(I am not a comic otaku, I’m a manga otaku. But to appease the fans, I will try to reflect on the movie’s connection to the comic canon itself so as to demonstrate I do appreciate how it began. And there will be spoilers, since this is Direct to DVD anyway)
The Wonder Woman franchise is not nearly as appreciated as it probably was back in the 40s and 60-70s period. Wonder Woman has aged awkwardly, even if she still is popular, evidenced by sales of her comics today. But I imagine there’s something of an opposition by some feminists today if only because of her clothing choice (scantily clad and all) and a general problem with her weakness being bondage by men (Curse of Aphrodite I believe). I’m not sure if the latter is actually emphasized as much, but I imagine she still needs a weakness: and what better weakness to use than a Greek mythology reference to when Aphrodite and Ares were caught by Hephaestus in the middle of sex?
The animated film is supposed to be a reference to the “Gods and Mortals” arc that was a reboot of Wonder Woman in the late 80s and it does follow the plot in the basic premises, though I’ll get to the discrepancies later. It begins with a flashback to a fight between the Amazons (who apparently lived with men at this point in time and only became ultra feminists afterwards) and the forces of Ares, the primary antagonist in the film. There is a particular clash between Hippolyta and Ares alongside the fighting we see between Amazons and baddies, all concluding with Hippolyta’s beheading of Thrax, her son with Ares. Before this, a bookworm Amazon called Alexa causes Persephone (the Amazon, not the Goddess) to be wounded in the face. Afterwards, Hera and Zeus stop Hippolyta from killing their son (one of the few kids they had together), binding his power to draw energy from the chaos of humans with gauntlets that can only be removed by another god (gee I wonder which god would be bad enough to remove them…) Anyway, the Amazons are given the island of Themyscira to have the utopia they wanted. And then we get Wonder Woman’s origin story; she was sculpted from sand/clay by her mother and with a little blood from her thumb and a prayer to Hera, a lightning bolt strikes the effigy of the baby and a real daughter comes from the sand falling off. And so Diana was born. She grows up to be a great warrior, but her mother, as many protective parents do, says her daughter cannot go to the outside world, for all men are pigs (or something like that). She shows Persephone as an indirect example, who is guarding Ares, still imprisoned after probably 20 years of being punished. We then shift over to our male protagonist, Steve Trevor, piloting his jet. His other partners are killed and he crash lands on Themyscira. He’s eventually captured and they decide that he’s harmless after using the Lasso of Truth on him. Diana sneaks into the competition to decide who will be the emissary, in effect dooming her replacement, the scholarly Alexa from before, to be killed by Persephone, who has betrayed the Amazons to Ares and frees him. Diana wins the competition and travels with Steve back to the outside world. She has the usual reaction that all females in the outside world are in bondage and to men as their servants and housewives. But she is a stand out gal and demonstrates her Amazon upbringing very well, out-drinking Steve with ease at the bar. Deimos, one of Ares’ many other sons, stalks out Diana and fights her and after being defeated, kills himself with one of the snakes on his head, turning into dust (charming). Diana and Steve track Ares to a location where he plans to do a ritual which will grant him access to the underworld. He succeeds even with Diana and Steve’s help, Steve taking Diana away after she’s injured during the fight. Ares succeeds in getting to Hades’ throne room and he then gets the bands taken off by his “loving” uncle. We shift to Diana and Steve bitching and moaning about gender relations and they get over it with the help of Steve’s military values of not leaving anyone behind and having an aching and obvious crush on the Amazon princess. Ares proceeds to wage war on the entire world, and after a bit of struggle on Diana and Steve’s part, the Amazons suddenly break their vow of isolation and journey to the outside world to stop Ares. Diana and Ares fight while Steve stops the big nuclear missile shot by the president at Themyscira (because we must destroy that which we know little about if they are an enemy according to much U.S. logic). There is a fight between Hippolyta and Persephone, as well as one between Artemis (another Amazon who’s kind of Diana’s bodyguard) and Alexa (resurrected from the dead as a pseudo zombie). Diana eventually tricks Ares into shocking himself with Zeus’s lightning and kicks his butt accordingly, chopping off his head. He is then made a slave of Hades alongside his son who was revealed beforehand. Diana then returns to Themyscira, but is told by her mother that her real mission is to bridge the gap between the Amazons and the outside world. She returns and the movie ends with her fighting The Cheetah to connect to a potential future Wonder Woman animated series.
