Originally Posted by
TrueWWFan
Hi Hgzip! Thank you for your insights! I wouldn't know what the others of this message board have been saying about the Wonder Woman movie because I haven't seen the other threads yet. But I'd love to answer you point by point...
1. I HATE that they made Diana the daughter of Zeus, just like you, but that really wasn't the film's fault. It was DC, as you said. It happened in the comic books and in the cartoon way before the movie came out, and I was mad about it then too. Why did they take her goddesses away from her? Why did she have to have a father in the traditional sense? I even wrote a long letter to Patty Jenkins (who is writing the next film, even if she hasn't officially signed on to direct yet), begging her to give Diana back her goddesses in the future, maybe in spirit form at least. As George Perez once said, WW without her mythology is like Thor without Asgard. I sort of get what DC was trying to do when they made that decision - it makes her a legitimate demi-god, but I think it also robs her of some of her feminism, and I think it was a bad move. I also think it was a bad move of the film to have all the gods be dead but Ares. And it begs a huge question... at what point did Zeus impregnate Hippolyta if he died when he created Themyscira? I was trying to write some fan fiction about Wonder Woman's past based on movie cannon, and the question is driving me mad. If Hippolyta already had Diana inside of her when the island was first built, then Diana lived on the island for thousands of years before Steve arrived. Most of that time would have been spent being an adult, not a child (unless she took that long to mature from child to adult, which would be hard to fathom). But she is portrayed as being young and innocent in the film when she leaves the island. As if she had just grown up recently. So which is it? Did Zeus impregnate Hippolyta thousands of years ago and she took forever to mature? Did she mature at a normal rate and she's much older and wiser than she seems? Or is the children's story that Hippolyta read to Diana false, and Zeus is still alive, and he impregnated her not that long ago? I really need to know the answer to this question! Does anyone else on this forum know?
2. I feel that in our modern era, it would be a mistake to make a film based directly on Marston's version of Wonder Woman. It would be like keeping Wolverine in yellow spandex. It wouldn't be palpable to a modern day audience. Do you realize how often Marston had WW in chains saying how much she liked being subservient? How often she was shown to want to give up everything so she could just be Steve's wife? The Golden and Silver Age issues are filled with this kind of stuff. Also, whether she's using her fists or a sword, it's violence no matter what. She's always been a dichotomy of philosophies. Yes, she believes in peace over all and that is her highest mission, but she's not going to get there by being Gandhi. She's a warrior, trained by the Amazons, and her fighting skills are unsurpassed. What good is having god-like speed and strength if she doesn't use it to protect those who can't protect themselves? The sword has always been a symbol of honor and protection as well as a killing device. Either way, she's fighting bad guys and protecting the weak,and she's doing this the only way she knows how. I think the sword is incredibly cool, and I don't mind her using it at all. She still believes that every life is sacred, and she alluded to that at one point in the film too. However, she will kill if necessary. This has been portrayed in many of her comic series (depending on the writer), and again is not the film's fault. It is a tough area, though, that could be debated both ways.
3. Okay, I gave this one a lot of thought, and I decided that if Diana has been on this island for thousands of years (and even if she hasn't) the tournament wouldn't make any sense because she would be immediately recognized, no matter how well she disguised herself. All the Amazons know each other quiet well, I would imagine, and if she's the only one in a mask of some kind, and she's mysteriously missing from the spectators, they would know. Hippolyta isn't an idiot. Just the shape of her legs, or a stray curl of her hair would give her away. I call this another "yellow spandex" moment that wouldn't jive with a modern audience. Yellow spandex is when they have to break with comic book cannon in order to translate to the big screen. Like her outfit... I couldn't be more relieved to see her out of her patriotic American bathing suit! I've always loved my Wonder Woman, but I certainly haven't always loved her costume. She looks WAAAAAY better now! I'm also so thrilled to see her living somewhere else in the world besides America! Because so many super heroes were created by American writers, our country is over-saturated with them. Her movie wouldn't have had nearly the impact if it had been told from an American point of view. I'm so grateful America wasn't involved in the film at all! We barely experienced either of the wars compared to what other countries had to endure!
4. An interesting point. I think all the side kicks had to be male in order to avoid alienating the male audience, since most of the comic book movie audience has always been male (up until WW, YAY!), so they had to balance things out a bit. But on a positive note, you'll notice she never listened to any of Steve's directions, and she never needed support or rescuing from anyone else. She stood alone and did the rescuing herself. Steve didn't save her from Ares. He didn't save her from the bad guys in the alley. He never saved her from anything except a bit of clothing embarrassment. And his friends didn't help her with anything either. Steve's friends helped Steve. They didn't help HER, and I think that's an important distinction.
Thank you so much for your insights! This is just the kind of debating I wanted to do! And of course, these are just my personal opinions. :-)