A Brief History
On May 30, 2017, we had the opportunity to preview the DC Comics major motion picture, Wonder Woman. at Cleveland, Ohio’s historic Capitol Theatre (built in 1921!). Without building any suspense, we will tell you right off the bat that the audience stood up and clapped at the end!
Digging Deeper
Yes, we enjoyed the movie, too. Lots of action, lots of beautiful Gal Gadot in the title role, and for the ladies an “above average” Chris Pine as the male lead. (You have to watch the film to get that reference.)
Some critics, such as Molly Freeman of Screen Rant, may bemoan the lack of character development of the bad guys, but seriously, who cares? We want to know the background story of Wonder Woman/Princess Diana and that is what we got. A nice blend of serious topics about love, war and the human condition, but all this is tempered with the occasional joke thrown in, but not so much that it intrudes on the story.
Set during World War I, we do not have Nazi’s to act as the archetypical bad guys, but we do have the evil German General Ludendorff, a real-life character that could not possibly have been as evil in real life as depicted in the film. We even get the female baddie thrown in, Doctor Poison. We were treated to a good mix of supernatural fighting and Germans with machine guns and bayonets, among all the other real and imagined World War I arms.
The acting is good, the casting is exceptional (Gal Gadot is a très worthy Wonder Woman) the directing and filming is excellent and the special effects are state of the art. If you like Amazons (lots of pretty, but dangerous looking ladies!), soldiers, spies, intrigue, action and throw in an appearance by Greek Gods, this film is for you.
The one criticism, if you can call it that, is that in order to keep the movie from the dreaded R rating there is little gore and blood in the fighting and killing scenes. On the other hand, this omission makes the film family friendly and in all honesty, we did not miss the gore that much.
The quality of Wonder Woman makes us eager to see the next film in the DC franchise, Justice League which is set to debut in November of 2017. See you there!
Theatrical release poster
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Hanley, Tim. Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World’s Most Famous Heroine. Chicago Review Press, 2014.
Lepore, Jill. The Secret History of Wonder Woman. Vintage, 2015.
