Wonder Woman, despite being one of the biggest and most well-known female superheroes, has never been in a live action movie, so this is kind of a big deal. And as a huge Wonder Woman fan, I am ridiculously and impossibly excited, but I also have some concerns.
There is a large part of me, a very large part, that is annoyed Wonder Woman is not, as of yet, getting her own movie. But I get it; the big boys at DC and Warner Bros. don’t think Wonder Woman can carry her own movie. I’m okay with her featuring in a movie with other heroes, but here is the thing: Wonder Woman does not play fucking second fiddle to Batman or Superman.
I’ve been a Marvel kid since I could pronounce the word Spider-Man. I’ve long found many of DC’s titles boring, or found that their work was too busy putzing around trying to relate to their Golden Age and Silver Age comics to be compelling. So, with the obvious exception of Batman and one or two other titles, I’m not DC’s biggest fan. One of those “other titles” is Wonder Woman. She’s an archetypal ancient Greek hero, a quintessential badass, a household name, and a feminist icon.
I’ve always been rather disappointed that after god knows how many Batman and Superman movies, even an ill-fated Green Lantern movie, there has been no substantive big screen or television effort for Wonder-Woman since comics’ Modern Age (although there was a direct-to-tv animated film, which was actually quite good). Some people would like to see that change, and now “some people” includes not just yours truly, but also Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara.
Having been instrumental in making a new Warner Bros. deal with JK Rowling, Tsujihara is on the lookout for new content to produce through the WB studio. He’s been rather direct in the discussion of new properties he wants to work with, saying that “we need to get Wonder Woman on the big screen or TV.”
Someone with money, power, and real pull has recognized the massive potential for Wonder Woman titles. That makes me happy enough to pop out of my star-spangled metal bra, especially when it comes without the caveat that she’s too difficult to write or whatever. Unlike, say, DC President Diane Nelson’s rather shifty claim that “She has been, since I started, one of the top three priorities for DC and for Warner Bros. We are still trying right now, but she’s tricky.”
I understand that there’s a lot of backstory to Wonder Woman, and I understand that yes, it would be truly catastrophic if a film were produced and happened to be awful. But to me, it would seem like the solution to that is to get it together, and do it right (something DC is having trouble with lately), not to just pussyfoot around it. There’s just not a good reason why a Wonder Woman movie couldn’t be made, and made well. Here, have a video to that effect, by which I mean a cogent and perfect argument as to why we should have this movie now:
Once you’re done nodding your head in agreement, go ahead and check this out:
I’d argue that this gives us a pretty good sense of how a Wonder-Woman film might be realized, albeit with superior production values and dear-sweet-god-I’m-begging-you-please-better-fight-choreography (it’s a long standing pet peeve of mine that many superhero movies have awful fight choreography). How might Wonder-Woman battle moral corruption and religious intolerance, while also battling the monsters of Greek mythology and the opponents of the Justice League? There’s a question a Wonder Woman film could seek to answer. Furthermore, Wonder Woman is essentially an alien, the child of gods, much like Thor or Superman, so what do we learn from her? How does she relate to a strange world in which there are new kinds of deceit and enemies are less straightforward than Titans, a world with wars whose level of pettiness had previously been reserved for fights between Zeus and Hera?
There’s not a lack of producible content; there’s not even a dearth of artists who want to work on a Wonder Woman property. What gives? As Susana Polo has pointed out, they just seem to have real trouble figuring out how to make a compelling and exciting film that isn’t about a white man. That’s disappointing. Listen up, DC/Warner Bros./Whoever:
We all love LEGOs, right? They’re creative, constructive, and ever-changing, which make them one of the most perfect toys to spend hours playing with. How can all that be packed into one movie? I don’t know, but Warner Bros. Pictures is attempting to do just that.
