Wonder Woman 2009 [Blu-ray]

Being a longtime fan of the superhero genre, and in particular of the "Timmverse" TV shows in the 90s, I've been going through the DC Universe Animated Original Movies lately with relish. By breaking the homogenous mold of the DCAU, sometimes they do something that knocks it out of the park (my favorite so far has been Crisis on Two Earths, and its successor Young Justice), and sometimes the results are more mixed. I mostly enjoyed the Wonder Woman movie, but I'd have to put it in the "mixed" column. There's a lot that works about it, but also a lot of things that just don't.I imagine the pitch for this movie being something like this: "Batman and Superman have gotten big-budget live-action revivals. But a movie for Wonder Woman, third member of the DC triumvirate, just can't get off the ground. So the heck with it, let's make something on the order of Batman Begins or Superman Returns, only animated instead of live action."It's a good idea. And the movie is the most fully-realized adult-oriented animation I've seen to come out of DC since Mask of the Phantasm. (That's a good thing.) But, much like the subsequent Under the Red Hood, Wonder Woman's attempt at adult themes is hamstrung by the marketing imperative to sell this video to young kids. The end result is a laughable series of scenes where people are hacked, pierced, and decapitated with swords, spears, and arrows, yet there's barely a drop of blood. On two occasions someone gets skewered point-to-hilt with a sword, yet afterward the blade is clearly shown to be spotless. Ok. So is this adult-oriented animation or not?At the same time, Wonder Woman and sidekick/love interest Steve Trevor have little problem killing. Maybe I'm just used to Batman, writers for whom have made a cottage industry of having their cake and eating it too, generally avoiding the application of lethal force in even his most adult incarnations. But it's jarring to see Diana and Steve neck-snapping and headshotting thugs right and left. Some of this is ameliorated by the fact that some of their foes are mythological beasties who may or may not be real. But the human henchmen get it too. I'm pretty sure that even if this were a live-action film, I'd find this out of place. You definitely wouldn't see it in a Batman or Superman movie.The ill-defined nature of Ares' henchbeasts brings me to my second big problem with this movie, which is that the writers have created this new universe from a mish-mash of different elements, and little if any thought seems to have been given to how they work together. Let's start with Wonder Woman herself.Depictions of Wonder Woman's powers have varied widely. On one end of the spectrum you have the Super Friends version, who was basically an athlete with a magic lasso. Then you have DCAU Wonder Woman, who could slug it out with Superman. Linda Carter's Wonder Woman seemed to be somewhere in between. Here, rather than create any sort of bible for this new Wonder Woman, the writers have taken the annoying route of making up her powers as they went along. So you start with the Amazons, who seem to be just normal human women, albeit ageless thanks to a consolation spell from the gods. Then you have Diana, who is the best warrior on Themyscira, but otherwise apparently human, judging by the fact that she and Steve seem physically evenly matched in their initial encounter. If her costume gives her any special powers above the other Amazons, it's never stated or hinted at--yet later in the film she's being thrown through concrete walls without a scratch. And can she fly? Probably not, but at one point in the film she's pounding Ares in the face while hovering in the air, so who knows.Then you have the Amazon culture. It's explicitly stated that they have no contact with or interest in the outside world. Wonder Woman's costume is created to mimic America's stars and stripes, yet it's implied that they got the design from the patch on Steve's uniform and they don't actually know the USA from any other country. The famous "bullets and bracelets" scene is even redone with ordinary bows and arrows to hammer home their lack of technology. Yet when Wonder Woman and Steve prepare to leave the island, boom, high-tech invisible fighter jet outta nowhere!From there, it gets worse. Ares' powers and weaknesses are even more ill-defined and plot-driven than Wonder Woman's. Wonder Woman takes down like 10 shots of tequila while remaining stone cold sober, which is waved off as her being "an Amazon warrior." The Amazons can build the invisible jet but are consigned to travel in primitive wooden sailing ships... that are somehow able to cross from Themyscira to the US in a matter of minutes... and travel up the Potomac River completely undetected. And during the climactic battle where Amazons and Ares' forces duke it out in the National Mall, it's left to our imaginations why people wielding spears and shields pose such a problem to American military forces armed with guns and bombs.The plot is ok, an impressive canvas similar to what you'd find in a live-action superhero movie, but it has problems. In the first scene, we see the legions of generic Amazons we're accustomed to seeing in Wonder Woman stories. But then suddenly they start throwing individual characters in peril at us, and it's all so rushed and confusing. Hey, everyone seems to hate that bookish girl--am I supposed to like her? Oh, she got killed--am I supposed to care? These characters needed a bit more fleshing out to make them work, and they don't get it.Also skimped on is Ares' son Thrax (you're excused if you watched the movie and didn't remember his name; I had to look it up), who is a major component of the villain's emotional arc, yet thanks to his now-you-see-it-now-you-don't screen presence, it's impossible to care. In general I'm a fan of stories which seem to start in the middle, but there is just way more piled into the first scene of this movie than it can sustain.My biggest problem with this movie, however, is its repugnant evopsych take on gender roles. Fedora-wearing "nice guy" comic book nerds aren't really known for their socially enlightened views (case in point: Frank Miller). And Wonder Woman in particular can be a sore spot, an icon of female empowerment that originated in her male creator's bondage fantasies, and tends to be used as cheap wish fulfillment by her male writers and illustrators. Generally speaking, if you want to insert social messages into a commercial piece like this without looking like a total schmuck, you focus on the shortcomings of the hegemon. Instead, the writers of this movie decided it was important to teach Diana and Hippolyta that women are incomplete without children, and that chauvinism is actually cool. Honestly, I don't have a problem with confirmed man-pig Steve Trevor speechifying to Wonder Woman that all men aren't pigs--there's such a thing as irony, and the fact that a society isn't defined by one member is obviously a theme--but the whole "men open doors for women, it's biology" thing would have been anachronistic in a cartoon from the 1970s. In 2009, it's just sad. I don't care where this material was adapted from, these people really should have known better.The last scene depicts Wonder Woman successfully domesticated into Steve Trevor's perfect little waifu. Aside from some lingering gender role swapping for comedic effect, it's total MRA wish fulfillment, and the fact that some reviewers here are complaining about the movie being "feminist" or "misandrist" is mind-boggling to me. How much spoonfeeding do you need?So obviously I had some problems with this film. But there's also a lot to like. The animation is gorgeous, downright Disney-like at times, well worth the price of the disc. The character designs are really interesting, vivid but different from the animation models used for the other DC movies. Wonder Woman's design has a lot of character and is actually not in-your-face attractive, contrasting from the bland beauty of her Super Friends, DCAU, or Batman: The Brave and the Bold depictions, a unique artistic choice in this genre. Paradise Island is depicted like, well, paradise; even the underground prison has a bucolic beauty.The voices are excellent (although Alfred Molina sounds so much like Guy Gardner at times, I had to wonder if Diedrich Bader had filled in for him in ADR). And there are some nice character moments, like Steve saving the day in Wonder Woman's jet (he's a pilot--makes perfect sense!).As you can tell by my four-star rating, I enjoyed this film overall, and I strongly recommend it to DC fans. But just be aware that there are major flaws, and depending on how forgiving you are, the plot holes, inconsistent tone, and knuckle-dragger social stance may really rub you the wrong way.

