Traditionally in comics Wonder Woman is
an ambassador to the world of man to show humanity the Amazonian way
& lead them to peace and prosperity. In an instance of meta
commentary on the character Diana, Princess of Themyscira, has become
a titanic figure & a beacon within Popular Culture who signifies
humility & change. She has crossed worlds & become not only a
heroic figure in comics, but in reality as well. Created in the 1940s
by William Moulton Marstown for DC Comics, Wonder Woman, was intended
to be a vision of Super-heroic Women that he hoped would one day rule
the world in favour of man. Immediately Wonder Woman had ties to
Feminism through her mere existence. Years later, outside of the
realm of comic books, feminist organizations bought into her image as
one of power, empathy & hope for a future where one day women
could be seen as true equals to men. Wonder Woman famously showed up
on the cover of first issue of Ms. Magazine with a headline that read
“Wonder Woman for President”. If only. Even recently the image of
Diana was used as an honorary figure for the empowerment of Women &
Girls by the United Nations until protests forced the UN to change
course. There is something within the nature of Diana that has
stabilized her iconography throughout the years as a totem of
feminism & with the persistence and inability to treat one
another fairly and equally I don't believe she'll be going anywhere
anytime soon. Patty Jenkins's newly released film is the next chapter
in the Diana's life.
My heart soared in the opening images
of Wonder Woman as a helicopter shot took us through Paradise
Island. With lush cinematography from Matthew Jensen & wide
framing from Jenkins, Themyscira is awash in pure awe. Untarnished by
the hands of technological innovations the island seems to be
symbiotic within the Amazons architecture and culture. They haven't
insisted the land is theirs and sculpted it into their vision, but
merely rest within the island & are grateful for its luxuries.
These initial touches are important to establishing the possibilities
of the Amazonian culture as significantly more refined and empathetic
towards nature than our own. As the camera tracks through the island
we see Women, including many Women of colour, going about their daily
tasks, but in the midst of all these beautiful, strong idealistic
figures there is a girl running away from her teacher in hopes to see
the Amazon's training for a potential battle. Jenkins uses close up
shots of the little girl's face and she is eager, inquisitive,
mischievous and ultimately full of wonder at all the Women she lives
with that she can look toward for guidance, strength or love. I look
to myself in these opening moments and consider how truly magical it
must be to never want for role models or family.
The young Diana is captivated by her
sisters on the island & likewise Jenkins shoots these Women with
pure reverence frequently capturing them through slow motion in a mid
air twist or aerial strike. Diana wants nothing more than to grow up
like her Aunt Antiope (Robin Wright) & become a warrior, but her
mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielson), is wary of her daughters
interest in swords and shields. Hippolyta shows nothing but
compassion for her young daughter, and strives to make her learn that
being bloodthirsty and craving the battlefield is not a romantic or
righteous goal. It was essential in the creation of this movie to tap
into Wonder Woman's true empathy & sincere love for others &
in these opening moments on Themyscira a guidebook is created for the
character & within her origin her compassion is passed down from
mother to daughter and from the creators of the film into the movie
itself. This runs in direct contrast to the DC Comics more recent
superhero fare which saw Superman break necks and Batman torture
prisoners. Wonder Woman is a breath of fresh air and a closer
companion to the sincerity of the Christopher Reeve Superman vehicle
of the 1970s.
We jump forward a few years after these
scenes & Diana (Gal Gadot) is now a young woman. She bears the
traits we've come to associate with the character & her mother's
lessons of empathy have not gone to waste, and neither have Antiope's
abilities at molding soldiers in case of crisis. Perhaps the most
important feature of Wonder Woman in
terms of cinematic language is a consideration of patience towards
delivering on the themes that make the character who she is &
through images & moments Diana becomes whole as not only a
demigoddess Warrior, but a helper of men, women and children
everywhere. The first instance of this happening is when Diana is
engaging in combat practice with Antiope. They duel with one another
in close combat & when Diana gets the upper hand & wounds
Antiope by mistake this moment is not met with gloating, pride or
accommodation but, one of sincerest regret. Diana apologizes for
hurting her Aunt & is shaken up about the small wound she created
for many more scenes to come. Diana is genuinely affected by hurting
people. She is not a bloodthirsty war dog, as she is sometimes
foolishly portrayed in the comics.
When
Diana is considering the accidental hurt she has caused her Aunt a
plane rips through the idyllic blue skies of Themyscira & brings
about a change that the Amazons never expected. Diana notices first &
dives into action to save the fallen Steve Trevor (played by an
always charming Chris Pine). Trevor thinks he's seen an angel &
to his credit she's shot that way by Jenkins who employs a p.o.v shot
while Diana is bathed in a shimmering white light. But Steve Trevor's
arrival brought with him the Germans who were following him as he had
just stolen a book by their most prestigious chemical weapons officer
(Elena Anaya), and when they land on the beach they take with them
many lives, before the Amazons are able to beat back the march of
war.