Based on the preview, I can’t get a real sense of what the story will be about, other than that a comedic hero will be bumbling his way toward saving the world, but I can see that a great deal of effort has gone into creating a world that LEGO fans can easily recognize and enjoy. I can see a few of the pieces and characters I’ve played with myself and am already getting excited to see these toys I’ve loved for years come to life. Sure, this is far from the first time LEGOs have been animated, but I never watched the Bionicle series and I’m not much of a gamer so I never experienced any of the LEGO video games for myself. As such, this will be my first time seeing these toys in motion, barring stop-motion videos on YouTube.
One of the things I find most interesting in the preview is that everything in this world appears to be modeled after actual LEGO pieces, right down to the laser beams being shot out of the characters’ weapons. The backgrounds all seem to be constructed (digitally) from LEGO bricks and the props the characters use are the same ones available for purchase in actual construction packs. I love this attention to detail because it would have been so much easier to just design a landscape in which the LEGO characters could exist, but instead the film’s creators really went the distance and committed to creating a LEGO world.
The movie itself looks pretty funny, if I do say so myself. Even if the reluctant hero storyline has been done to death in recent years, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t still be enjoyable. The Batman joke alone got an actual chuckle out of me, but the sight gags and great voice cast come together nicely here for an amusing little preview of what will hopefully be an even more amusing feature-length film.
It’s that time again! Let’s take a look at today’s Web Crush!
Skottie Young is an artist and cartoonist who has work with Marvel, Warner Bros., Image, Upper Deck, Mattel and many other well known groups. His art style is not something I always like or enjoy, which is why it surprises me everyday when I view his latest sketches to find that I absolutely fall in love with them. The style works perfectly with the characters he draws and gives them a new look that is so distinct yet still so perfect for who he is depicting.
I strongly suggest everyone check out my latest Web Crush!
It’s Trailer Tuesdays! This week’s trailer is Wrath of the Titans.
The original Clash of the Titans is a classic. The newest one is considered a piece of shit that promised me awesome 3D effects that ended up being terrible. Furthermore, the new Clash of the Titans could have had promise if they had done the one thing that the original didn’t: actually follow Greek mythology!
I never understood why so many people felt the need to change Greek mythology. The original myths are filled with so much sex and blood shed you would think very little would need to be changed to get audiences in to the theaters.
But if the trailer for Clash of the Titans‘ sequel Wrath of the Titans is any indicator, I would say it’s because we think we can do it better than the ancient Greeks. You know, those long lasting myths that endured for forever and interest people even now, clearly Warner Bros. writers can do better than that.
This not at all anticipated sequel seems to basically be a rehashing of the first one. Here is the premise of the movie as stated by Wikipedia:
A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year-old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity’s lack of devotion, the gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans led by Kronos: father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus (Liam Neeson), Hades (Ralph Fiennes), and Poseidon (Danny Huston). The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful father long ago, leaving him to rot in the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep within the cavernous underworld.
Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades and Ares (Édgar Ramírez) make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus. The Titans’ strength grows stronger as Zeus’s remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth. Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Poseidon’s demigod son Agenor (Toby Kebbell), and fallen god Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind
As you can see this throws out all semblance of actual Greek myth and replaces it with crap. Hades and Ares are evil! Never would have seen that coming. This is a personal pet peeve for me as Hades is my favorite Greek god. Seriously, read the myths. Hades is the only god that is actually kind of nice. It is nice to actually see Hephaestus be a main character, but I doubt he’ll be a crippled burn victim like he is in the myths.
So, thanks, Wrath of the Titans, for giving us yet another predictable stereotypical action movie. If that’s how you like your action movies and don’t mind the poor understanding of Greek mythology then this movie is for you. If you want to see something good this March, I suggest you go see The Hunger Games, or hell, maybe stop rotting your brain and pick up the book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, as that’s entertaining and accurate to Greek myths, while still doing something new and interesting (do not under any circumstances watch the movie though).
Some shocking news was released just a few days ago: Gal Gadot is playing Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman/Superman movie.
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 