Admittedly, I’ve grown weary of the incessant barrage of superhero movies coming out of Hollywood. The last truly enjoyable series in the genre (for me) was Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy – save perhaps Captain America: Civil War. Everything since has effectively felt like watching advertisements for the latest and greatest in CGI technology.
But then I began seeing the hot takes on Wonder Woman from woke progressives across the internet…
Slate
Salon
The Guardian
Wonder Woman review – glass ceiling still intact as Gal Gadot reduced to weaponised Smurfette
New Republic
I saved the best for last!
Ms. Magazine
…not to mention reading news of nation-wide prohibitions on the movie; anti-Semitic governments in Lebanon and Tunisia banned Wonder Woman citing lead Gal Gadot’s Israeli background as their motivation.
Well, I just couldn’t resist.
Setting the stage for what’s bound to be at least three sequels, Wonder Woman tells the origin story of the Amazon warrior’s fiery entrance into the mortal world amid the First World War.
Allied forces pilot Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine) crash-lands his fighter jet in the Amazon island of Themyscira. After Diana (Gal Gadot) rescues the pilot, he tells her about the ongoing World War in Europe and reveals that, during his spy mission in the Ottoman Empire, he oversaw a mad German chemist concocting weapons of mass destruction. (Apparently, besides perpetrating genocide against Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Christians, the Ottoman Empire was also overseeing the development of lethal chemical weapons. Didn’t know this film was part documentary.)
Diana (Gal Gadot), convinced that the World War Trevor spoke of was directly tied to Amazon lore – in which Ares, the God of War, corrupts the minds of men, immersing the world into a never-ending war – decides to leave her island, embarking on adventure to destroy Ares and restore peace.
A central theme of the movie is that evil is an individual choice.
Despite Diana’s initial belief that the World War was the cunning work of Ares, the film makes clear that German forces concocting chemical weapons and destroying towns is all done on their own volition — not the inevitable result of divine will. Ares simply provides them some of the tools.
Quite the allegory for 2017. Just substitute German forces for radical Muslims and Ares for ClimateChange-IncomeInequality-GenderPayGap-NotEnoughJobs-AmericanForeignPolicy-Israel-AnythingExceptRadicalIslam.
In the end, upon defeating Ares (This doesn’t count as a spoiler. It’s a DC superhero movie. If you’re somehow thrown off by the fact that the lead protagonist prevails, I can’t help you.) the lingering question becomes: What was the cause of every other conflict in human history since then? (Tenured professors at Berkeley have it on good authority it’s been the Israelis and American government.)
There’s no doubt that Gal Gadot’s powerful performance carries the film. Sure, she had a team of marksmen accompanying her through the German lines; yet they were more entourage than teammates. The cast of protagonists could have easily been slashed down to only Gadot and Pine (who shared superb chemistry) with little to no effect on how the film ended.
A delightful strong point of Wonder Woman is its ability to convey a legitimate feminist message without delving into a banal, browbeating tirade against men. (See Ghostbusters for how not to do this.) The film never delves into oppression politics, exploiting Gadot’s femininity as a platform to preach to the far-left feminist hordes waiting to hear ramblings of how “mansplaining” ought to be a criminal offense.
Wonder Woman is a highly entertaining summer blockbuster. Sure, the final fight-scene could’ve been a tad shorter as most critics suggest, but never mind that. Once the credits start rolling, the only thing you’ll be thinking is; “WOW, Diana (Gal Gadot) was stunning. Now if only they’d drop her off in Syria, Libya, or heck, even Iran, to do some cleaning up!”