also humanising.

“Wonder Woman” isn’t a film which thinks that its audience is going to buy into the main character in virtue of the fact that she can do amazing things in a fight, instead it takes its time to make the character likeable prior to throwing her into the action, something which movies like “Man of Steel” simply didn’t do.

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via celebmafia.com

Towards the start of the film Diana sees a plane crash into the water surrounding Themyscira and without a second thought she dives in to save the pilot. This pilot, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), just so happens to be the first man that Diana has ever seen and she immediately appears to have a fondness for him. From that point onwards Diana and Steve build a relationship with one another, trading jokes and generally being affectionate in small but noticeable ways. When the pair set sail for London at the end of the first act they don’t squabble or act suspicious of one another, they co-exist, have banter, and Diana even goes so far as to insist that Steve sleep next to her despite the fact that she’s only just met him.

There’s an innocence to her character, an earnest lack of cynicism, and it meshes seamlessly with Steve’s idealistic but grounded perspective on the fractured world that’s waiting for them back home. Chris Pine’s performance makes it clear that Steve is tired of fighting and is hurt by the state of the world that he lives in, so there’s something incredibly heart-warming about seeing him build a relationship with someone who in virtue of her existence makes the world seem like a better place. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are exceptional in this movie, not just because they have great comedic timing or because they have a presence on screen, but because they have strong chemistry and together they are immensely likeable. They make you smile every time that they smile, and as an audience member you can genuinely route for them from start to finish which is so incredibly refreshing in a cinematic universe filled with brooding, jaded characters.

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via pinimg.com

From a technical standpoint this film is also very striking, with solid CGI and a more varied colour palette than we’re used to seeing in DCEU movies. That’s not to say that it’s always a colourful film, after all much of it takes place in scenery which has been ravaged by war, but it doesn’t feel as bereft of vibrancy as “Batman v Superman” did.

The visual style that Zack Snyder developed in films like “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman” carries over into this film, making action sequences feel as though they were ripped straight out of a comic book or possibly even out of a video game. This larger-than-life approach to fight scenes is something which I have previously criticised – and I stand by those criticisms – but here Patty Jenkins makes it work because she takes the time to makes us care about the characters, so that by the time the fight scenes become the focus of the film we already believe that Wonder Woman is a badass.

Wonder Woman isn’t a man in a suit like Batman, doing things that look so far removed from human possibility that they take you right out of the experience of watching the film; she’s a warrior who was created by Zeus himself with the hope that she could keep people safe. As such, it makes sense that she can do things that normal people can’t do – that she can run faster, jump higher, punch harder, etc. – and the fact that we like her so much makes a huge difference because we want to see her win. When somebody tries to hurt her we’re invested in seeing her prevail, so when she flies through the air to stop a sniper from killing innocent people we don’t scoff at the lack of realism, we cheer because our hero has come out on top!

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via disquscdn.com

Of course, there are criticisms which can be levelled at this film. In my view these issues are minimal, but they are noticeable enough to mention and I did find myself considering them whilst I was watching the movie. The first issue I had with this film was that the beginning was too slow, and although it wasn’t bad per se it didn’t give me a concrete indication that this was going to be a good movie.

The start of the film was designed simply to introduce the character of Diana and foreshadow what was going to happen later, which is okay, but for me it was a little uninspired. As mentioned earlier in this review it was clear that Ares was going to be this film’s main villain when he was mentioned in one of its first scenes, and although this is understandable because it’s useful to introduce characters early in a narrative to make them feel important, the way that it was done felt lazy to me.

The first time that we hear Ares’ name in this film is in an expository scene between Diana and her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), in which the latter tells the story of how the Amazons came to be, what their purpose is, and how they (or rather Zeus) defeated the infamous villain. This scene is fine – it’s the type of scene you see a lot in movies when they don’t know how to get information across to the audience because they can’t show a time-consuming background story – but it isn’t great. It’s the least compelling scene in the whole movie because information is regurgitated to the audience simply so that the rest of the movie can exist. It’s a necessary scene, but it should’ve been executed in a more creative way and it doesn’t feel as though it belongs in a movie which for the most part is fantastic.

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via postimg.com

The other issue I have with this film is with its villain, the aforementioned Ares, who remains absent for the majority of the movie. The fact that he doesn’t appear until the end of the movie isn’t a criticism at all, it’s just a normal trope of storytelling where there’s a final act twist or a big reveal; the real problem is that he isn’t very interesting. He basically hates humanity because he sees that people do bad things, and because of this he wants to destroy the world – this, for me, is a very lacklustre motivation.

It’s perhaps unfair to criticise Ares too excessively because he’s the first villain that this iteration of Wonder Woman has faced on screen in her own movie, so the writers can’t really allow him to overshadow the hero, but Ares is just so plain. If he hates humanity so much why doesn’t he just go somewhere where there aren’t any people? There’s an island full of women who are separated from the rest of humanity in the middle of the ocean so we know that that’s a possibility, so why is exterminating humanity so important to him?