Diana
sees the arrival of man as a calling & after Steve Trevor
explains to the Amazons that the world at large is drowning in the
blood of combat she takes it upon herself to go to the front-lines
and destroy Ares, the god of war she assumes is the root cause of all
this destruction. Hippolyta is adamant that her daughter not be
swallowed up by the evil of man's world, even going as far as saying
“They don't deserve you”, but Diana has felt a reckoning within
herself and she is not made to simply look aside as tragedies take
place. Her sheer will to help is too overpowering & in disobeying
her mother she decides to ride with Trevor into battle and keep the
world from capsizing. Hippolyta explains that her daughter's
departure is her greatest sorrow & as viewers we echo her
sentiments as Themyscira is truly a magical place capable of an
awe-inducing glory notably absent from today's crop of Blockbuster
cinema.
When
they arrive in London it is very noticeably a shit hole & Steve
Trevor proclaims “it's an acquired taste”. Diana is a fish out of
water in the middle portion of the film both wowed by the simple
pleasures of the world like ice cream & outright offended by the
sexism imposed upon her. Wonder Woman's feminist edges are inherent
within the character, but when faced with 1910s London she sees
firsthand the ways in which she is underestimated, shackled and her
desires kept at bay. Diana constantly has to prove herself in the
eyes of her male colleagues, which both rings true as a commentary on
the daily lives of women everywhere & with the idea of a
Superhero movie about a woman, but she does so with grace, class &
occasionally the wrath needed to actually get things done. In the
film's best sequence Trevor, Diana and their band of misfit soldiers
who would rather be anything else, approach the front-lines. Diana
insists upon driving ahead and freeing a small village from
enslavement & torture, but is driven down by Trevor & the
other men that it is impossible to change the course of war
single-handedly. Diana doesn't listen and marches forward. In
beautiful slow motion, the best usage of it since probably Paul W.S.
Anderson's Resident Evil franchise
or even The Wachowskis sisters Matrix trilogy,
she is captured repelling bullets, landing non-lethal blows and
disrupting machine gun fire before entering the war ravaged community
to free the people from the German rule. Slow motion is an important
tool within this movie to capture heroics. Comparatively, modern
action in movies about superheroes never capture the otherwordly
abilities of their heroes in a satisfying way. Frequently, these
action sequences are shot in drab surroundings and use mechanical
fight choreography, close-ups, and editing influenced by Paul
Greengrass's now famous shakey-cam techniques established within his
Jason Bourne films. Jenkins, however, shoots Diana with grace,
constantly giving her the space to move freely while capturing her
athleticism and her thought process within combat. Diana's lasso is
an added plus as it gives viewers a literal map to follow with its
glowing presence and circular movement creating momentum as the hero
moves forward. Jenkins also uses space well, shooting her action
frequently in medium shots and never chopping the image up to obscure
the movement of the character. If there is any complaint to be had
here it is that the CGI is sometimes lacking, but this is not a
dealbreaker.
Wonder Woman's structural
obligations could have gotten in the way of a a compelling, brisk,
oftentimes moving first two acts, but in the final third when Diana
confronts Ares and begins deliberating on the questions of war,
humanity & her place as a demi-goddess within it the films
virtues only deepen. Diana is convinced that if she were to destroy
Ares that the hearts of men would be cured of their need for
destruction, but the answers she finds awaken a newer understanding
within her. One of choice & love. Ares is not merely the only
focal point for War & questions of it cannot be solved with the
dissolution of one man. In a metaphorical response that is possibly
unintentional, but nevertheless striking, an explanation is given for
our current national climate with Trump's existence and his
presidency as not an extension of only his evil, but the evil of man,
much like the war is not merely a creation of the gods. The blame
also belongs in the hands of humanity. The darkness and light
colliding within ourselves is the lesson Diana must learn on Earth as
an ambassador and as a guide for peace. War is above one single
reasoning, but rests within us. Diana chooses to be her very best,
but Steve Trevor and his men who also sacrifice show us we have to be
loving as well. It is not merely the role of one person to save the
world, but the duty of all of us. It is a moral obligation of such
smouldering effervescent purity. That this statement can exist in a
Hollywood production in 2017, and not only a film from a line of
studio products that consistently undercut any artistic qualities or
statements, but one that could have real cultural impact within the
lives of folks, especially girls, everywhere is quite simply
Wondrous.