I recently took another look at the DC Animated Film Wonder Woman. I wanted to experience a good DC film after the travesty that was the recent Batman v Superman. I recall that Gal Godot was Wonder Woman was one of the best aspects of that movie. While I disagree with that sentiment, I am very fond of the Amazon Princess, and wanted to be reminded of the great character I watched on Justice League when I was younger. While this entry is very good, it falls just short of great, or at least the great potential Wonder Woman has. This film was made way back in the old days of 2009, and was one of the first entries into the DC Animated Films line. Something that occurred to me then, and seems to have more or less played out over the years, is that DC has a tendency to test out potential live-action big budget films with animated prototypes; an experiment to see how they could perform on the big screen, if you will. That certainly seems to be the case here for Wonder Woman, despite the great length of time it has taken Warner Bros. to get there (and they still haven’t 7 years later). This is a very good origin story for Wonder Woman, based on George Pérez’s reboot “Gods and Mortals” from 1987, just after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which rebooted the entire DC Universe(s). Given Pérez’s great history as a comic writer, with titles like The Avengers and The New Teen Titans under his belt, this is a good staring point. Plus, this film was written by Gail Simone, arguably the greatest female comic writer of all-time, so there is no shortage of talent when it comes to this film’s story, and it certainly shows.This movie puts Wonder Woman in a modern setting, seeing her reactions to man’s world as we know it. I think this is the best place to start with her, instead of a period piece, because she is as new to the world as the world is to her, providing a great parallel contrast to her development as a character, and the development of man’s world into a place that is better in some areas and just as bad as before in others. The plot hits all the points it needs to for an origin film. The pacing is good, and there are no heavy twists to overcomplicate anything. The action is fairly good for what it is, standard PG-13 fare. You don’t actually see any of the blood or most fatalities, so don’t go in expecting God of War or 300. Diana’s character is rounded and develops well and naturally, as does the male lead, Steve Trevor, Diana’s own “Lois,” if you will. The animation style is pretty close to the designs of the legendary Bruce Timm, who is also one of the producers, so you know you can’t go wrong there.The cast is, for the most part, pretty good. Virginia Madsen does alright as Diana’s mother Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, although perhaps she comes too close to coming off as too cold. Vicki Lewis also does okay as Persephone, as does Rosario Dawson as Artemis. Marg Helgenberger completely phones it in as Hera, but seeing as how she barely has any lines, it doesn’t really matter. Oliver Platt doesn’t quite pull it off as Hades. Voice acting giant and veteran Tara Strong gives an always great and versatile performance as Alexa. Nathan Fillion completely hits it out of the park as Steve Trevor, proving why he is one of the most charismatic people in the nerd circuit, bring wit and charm to the character, who also serves as a genre-savvy commentator. Alfred Molina is great as Ares, expected as he is one of my favorite villainous actors. Keri Russell does decently as Diana herself, but in my opinion, she doesn’t quite have the right needed balance of kindness and toughness to her voice that Susan Eisenberg had during her tenure on Justice League.Despite all that, this film does have some pitfalls that begin to hinder it as they pile up. For example, it’s never explained exactly or where Ares’ army of men and monsters came from, let alone his modern-day “Cult of Ares” that somehow survived from antiquity. As with any new interpretation, the designs of the Greek gods can vary wildly, although only 2 are given any real screen time. Ares is just fine, but they really dropped the ball with Hades; I just cannot get behind that design. He’s way less James Woods and way too much Jabba the Hutt, and yes, that is as bad as it sounds. This film shows a subpar sense of space and time. We’re not really given much a frame for how much time has passed in the story, and characters just show up in locations with no explanation. How did Ares get an entire army of mythological creatures up to the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. without anyone noticing or doing anything about it? Furthermore, the Amazon’s home of the island of Themyscira is never given a definitive geographical location. I would assume it’s somewhere in Mediterranean Sea near Greece, but then how could Steve Trevor pilot a fighter jet to there from D.C. and back in a matter of minutes? Or how could the Amazon sail from there to D.C. in wooden ships and not take 6 months? A lot falls apart in the climax, and with its location of Washington D.C. and an army of Amazons, it bares resemblance to the story “Amazons Attack,” and that is not a good association. Although there is some good zombie nightmare fuel in the final fight, with undead Amazon warriors that are uncharacteristically agile and mobile for rotting corpses, it overall feels too rushed. The resolution, both Wonder Woman’s final fight with Ares and the battle in general, is too quick and nonsensical. After the big bad is defeated, Ares’s remaining army doesn’t get finished off or even disappear; they just kind of shrug their shoulders and wander off into the landscape of the National Capitol, where I’m sure they’ll just fade back into the void from which they came.Still, problems aside, this film holds up fairly well. There’s just enough baggage from the missteps to hold it back from being truly great. There is a good and fair discussion of gender roles and modern feminism, ideas that Wonder Woman was always meant to exemplify. There is great balancing act from 3rd-wave feminism, which in my opinion is largely poisonous and based in anger and vengeance, and feminism’s more noble roots of equality and fairness. Overall, Wonder Woman is a good origin story for this great character, and a good base from which to start for the live-action version that’s coming up. Now let’s just hope they don’t screw it up.

