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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Shawn’s Thoughts On The Wonder Woman Trailer

She's NOT in the Trailer!

Along with the Justice League Trailer, Warner Brothers debuted a Wonder Woman trailer at San Diego Comic Con. At least that’s who they want us to believe this female is. This isn’t the Princess Diana of Paradise Island. She’s Conan with a clitoris.


There’s a powerful Amazon on the screen of this so-called Wonder Woman Movie. And her story starts just like the story of Wonder Woman with a guy named Steve Trevor getting his plane shot down and crashing near a place called Paradise Island. There a girl named Diana finds him, hears his story and wants to go to man’s world to help him fight the war. 


It kind of sounds like Wonder Woman’s origin. But as you watch the trailer you soon realize something is wrong. The setting for this so-called Wonder Woman story is 1917, World War I, not the World War II the real Wonder Woman made her debut in. And Paradise Island isn’t a place of peace filled with a group of relaxed, happy-go-lucky women who have built an advanced society with technological wonders like the Purple Ray or the Invisible Jet. No, these women are aggressive females who live for violence and war.


Nor is this Princess Diana been granted powers by ALL the Greek Gods. In a butchering of the character’s history, Diana is now the daughter of Zeus, not a child made of clay and brought to life by the gods. What makes Wonder Woman distinct is that she gets her life and her power from all the Greek gods. The beauty of Aphrodite. The wisdom of Athena. The speed of Hermes. All the stuff that enables her to do all those feats and Wonders.


 And this Princess Diana strays from the mission of the Wonder Woman in the comics. She isn’t disguising herself as a Yeoman in the United States Navy who desires to be near Steve Trevor and the action so she can help men and women out during the war. Nor is she a diplomat who knows how to use her grace and social skills to facilitate amicable relationships with foreign powers as a representative of Paradise Island and the U.S Military. The kind of woman who tries to facilitate a peaceful resolution to conflict and only uses violence as a last resort.

 No, this woman needs to have a sword and shield to do most of her wonders. A magic lasso just isn’t enough for her to fight straw men and paper tigers.


Worse, this Princess Diana lacks the heart and compassion of the real Diana of Paradise Island. The woman onscreen expresses no love or caring for much of anyone. She’s colder than a block of ice in Antarctica. In most of the frames she’s an aggressive bully with an attitude. The kind of woman who overcompensates for her insecurities being around men by wearing her sword with an evening gown. The kind of woman who doesn’t value being a woman. The kind of woman who wants to be a man and take the place of a man in society. Basically, Conan with a clitoris.


What was in that trailer was what Social Justice Warriors and Third Wave Feminists imagine Wonder Woman as, but not who she truly is. There’s a lot more to Wonder Woman than the surface. Unfortunately Warner Brothers didn’t dig deep enough to show it in that trailer.


Yeah, Wonder Woman is a feminist concept created by William Moulton Marston. But what I saw in the trailer betrays the spirit of the character he designed. Marston wanted to create a female hero with the strength and power equal to male heroes like Superman, but knew inside and out she was a woman.  While we saw the wonder onscreen, we didn’t see what made her a woman.


And that’s what’s wrong with the new Wonder Woman movie. The woman onscreen is physically strong and powerful. But Wonder Woman’s greatest strength comes from being warm, caring, compassionate, and understanding. Yes, she can hold her own with the men while fighting the bad guys. But what makes her GREAT is how she is a friend to anyone who asks for her help. It’s hard to see the character Gal Gadot plays having any of Wonder Woman’s heart and love for humanity.


 Yes, Warner Brothers Wonder Woman looks like an entertaining action packed period film. However, it lacks any warmth, heart or personality. It’s a cold indifferent viewing experience that doesn’t capture the essence of who Wonder Woman truly is. What you see onscreen is Gal Gadot in a costume that kind of looks like Wonder Woman’s playing a character that acts like she’s a fusion of Conan and Xena. A woman we’re told is an Amazon. Unfortunately, she’s not the ambassador of peace and goodwill Wonder Woman is. For all the Wonder onscreen, Warner Brothers forgot all about what makes Diana a great woman.

As a guy who writes strong heroines like Isis, E’steem, Colleen Anderson, and Matilda Crowley, I was really disappointed by the Wonder Woman Trailer. Instead of Wonder Woman fans getting a story about Princess Diana a woman who displays the strength of character to do what’s right for others, we get a movie featuring a self-righteous hypermasculine female who does what’s right for herself. That’s not the kind of hero I believe William Moulton Marston envisioned Wonder Woman to be, and I don’t think it’s the kind of hero a girl should aspire to become.

It’s a shame that Warner Brothers won’t produce a movie that DC fans can’t get behind and get excited about. Maybe if Warner Brothers would let their characters be themselves and stop trying to change their characters to fit some director and some executive’s vision of them, fans might have a reason to spend money on a movie ticket at the box office.