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Ares. Via slashfilm.com

I know these might seem like throwaway comments designed to denigrate a character that I didn’t like – which they are – but personally I don’t get on with villains who seem like their only reason for existing in a film’s universe is to directly oppose the worldview of the protagonist. He serves a purpose because he establishes a facet of Wonder Woman’s character, which is that she sees the flaws in humanity and yet still chooses to believe that people are worth fighting for, but other than that he has no place in the movie which is why he doesn’t appear until the final battle.

Nonetheless, these criticisms are small when compared to the triumph of “Wonder Woman” as a whole. This is a movie in which almost everything works; the costume design is awesome, the acting is brilliant, the story is effective, and the whole thing is incredibly entertaining from start to finish. Wonder Woman is the perfect character to breathe life into the DCEU and it’s great to see a film in which a female superhero is portrayed as a powerful and sympathetic character rather than as a side-kick, so I would recommend that everyone see this movie as soon as possible.

8.5/10

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

29 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by Ben Whittaker in Movie Reviews

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Tags

Adventureland, Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway, Ant-Man, Aquaman, Avatar, Batman, Batman v Superman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck, Black Panther, Captain America, Captain America : Civil War, CGI, Chadwick Boseman, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Cinema, Comics, Cyborg, Dawn of Justice, DC, Deadpool, Doomsday, Ezra Miller, Film, Gal Gadot, Guardians of the Galaxy, Henry Cavill, Jared Leto, Jason Momoa, Jeremy Irons, Jesse Eisenberg, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Man Of Steel, Marvel, MCU, Morgan Freeman, Movie Review, Ray Fisher, Spider-Man, Suicide Squad, Superman, The Avengers, The Daily Planet, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Flash, The Joker, The Justice League, Tom Holland, Wonder Woman, Zombieland

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via denofgeek.com

On Wednesday morning I saw “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”. I did my best to resist the temptation of seeing yet another superhero movie at the cinema, but alas my will-power just wasn’t strong enough and I caved in. I’d heard mixed reviews, and having hated “Man of Steel” for various (and I think very valid) reasons, I was trying to avoid giving DC any more of my money.

Having seen the film I can say that I was justified in my reluctance, because whilst there were parts of it that I enjoyed, there were other moments at which I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and shake my head in disgust. I’m being overdramatic of course, but when the main motivation for warring superheroes to team up is that their mothers share the same first name, you know that there’s something drastically wrong with the film that you’re watching.

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via screenrant.com

Whilst Ben Affleck is a fine Batman, and he isn’t putting on a voice when playing the hero (instead he has a device which modifies his voice for him), he doesn’t inspire love or devotion to the character and he’s far less likeable than Christian Bale’s version. This isn’t a major problem because at least it differentiates him from the previous iteration of the character, but when the solo Batman film that has already been confirmed comes into theatres I won’t be rushing to see it… unless Jared Leto is amazing in “Suicide Squad” and The Joker is the villain.

Henry Cavill is also okay in this movie – he’s definitely better than he was in “Man of Steel” – but Superman as a character is given no real personality, and the only thing that gives him any humanity at all is his relationship with Lois Lane. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad if Lane herself was likeable in the movie, but Amy Adams (who I hate to criticise because I like her as an actress) was awful and her character had no real depth; you can basically sum her up by saying that she’s a reporter who loves Superman because that’s really all there is to her.

As a whole the film just doesn’t work. I could write 20,000 words of criticism on it and still have more bad words to say, but instead I’m going to bullet point what I liked and disliked about it and then talk about why I think that it should never have been made.

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via omelete.uol.com.br

Let’s start with the things that I liked:

  1. (SPOILER ALERT) The court scene – Despite the fact that “Batman v Superman” was mostly a paint-by-numbers story, the scene in which the courtroom was blown up was quite unexpected and powerful. The aftermath could’ve been more exciting, perhaps with the dust settling and Superman still stood in the middle of the debris for all to see, but it was still a great scene in an average movie.

 

  1. Gal Gadot was a pretty good Wonder Woman – I actually really liked Wonder Woman in the film and I thought that she was introduced well. Her initial introduction felt a lot like Catwoman’s (Anne Hathaway) in “The Dark Knight Rises”, but it was still good. The only problem I have here is that the marketing for the film ruined it slightly by having Wonder Woman appear in the trailer.

 

  1. The question that the film fumbled over a couple of times – ‘should there be a Superman?’ – was a fair one to ask, and could’ve been fascinating if it was allowed more time to be explored.

 

  1. The action was well shot.

 

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via comingsoon.net

 

Onto the things that I didn’t like (expect a longer list):

  1. Alfred – Although I like Jeremy Irons and I don’t think that his portrayal of Alfred was completely awful, I thought that the film underused him by making him something of a comic relief character. He had the potential to be so much more given how recklessly Bruce Wayne was acting, so it was a shame that most of the time he simply went along with whatever Wayne told him to do.

