I have read most of the Wonder Woman comics since George Pérez's reinvention of her in 1987. The storyline in this movie is clearly inspired by the first six issues of that series, which featured a battle with Ares. This movie had the major change that the Amazons had actually been created to guard Ares, who in this version sits in a dungeon on Paradise Island itself. I thought that was okay. The circumstances and basic plot have been simplified in a good and manageable way for this movie, and it featured plenty of action-heavy battles, which is really cool. I had no problem with the violence here (even though I agree that superheroes are, ideally, not supposed to kill), as most of it was perpetrated on mythological creatures. If there is to be a really threatening villain, then the violence has to be on at least this sort of level (people should note that this movie is not supposed to be shown on Saturday morning along with kiddie cartoons; this is for an older audience). Ares and his powers and his ultimate demise were handled very, very well here, and I found the ending particularly hilarious.
The problems of characterization owes to the shortness of the movie. Both WW and Steve Trevor lacked depth and development, and this was a shame. Trevor was just any old capable soldier; a typical male. Not the sensitive guy from the comics. Diana indeed was not quite shocked enough about the cultural differences in "man's world", and by the end she'd taken all too easily and uncritically to the usual conventions of femininity. There were also a number of details that could have been handled better. I didn't notice if her boots had high heels, but a major battle was fought without her boots on, and at one point she hurts her opponent with a heel from a woman's shoe in a shopping mall (which is getting wrecked by the fight), and seems to stop to consider it. This detail was not followed up on, although it could easily have been used for something (like making her decide to wear high heels - or not). The pre-Crisis WW did have high heels, while the post-Crisis one did not. I always liked the heel-less WW - seems more natural and less artificially feminine -, but it would have been nice to have the movie at least address this issue.
Even with its faults, this is still the best animated superhero movie I've seen yet. But then, I'm not really a big fan of the younger audiences stuff; I do prefer live action.
Let me say, by the way, that commentator samkay1 does not understand Wonder Woman's world, or DC's use of Greek mythology. There was no time-travel in this movie, nor were Artemis and Persephone supposed to be the original goddesses; they are merely named after them. Artemis, introduced in the comics in the '90s, became a hugely popular character, who took over the mantle of Wonder Woman for a while, and that's why she is included here. Personally, I never cared much for her, but apparently DC feels that she has become a classic character of the Wonder Woman cast.
Anyway, nice superhero action movie, but still somewhat aways from being perfect.
7 out of 10.
The problems of characterization owes to the shortness of the movie. Both WW and Steve Trevor lacked depth and development, and this was a shame. Trevor was just any old capable soldier; a typical male. Not the sensitive guy from the comics. Diana indeed was not quite shocked enough about the cultural differences in "man's world", and by the end she'd taken all too easily and uncritically to the usual conventions of femininity. There were also a number of details that could have been handled better. I didn't notice if her boots had high heels, but a major battle was fought without her boots on, and at one point she hurts her opponent with a heel from a woman's shoe in a shopping mall (which is getting wrecked by the fight), and seems to stop to consider it. This detail was not followed up on, although it could easily have been used for something (like making her decide to wear high heels - or not). The pre-Crisis WW did have high heels, while the post-Crisis one did not. I always liked the heel-less WW - seems more natural and less artificially feminine -, but it would have been nice to have the movie at least address this issue.
Even with its faults, this is still the best animated superhero movie I've seen yet. But then, I'm not really a big fan of the younger audiences stuff; I do prefer live action.
Let me say, by the way, that commentator samkay1 does not understand Wonder Woman's world, or DC's use of Greek mythology. There was no time-travel in this movie, nor were Artemis and Persephone supposed to be the original goddesses; they are merely named after them. Artemis, introduced in the comics in the '90s, became a hugely popular character, who took over the mantle of Wonder Woman for a while, and that's why she is included here. Personally, I never cared much for her, but apparently DC feels that she has become a classic character of the Wonder Woman cast.
Anyway, nice superhero action movie, but still somewhat aways from being perfect.
7 out of 10.