14 comments:

  1. On Supergirl and Ghostbusters, they're both PC versions of their male counterparts that didn't do too well. Supergirl's ratings fell quickly (itself moving to a lower-rated network just proves this point) and Ghostbusters bombed. Also James Olsen is a redundant Uncle Tom in S1 and the only thing that'll keep him from being too redundant is making Superboy his orphaned younger brother that he has to dutifully care for.

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    1. I think Jimmy will be gone by the end of the season.

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    2. Ghostbusters was a remake. Frankly, remakes nowadays have a loss of quality from the original, similar to putting a color photo through a photocopier with no color settings turned on. Much of the storytelling quality is lost in the process.

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  2. Wait, they are actually adapting that whole New 52 origin story into the movie, WTF?!!!!!

    -John

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  3. One thing I like about Marvel's movies is the heroes are moved by compassion. Just like how they were originally conceived. I don't know what Warner Bros is doing. They turned Batman into a crazy version of Frank Castle. Super-Man is lost and confused. I don't know what's going on with Diana. It looks like they're going to come together to have a big fight with Darkseid. A little predictable. We could just watch the cartoon Justice League: War for that.

    Vic78

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    2. Chances are, given the moral dependency that the WB regime assigns superhero characters, the movie Wonder Woman will quit over Steve getting old and dying, WB did it with Batman, they gave that dream scene in BvS that implied Superman depended on Lois to be the good guy. The pattern so far with WB/DC movies implies that they will do something similar with Wonder Woman.

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    3. Vic, Marvel Studios satays true to the spirit of their characters while DC...Is just trying too hard. They're taking comic books and superheroes WAY too seriously. The film versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman they're making are NOTHING like their comic book counterparts if anything they just come across like the Crime Syndicate or the Justice Lords.

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  4. The way that I see it at the movies, they are not just missing the point about Wonder Woman, they are missing the point about Superman and Batman as well. Superman was all about sticking up for the little guys for a lot of his history, especially back in the Golden Age, since you want to mention that part. He wasn't some guy like in the BVS Batman nightmare scene where he would turn evil because he couldn't save his love interest, as Flash seemed to imply. Then there is Batman, who yes, originally did kill people, but he was supposed to be a top notch investigator/detective, Batman would figure out that Clark Kent = Superman among other things. Plus about the love interest dependency, it's implied in BVS that Wonder Woman gave up over Steve getting old and dying at some point. I don't care for moral dependency on characters in comics. I care for characters who actually have self-motivation in what they do. WB/DC doesn't seem to get that part.

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    1. Ben, they are definitely missing the point with WW and all their characters. The way I see it WB just takes superhero movies too seriously and they just try WAY too hard. Superhero movies are supposed to be FUN, but WB's approach is too focused on being an artistic statement about a character instead of letting a character be themeselves.

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  5. THANK-YOU so much for sharing this article Shawn. I feel the same way, this Xena knock-off is not even close to being Wonder Woman.

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  6. “But as you watch the trailer you soon realize something is wrong. The setting for this so-called Wonder Woman story is 1917, World War I, not the World War II the real Wonder Woman made her debut in.” Cuz DC wants to be accused of Jew vs Nazi propaganda

    “And Paradise Island isn’t a place of peace filled with a group of relaxed, happy-go-lucky women who have built an advanced society with technological wonders like the Purple Ray or the Invisible Jet. No, these women are aggressive females who live for violence and war.” They look like they are defending their home in a time of war. We haven't even seen a lot of Paradise Island. How do we know whats advanced and what isn't.

    “Nor is this Princess Diana been granted powers by ALL the Greek Gods.” We really don’t know this. We haven't really seen her use her powers much.

    “She isn’t disguising herself as a Yeoman in the United States Navy who desires to be near Steve Trevor and the action so she can help men and women out during the war. Nor is she a diplomat who knows how to use her grace and social skills to facilitate amicable relationships with foreign powers as a representative of Paradise Island and the U.S Military.” We have seen photos of her in disguise. How do they know what her job will be?

    “No, this woman needs to have a sword and shield to do most of her wonders.” How do we know she doesn’t abandon her sword and shield in the movie?

    Worse, this Princess Diana lacks the heart and compassion of the real Diana of Paradise Island. The woman onscreen expresses no love or caring for much of anyone. She’s colder than a block of ice in Antarctica. In most of the frames she’s an aggressive bully with an attitude.” Seriously? She left her home to fight in a war that wasn’t hers. I call that caring and compassionate. I guess if she was so cold,she should have thrown Steve back in the water.

    “Yes, Warner Brothers Wonder Woman looks like an entertaining action packed period film. However, it lacks any warmth, heart or personality.” We have only seen about 3 minutes of the film. We have barely seen any of it. All that was shown was her at war. Its probably hard to be focusing on warmth, heart, and personality if we only saw clips of her fighting?

    We have barely seen any of the movie. I'm not saying your opinion is wrong, but that's a lot of no substance negativity from about three minutes of a film that hasn't been released.

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