kellym40 film review

The female heroin goes to battle in DC’s ‘Wonder Woman’

Rating 2.5/5

With the release Wonder Woman from DC, one might “wonder” what the purpose is. DC seems to be attempting to build a universe but I don’t think they’re at the level Marvel is with their superhero flicks. I liked this film a little more than Dawn of Justice, but that’s not saying much.

Director Patty Jenkins takes the screenplay from Allan Heinberg and turns it into 141 minutes of underdeveloped characters, a seemingly tired story, and a derivative plot. Heinberg, Zack Snyder, and Jason Fuchs developed the story.

This is the origin of Wonder Woman, aka Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), who was seen in last year’s Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I suppose the film did its job by introducing the character and telling her story, but it just didn’t catch my interest that much. That is to say it didn’t hold my sustaining interest through the film that much.

The film seemed to reflect Captain America where a hero is seen out of time. This character is one where I don’t know much about either. The film begins when Diana is a young girl with an urgent need to train and fight like the other women of the island, but her mother won’t let her. But of course, she ultimately begins to train and Diana learns how to handle herself in battle.

Flash forward a few years when Diana is older. The story advances.

Through an unexplained time warp thing, a pilot crashes in the ocean off the shores of Themyscira. Diana saves him. Captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) tells the women of this great war in which Diana believes to be influenced by the god Ares. Determined to stop the God of War she returns with Captain Trevor to put an end to Ares’ reign.

Diana tries to fit in. Steve tries to help her. He finds some help to track down some bad guys. Diana and Steve begin to fall in love. He sacrifices himself to help save the world. Diana realizes her true potential and….

I won’t spoil it for those that haven’t seen it yet, but I imagine most of you have. And if you have, then you know what happens.

I suppose the fault I find with this film (and all the DC films I’ve seen) is that it just doesn’t sustain my interest. I mean they do have somewhat interesting stories, but the polished delivery is not there for me. I don’t know what it is about these DC films thus far, but that’s how I’ve viewed all of them. They seem to drag in a lot of places and it really messed with the timing and pacing for me to really enjoy.

For the most part, the acting was average. I don’t believe there was anything special. Gadot portrayed the character with a sense of determination and strong will with just enough of a sense of heroism that came across in the film at times, but most of the time her performance seemed quiet and reserved. Pine was decent enough with his character but it was nothing spectacular. Connie Nielsen plays Queen Hippolyta, Diana’s mother, with the love and protection only a mother can give. Diana’s aunt, Antiope (Robin Wright) trains Diana into the strong, determined woman Diana becomes. Rounding out the good guys (and providing much humor and light heartedness in the film) were Ewen Bremner, Eugene Brave Rock, and Said Taghmaoui.

The villains seemed to be added on in this story. There were some twists to know the identity of the actual evil arch nemesis, the god Ares. General Ludendorff (Danny Huston) and a mad scientist Doctor Maru nicknamed Doctor Poison played by Elena Anaya, didn’t really seem to play much of a role in the film as one might be led to believe. Honestly, I thought if these characters weren’t in the film as much as they were or maybe only mentioned, the film could have cut some time off and still told the story it wanted to tell.

I believe the film set up the story and main plot well enough for the characters and the audience to see, but it was the execution of the second and third acts with its slow-moving plot points and character and story development that was somewhat incongruent. That takes me out of a film every time. Every. Time.

Some might have enjoyed this film. Some might have really loved this film. But again, I couldn’t really get on board with this DC film like the ones before. I wanted to like it more. In fact going in, I thought, “maybe this is the DC film I will enjoy.” But not so much. I want to like these DC films. I want to enjoy them. But I just can’t. Maybe Justice League will be better. But I’m not getting my hopes up.

 

 

kellym40 film review

A brooding look for ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’

Rating 2/5

About a couple of months before audience’s reveled in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War, DC finally put forth their first multi-hero effort in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Writers Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer penned this script with Zack Snyder directing. His most recent directorial outing was 2013’s Man of Steel. Other directing credits include 300, Watchmen, and Sucker Punch. Snyder has a dark, brooding style that, most of the time, leaves me feeling uneasy and gloomy while watching his films. Many of Tim Burton’s films have a dark overtone, but are still somewhat more enjoyable than this. The script is a lengthy one as the film runs just over two and half hours. There is a lot packed in the film and overall it just seemed cumbersome.

Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) thinks Superman/Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) is a danger to the world and he must be stopped. Superman thinks Batman is a dangerous vigilante and must be stopped. Then the film spends half the time setting up the big, climactic battle between the two caped heroes that seems to cause more destruction than really solves anything. Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) comes in and ultimately wants to pit these two together and create Doomsday from the corpse of General Zod to put an end to the heroes. It also introduces and poorly sets up Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) who comes in towards the middle of their battle and helps them defeat Doomsday. It seems DC was in a rush to try to introduce this character into their cinematic universe that they didn’t really develop the character enough to really do much of anything. They could have left the character out and most of that storyline and the film still would not be that different. Now Wonder Woman’s solo film is set to be released next June and a trailer has just been released at the San Diego Comic Con this weekend. You can view that trailer below:

Wonder Woman

They introduced this character now and then go back and release a film, which looks sort of like an origin film, and then put her back into Justice League to be out in theaters later next year in November. There was a trailer for that film shown at SDCC this weekend as well. You can view the trailer below:

Justice League

Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) were teased at the end of Batman v. Superman and will be in Justice League next year. Then those characters, as with the aforementioned Wonder Woman, are going to get their solo films. It appears DC is sort of going backwards from Marvel. Putting these characters together and then giving them their own films doesn’t appear to be the greatest decision. But I may be wrong.

When it was announced that Affleck was cast as the new Bruce Wayne/Batman, there was uproarious upheaval in the decision. There seemed to be mixed reviews about Affleck’s portrayal of the character. There were seemingly positive reviews but there were those that didn’t like the choice. It appeared to be mediocre at best. His Batman dominated more when he was fighting, although his use of firearms was a bit much. It was too aggressive for my understanding of the character.

Amy Adams brings the same low-key performance to Lois Lane in this film as she did in Man of Steel. She had moments of strength and independence but there just didn’t seem there was enough of those moments. Jeremy Irons is a great actor, but here again, it was somewhat of another dull performance of the Alfred character. Perhaps the overall dark, brooding tone had something to do with the performances. I’m not sure. But they just didn’t have that punch to the characters to hold my interest. It was almost like viewing a live theatrical performance where the actors have low energy and the play just seems to drag. I believe the same could be said here.

However, Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor was different. I wasn’t sure about his casting either at the start. Of course, I wasn’t sure about Heath Ledger cast as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, but he was brilliant. Overall, I did like the way the Luthor was portrayed. It was completely different from Gene Hackman’s version and also the Kevin Spacey portrayal in Superman Returns. Eisenberg played him with some high energy and more psychotic (for lack of a better word).

It felt like they crammed too much in this film. As I mentioned earlier, Wonder Woman’s character and storyline could have been left out and teased the way Aquaman, the Flash and Cyborg were and the film wouldn’t have suffered any (or at least anymore than it did). The storyline where Luthor creates Doomsday seemed like an unnecessary one and just added to “create” more excitement and spectacle. That whole sequence could have probably been cut and the battle between Superman and Batman could have ended differently or with the same outcome and moved on from there. I still question how it ended. But maybe those scenes were left in there to give it more spectacle and something for the fans. The film had some merit, just not enough to keep it interesting.