 

  1. Lex Luthor – Jesse Eisenberg is another actor that I don’t take any enjoyment from criticising. Eisenberg is great at what he does and he’s been in two of my favourite films (“Adventureland” and “Zombieland”), but he should never have been cast in this movie. His portrayal of the iconic villain is unique and he gives it everything, but it comes off as cartoonish and ridiculous, destroying tension and bringing more laughs than gasps.

 

  1. Doomsday – If DC had courage in their convictions then they wouldn’t have allowed another villain to appear in this movie other than Luthor, but alas, they chose to throw Doomsday into the mix so that the heroes could team up at the end. What they should’ve done was got a better writer on board and focused on the war of ideologies between Batman and Superman.

 

  1. Martha – Superman convinced Batman not to kill him by saying that his mother’s name was Martha. That’s all that really needs to be said here.

 

  1. The Daily Planet is a terrible newspaper which allows its staff to come and go as they please and write rogue articles.

 

  1. So many scenes should’ve been cut from the film – the dream sequences, when Batman confronted Lex Luthor at the end, the scene in which Superman and Doomsday were hit by a nuke, and many more, were awful and should’ve been omitted from the final product.

 

  1. The dialogue was terrible.

 

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(From left to right) Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, and Gal Gadot at Comic-Con.

From my perspective, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” is an example of when business trumps quality in film-making. With “Captain America: Civil War” set to smash box-office records and continue Marvel’s commercial and critical dominance in the superhero genre, DC had to do something big. Their answer was to throw their two most famous heroes together, in what was billed as a gladiator match yet ended up being a team-up against a giant CGI monster.

The baffling thing about this isn’t that DC’s biggest heroes tried to kill each other and then joined forces, but rather DC’s crazy decision to throw Batman into the mix without first giving him a solo movie. They clumsily rehashed his backstory and tripped over his motivation for taking the fight to Superman, and instead of building the character properly they tried to fit multiple storylines into what should’ve been a focused narrative.

DC is desperate to compete with Marvel financially and yet they fail to take the lessons that Marvel has taught them on board. They misunderstand how the universe that Marvel has built has developed over time and they ignore where it all began.

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via comingsoon.net

Marvel has spent an admirable amount of time building its characters and creating a very noticeable tone which carries through each film, and they didn’t have the entirety of their main cast together in one movie until they had each had their own solo flick. This meant that by the time that “The Avengers” came along Marvel had already acquired a dedicated fan-base of comic book readers and mainstream cinemagoers, and thus they made an obscene amount of money from that movie. Now that this initial development has passed they are able to throw characters like Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) into the mix prior to giving them their solo films, but they earned the right to do this and they have strong characters alongside them.

Thinking back, Marvel’s cinematic universe took off with “Iron Man”, a film based on a character that had never truly been a fan favourite. Marvel took a character that they knew they could build around, cast him perfectly, and then made a coherent and isolated film about him which only connected itself to the rest of the MCU through its end credit scene and a couple of Easter eggs here and there.

If DC really wanted to create a dynasty like Marvel’s and steal some of their thunder what they should’ve done was saved Batman for either a brief cameo in their upcoming “Suicide Squad” movie, or his own solo movie, and then they should’ve made a second “Man of Steel” film which focused on the question ‘should there be a Superman?’. This would’ve given Superman much more depth as a character and allowed us to better understand Batman before the pair faced off in a future film. Plus, in the meantime they could’ve introduced characters like Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), in much more natural and interesting ways, instead of shoehorning them into an already convoluted film like they did in “Batman v Superman”.

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via youtube.com

Of course, it’s easy to make these statements in hindsight, but it really is mindboggling that a company like DC could be so impatient. People aren’t stupid – if a movie looks like it’s going to be a muddle then they won’t go to see it, and if they aren’t going to go on the opening weekend then they’ll probably be indifferent enough to listen to a couple of negative reviews and stay well clear. You can’t just throw special effects at people and expect a crowd to gather anymore – we live in a post “Avatar” world where amazing CGI is commonplace, going to the cinema costs £10+, and the superhero genre is incredibly diluted! If it’s a choice between something new like “Deadpool”, “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and “Ant-Man”, or something that fans have seen multiple times before like a new Batman movie, I think that most people will choose the former.

At the end of the day, “Batman v Superman” was exactly what I thought it would be. A film which was doomed from the start because it was trying to do too much, with the wrong writers and director on board, and a marketing team that was so scared that people wouldn’t go to see it that they showed everything they had on the trailer. The action was good and so were the effects but modern day audiences have a right to expect more for their money. The actors did what they could to save the film, and Henry Cavill was a lot better this time around than he was in “Man of Steel”, but ultimately the script let him and the audience down.

5/10

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