The Worst Film Ever

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Disappointing Continuation

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This film is an unoriginal and tired display of the "Battle of the Sexes" trope, thinly veiled as female empowerment. "All men are pigs", "women are emotional", "we like pretty things" and "Oh! Goodness, naughty language." Ironically, these stereotypes are all perpetuated primarily by the female protagonists, rather than by the supporting male characters. For no other reason than to perpetuate her own world view, Wonder Woman will say things like "You're starting to sound like a woman", "It's not polite to hit a lady", and embody the "Catty" stereotype. Don't get me wrong, it had some positive feminist moments (mostly in the form of monologue) but the message is undercut throughout by the hypocrisy of the characters. Seriously, get your crap together.

You know I was actually looking forward to this movie. I love the DCAU and I have long been waiting for a proper Wonder Woman movie (seriously seven Batman and six Superman but no Wonder Woman?), but this…this…this is something else entirely. Firstly there are some things about his film I like; I love this style of animation which seems to blend Anime with the traditional western cartoons in a way that ends up being fluid and nicely proportioned. I like the voice acting. I like the music and I do like that this film keeps with the newer ideas of Greek Mythology laid down by Clash of the Titans (the original) and Hercules the Legendary Journeys, stuff like Hades being a neutral force (though in this movie he looks like a cross between Ursula from The Little Mermaid and Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars), Ares as the villain, the Greek Gods being petty and cruel, stuff like that, also this depiction of Wonder Woman is nice being the type who takes no nonsense from anybody. Pity she's stuck in a movie that seems to be full of nonsense. Now I have said time and time again that female superhero movies are needlessly difficult because writers just can't seem to get past the whole gender thing, here the problem is less because our heroine is a woman and more because she's an Amazon. Amazons in film have been tricky from the get go, in the original myths they had nothing but contempt for men and only kidnapped a few for breeding purposes but they promptly killed them afterwards. Hollywood has never liked this and so every time Amazons appear in film they're always depicted as feminists who deep down inside are really using their tough warrior exterior to hide the fact they yearn for a man. To say this was sexist would be an understatement. This movie falls into the same trap, the amazons are tough and being immortal they have no need for men at all, and yet one of their own frees Ares from captivity and helps him and when pressed for a reason she pretty much says that she's loved starved. But it gets worse, even the regular world falls victim to the Amazon movie clichés like all the men are drooling sexists jerks including Ares, not Hades but I don't honestly he's a man in this version. The worst case of these cliché Amazons movie men is Steve Trevor, a pilot who crash lands on the Amazon island and has to be Wonder Woman's guide in the regular world, he's a drooling sexist idiot pretty much, sure wonder woman hilariously puts him in his place a few times but he gets old fast. And just in case things weren't bad enough all the non-amazon women (of which there are two) fall into two categories; male dependent or frustrated by male dominance. In summary this movie comes close to being a decent female Superhero movie but the Amazon movie clichés drag it down to the point where it stops being fun, the action is fun, the story is interesting at times but this film isn't really worth watching.

This is a corny superhero movie with a somewhat cool direction. I actually liked the direction they went with one of the most iconic super-heroine in comic book history. And it does have some witty dialogue mixed in with some corny ones. Although most of the jokes are directed towards adults. It's actually a decent movie showing the origin story of Wonder Woman, like where she comes from and what she represents and all that. The animation is well done and the story and direction is fast-paced and entertaining. But also with enough development to at least understand where the characters are coming from and their characteristics. Some may find the plot to be ridiculous like out of some corny 70's flick and yeah, the plot is mostly predictable. But it still has enough entertainment value.7.2/10

In the 2009 DC Universe animated film, "Wonder Woman," the first noted super-heroine of any significance in modern superhero comic books is given her own beautifully animated first cinematic direct-to-video outing. It's a great animated movie, much like the great "Green Lantern: First Flight" (2009), which was released the same year as this film. One of the greatest things to be said about that earlier "Green Lantern: First Flight" is that it was far, far better than the live-action "Green Lantern" (2011) from last year.What's most incredible about that statement is that now, Wonder Woman is likely to experience the same fate, that a short animated film is likely to be far better than any live-action adaptation could ever be. Admittedly, while I'm largely a Marvel Comics reader and my favorite super-heroine is Fathom (as created by the late Michael Turner), I've always admired Wonder Woman, but at arm's length only. When watching this movie (and reading up on the history of the character), my interest for the character certainly deepened a lot more.Psychologist William Moulton Marston (who apparently also invented the polygraph machine) co-created Wonder Woman for DC Comics with his wife Elizabeth and their live-in mutual lover Olive Byrne, and she first appeared in "All Star Comics #8" in December of 1941. Wonder Woman was seen as a feminist icon, a kind of female Superman, yet still possessing the love and compassion that is unique of a woman. I also remember reading that some social critics accused the character of condoning the hatreds of men by women (misandry), promoting bondage fantasies and other aberrant sexual behaviors/fetishes, and also encouraging lesbianism (!?!). And despite Wonder Woman's obvious appeal to young female readers, there's also the tiny little fact that she just looks smoking-hot in that get-up (in case you haven't already figured it out yet, I'm a guy).Speaking of the movie, boy, is it entertaining and gripping. Like "Green Lantern: First Flight," "Wonder Woman" establishes itself in pretty quick-step tempo: on the island of Themyscira, a proud, strong race of eternally youthful Amazon women (based on the ancient Amazons of Greek mythology) live in peaceful seclusion from the evil Man's World (the rest of human society). A millennium ago, the malevolent god Ares (voiced by Alfred Molina), the God of War, was defeated in battle by Hippolyta (voiced by Virginia Madsen), queen of the Amazons, and sentenced to eternal imprisonment by the god Zeus (voiced by David McCallum) and Hera (Marg Helgenberger).Years later, an internal betrayal allows Ares to escape, and Hippolyta's strong, courageous daughter Diana (voiced by Keri Russell), earns the right to not only track down Ares and bring him to justice, but to escort downed fighter pilot Steve Trevor (voiced by "Firefly" Nathan Fillion) back to human civilization. And thus, Diana quickly earns her "Wonder Woman" namesake as she tracks down - using her patented, Amazonian-forged Lasso of Truth and indestructible bracelets - the nefarious God of War as he seeks to turn Earth into a graveyard."Wonder Woman" is fantastic! The film's story is apparently loosely adapted from a specific run in "Wonder Woman" comics called "Gods and Mortals" by artists George Perez, Len Wein, and Greg Potter in 1987. The voice acting by a first-rate cast made the film extremely watchable. Even more so, there's some strong character development here, one of the main criticisms I had with "Green Lantern: First Flight," which plunged head-first into the action without really letting us get to know who Hal Jordan (voiced there by former "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star Christopher Meloni) was before he was given a power ring and thus became the Green Lantern. Keri Russell gives the film's best voice acting performance as Wonder Woman, whose character is tracked to the beginnings of her DC Comics super-heroine career. Additionally, Nathan Fillion gives the film's most enthusiastic performance as the wise-cracking hot-shot pilot Steve Trevor.Although it runs only at a brisk 74 minutes and is deftly directed by Lauren Montgomery (who also directed "Green Lantern: First Flight"), it's still an engaging, action-packed thrill ride of an animated superhero adventure. Its violence could be pushing it for a "PG-13" rating, so I'd be a bit more careful when watching this around young children. I can only hope that unlike last year's "Green Lantern," the live-action adaptation of "Wonder Woman" will be something worth watching more than once.8/10