I loved Gadot in the role. She perfectly balanced that innocence of Diana with the idea that she's entirely capable, independent, and, frankly, a badass, and I thought it worked, well, wonderfully. This is the kind of film DC needs, and I'm sad to see that some of you guys didn't enjoy it advice much as I did, because I did feel that magic I felt when I watched Superman: The Movie. This is a movie with heart, and I feel like it accomplishes everything they might have set out to do with Man of Steel, for instance, but failed to execute.
I look back on my experience tonight and I felt a full spectrum of emotions. Wonder as I watched the Amazons battle German soldiers, Trevor's daring escape from their clutches brought me back to the swashbuckling adventure of films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and what I loved the most was how the film made Diana feel. You are with her as she witnesses the horrors of war, and it is sad and it is depressing, and then there she is, walking into No Man's Land, graceful, powerful, and it's so empowering. My buddy and I were seated next to a woman and her three little girls and I can't help but wonder what that must've been like for them. I know feminism is a dirty word around here, but I think about how much of a long time coming this film has been, and it makes me happy, and they executed it beautifully because there was such a good balance. They did not sugar coat it. There were men screaming in pain on the side of the Battlefield, legs amputated, and it felt dark, and it felt gritty, because it should. If ever there were a place for "grit," it's in the muddied trenches of warfare, but the thing about it is: she didn't, and that's what was so amazing about it.
I think back to one of my first experiences with Wonder Woman as a kid, and it was the oversized Alex Ross/Paul Dini book Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth, and I felt the same feelings I did when I read that book and looked at Ross' bright, glowing artwork when I watched this film: I felt hope, and it was in that instant that I realized this was the film Man of Steel should've been. I look at Superman in that film, and he talks about his heritage and how on his world, this symbol means hope, and it just rings hollow and I think it is in large part because, frankly? Snyder's Superman is kind of selfish. I get what he's doing. I'm even a fan of his "hero's journey" approach to making the character realistic, but I see Diana, powerful and ruthless, yet compassionate, all at once. The joy she gets from indulging in a simple pleasure like eating ice cream, and I'm struck by how remarkably similar these characters are. For all their differences, the ideals they represent and the manner in which they're represented is remarkably similar. You compare the anguished on her face when the villagers she had previously laughed and danced and drank with the night prior are victims of a gas attack to Superman's "Crap. That happened" look in Batman V Superman and that tells you all you need to know about where Snyder needs to take these characters.
That being said, I really love how well this film meshes, thematically, with Snyder's vision. Bruce Wayne finding the picture was a great framing device, and I really hope they continue to build on the chemistry Affleck and Gadot had in BvS because his arc as a character actually mirrors her experiences with mankind fairly well, and I kind of hope Snyder and Whedon tie her journey in this film in with Batman's growth as a character from BvS. I think back to what Ares said about them being hateful and corrupt and destructive, and Diana's reply of "they're all that and so much more," and I think of Batman.
As hopeful as she is, it's actually a fairly nihilistic film, when you think about it. She kills the God Of War, thinking she saved humanity, and then you take one look at a history book and Hitler, and the countless conflicts that have ensued since "The War to End All Wars," and you reconcile that with her appearance in BvS, having gone off the grid for 100 years, and you realize that he was right all along. He might have been giving them a little nudge here and there, but people were to blame for those conflicts, not him, and you're sort of left with the same themes that BvS extolled; ideas of imperfect humanity, of men becoming monsters, and of men being just as capable of goodness. I don't know. I don't want to get hyped for Justice League, but considering that I was a fan of Snyder's vision beforehand, and how well executed this was, I'm getting more and more optimistic that Snyder can realize, at the very least, Superman, to the degree that Diana was here.
Anyway, I apologize for ranting. It's late.