I was brought up in the era of Lynda Carter and I suppose I should have been warned by the cover design for this disc. I found it was rather like watching a Shakespeare play performed in modern dress. The style was too brash and confrontational for me (perhaps reflecting modern American society). Even the artwork has an edgy feel. Maybe this is typical of American comic style today. I don't know. I confess to enjoying the two recent Wonder Woman films, but both reflect an earlier era.

No Spoilers. After an epic battle against Ares the Amazons take him prisoner and retreat from the world to their invisible island to live in isolation. Pilot Steve Trevor crashes on the island, Ares escapes, Wonder Woman leaves the island for the first time to take Steve home and stop Ares. Animation isn’t perfect, pacing issues, blood and gore clearly cut out all made me think in the first 20minutes that I wouldn’t enjoy this. But then it really picks up thanks to the excellent voice acting and much improved pace (you could condense first 20mins into 10 very easily and it’s only 70mins long so it would have a huge effect). Nathan Fillion is an amazing Steve Trevor and his flirty confidence is either well written or fantastically improvised! Keri Russell is a great Wonder Woman and then there is Virginia Madsen, Rosario Dawson, Alfred Molina, Oliver Platt and there all great. The humour is what makes this stand out (though the epic climax is pretty awesome too) and it’s Definitely Worth Watching. There is plenty of action and innuendo but if your kid can handle Star Wars then they can handle this.

This is a region 1 disc on the cover but will play on a region 2 machine due to the disc being Region 1, 2, 3 & 4 really good buy and good story for an origin bring on some more DC for this caricature

In been collecting the dc comic so I was looking for Wonder Woman merchandise and so bought this with a tshirt and phone cover and DVDs boxset great!

This is a great Wonder Woman film with lots of humour. Good animation and great writing make this a must see.