Wonder Woman’s design is nice, adjusted a bit, not nearly as in Justice League Unlimited, but also keeping the femininity alongside her fighting spirit. Her hair seems more like a black blotch on her head, but it still behaves like hair, so the complaint is more a superficial critique of its appearance. Steve Trevor is the masculine lead, but is subdued by Wonder Woman’s near equal assertiveness into a comic relief character most of the time with his interactions with both Amazons and women in general. And his blond hair is maintained, which is not so portrayed in the TV series, popular as it was. Ares differs a bit from the Ares depicted in Justice League Unlimited (my first experience with him), but the general warmongering and yet gentlemanly manner still makes him an excellent Olympian villain. He changes forms at least once into a form reminding me of Eric the Red from X-Men. Hades’ depiction is oddly fat and hedonistic, like the robot from Futurama almost, but one can imagine that he could fight relatively well even as heavyset as he is, like a Kingpin figure almost. He does give you the feeling of the lord of the dead, lazy and not having much to do, but also seeing ahead three moves in the proverbial chess game that the film depicts between Ares and everyone else. The other Amazons, such as Artemis, Alexa, Persephone and Hippolyta depict the variety of personalities within the spectrum that is the Amazon kingdom. Artemis in particular is the far extreme of one ready for battle and willing to hurt anyone that threatens Themyscira or Princess Diana in particular. Hippolyte is strict and matronly, but ready to fight as well. But she also has more flexibility than Artemis on the issues plaguing the Amazon kingdom. Persephone as an antagonist depicts the theme throughout of the conflict between the Amazon’s female nature and their training as warriors, as does Alexa in a sense, being more interested in academia and not willing to be a fighter until she is resurrected as a zombie of sorts. And the end version of the Cheetah is a nice change from the version in Justice League, though related, making me hope they go through with a Wonder Woman animated series.
The themes to speak of are already mostly explained. The Amazons themselves show a cornucopia of different female perspectives, not to mention how they interact with Steve Trevor, the only good male depicted in the series alongside Ares, who was indicated to have raped Hippolyta and seduced Persephone. There is also that inevitable paradox that people would bring up that the Amazons are raised against their essential nature. None of them are ever truly mothers, nor are they ever given the chance to love a man as a woman usually does. It begs one to ask if all the women on Themyscira are lesbians, but it would not be the best way to go, since it assumes a number of things not demonstrated either way in the film. The film doesn’t exactly do anything regarding the issue of war, but does point out that without tempering by some virtue like justice or honor, war becomes little more than a manifestation of fear and raw desire that only hurts everyone involved, including the one instigating it. This is especially clear with what happens to Thrax and Ares, slain in battle in the same way and both becoming slaves of Hades, making one curious if he’ll be the main antagonist through the potential animated series in the future. There’s a discrepancy or two with how Ares is involved with Steve Trevor, the army and such, not to mention the absence of a subplot involving two halves of an amulet, one of which Wonder Woman has, but the simplicity of the film is necessary for what is a feature length project anyway.
Overall, the film gets a great rating from me, as it does what many have wanted for a decade or so since Wonder Woman was rebooted in the late 80s, to reshape and modernize her for today’s audience. Now we have a way to introduce her through the animated medium alongside Lynda Carter’s popular live action depiction in the 70s and the Justice League version, a nice midway form relating to the most recent depiction. It has a basic and easy to follow plot, unlike Superman: Doomsday in many regards, and introduces a character that needs to be appropriated into today’s culture with women advancing more in the working force. I give it a solid 5 and a recommendation of about 90%. Until next time, Namaste and Aloha.
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