Review of Wonder Woman

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.