For several years now, there has been a struggle for spectator hearts and wallets among two titans of the comic book world: DC and Marvel. Each of them successfully builds its own movie universe. While fans of Marvel products are waiting for the release of the film “Tor-3: Ragnarok”, DC delighted its fans with the film “Wonder Woman”. Let's find out what he was talking about and how his audience and professional critics met him.
The film "Wonder Woman" (Wonder Woman)
This picture was the first in the history of DC, which was shot by a female director (Patty Jenkins). Perhaps that is why the project turned out to be different from others, not only at DC, but also at Marvel.
In financial terms, the film Wonder Woman became the most successful in its universe after the Dark Knight trilogy, collecting 819.5 million with a budget of 150 million.
Such an unusual success for DC led to the fact that the studio announced a sequel, which should appear on the screens at the end of 2019.
Place in the DC Universe
Wonder Woman is the fourth in the chronology of the new DC Universe. It was preceded by the Suicide Squad, which, with a more stellar cast and budget exceeding Wonder Woman, collected almost 75 million less at the box office.
At the same time, Wonder Woman herself (Gal Gadot) already appeared in the second picture of the cycle “Batman vs. Superman: At the Dawn of Justice”. Also, in addition to the sequel, she will appear in 2 parts of the Justice League.
main characters
As the name implies, the main character of the film "Wonder Woman" is a woman. This is the daughter of the Queen of the Amazons - Diana.
Due to the fact that the girl grew up on an island hidden from the outside world, where only women live, at first she cannot adapt to the ordinary human society. However, her kindness and desire to bring peace gradually conquer the people around her and help them change for the better.
Beloved beautiful Diana is a British pilot and spy Steve Trevor. Unlike the princess, he is perfectly adapted to his modern society. In this case, Steve is ready to accept something new. Although he does not believe in the mission of his girlfriend, but tries to help her.
Diana's mother and aunt, Queen Hippolyta and General Antiope, are women who have seen the outside world and are aware of its dangers. Each of them madly loves Diana and tries to protect her. Moreover, their methods of education are different. Hippolyta is trying to hide her daughter from the truth, and Antiope realizes that the girl cannot escape from her destiny. Therefore, she secretly teaches her niece to fight.
The main antagonist is the god of war Ares (Ares). He is cruel and treacherous. At one time, becoming the cause of the death of the ancient gods, Ares now seeks to destroy humanity. Moreover, as a true diplomat, he acts by cunning, claiming that people themselves are guilty of their wars. After all, he only gives them information about the methods of destruction, and how they use it is not his fault.
Plot
The film "Wonder Woman" begins with a story about the childhood of the main character. She lives on an island of Amazons sheltered from the outside world.
From an early age, they tell her about her mission to save people from Arey. At the same time, the mother and the aunt hide from the baby knowledge about her true origin.
When the princess grows up, an airplane with Steve Trevor crashes near the island. The girl, together with the Amazons, saves him from the pursuing Germans.
From the guest, the inhabitants of the island will learn about the most bloody war in the history of mankind.
Diana realizes that it is her time to find the god of war and kill him with the help of an ancient sword, nicknamed "Slayer of the Gods." Then it will be possible to stop the war. Contrary to the mother’s ban, she leaves the island with Steve and leaves for London.
Here, the heroes learn that the British authorities are ready to sign a truce with Germany and do not pay attention to the information Steve obtained about working on weapons of mass destruction.
Diana and Steve decide for themselves to find a laboratory where experiments are being conducted and to neutralize it.
Diana also believes that Ares is hiding under the mask of the German general Ludendorff, who oversees this project. Having taken with them three assistants (shooter, smuggler and another spy), the heroes hit the road.
By fate, they have to participate in the battle on the Western Front (Belgium) and help free the small village. Celebrating the victory, the princess and the pilot spend the night together.
In the future, both of them manage to get into the reception, where the top of the German command gathered. Diana tries to kill the general, but Steve stops her.
While the heroes argue, the Germans are testing new gas in a previously liberated village. All its inhabitants perish, and Ludendorff orders to equip the plane with new weapons and carry out the attack.
Soon the princess manages to get to the general and defeat him. To her amazement, nothing changes. Steve tries to calm her down, confesses her love, gives her a watch and says goodbye to Diana. Then he gets on a plane with ammunition and directs it to a safe area, thus saving people from death. At the same time, Trevor himself dies in the explosion.
While Steve accomplishes his feat, the real Ares comes to his beloved. It turns out to be one of the British politicians - Sir Patrick Morgan, who had previously sponsored the Trevor expedition.
The god of war tells Diana the truth about her origin. It turns out that it is not the sword that is the killer of the gods, but it, since only a representative of its kind can destroy one god. The princess is actually the daughter of Zeus - that is, Areya's sister.
Since they are the last representatives of their race, Ares invites her to join him and help destroy humanity. When Diana refuses, he tries to kill her and he almost manages to deal with her. But, seeing the death of Steve, the princess is shocked, and this helps to awaken her true strength. Diana kills her brother and thus helps end the war.
At the same time, she mourns for her lost lover and always protects his farewell gift. In the future, the princess remains among the people under the name "Diana Prince".
A century passes and Bruce Wayne (Batman) invites her to join the Justice League. In the finale, a girl dressed in her battle armor rushes to the aid of those in need.
Issue
Despite the entertaining genre, the film "Wonder Woman" raised many important questions.
The first of these is the problems of wars that people have been waging for centuries. Through the mouths of various heroes, the tape in direct text says that if humanity does not change its mind and stops inventing more and more terrible weapons for destruction, it will destroy itself.
On the other hand, the creators of the picture teach the audience that saving the world is the business of every person, not politicians and generals, who in their greed often lose their minds and only harm their people.
In addition to global problems, the tape slightly touched on the themes of feminism and racism.
Guest reviews about Wonder Woman
How was this picture greeted by the audience? Such a high box office project clearly says that it is positive.
Soon after the release of the screens, the Internet was filled with reviews about the film “Wonder Woman”. Most of those who looked called the picture the best of all the previously released DS tapes after the Dark Knight trilogy.
More than 300 reviews for Wonder Woman have been posted on the Rotten Tomatoes viewer site. According to their results, the tape scored 7.6 out of 10 points.
Metacritic received significantly fewer reviews and reviews about Wonder Woman - 50. The average score was 76 out of 100.
Visitors to CinemaScore gave the picture a rating of A on a scale from F to A +.
A record number of reviews and reviews about Wonder Woman was left on Kinopoisk - 226. Most of them (154) are positive, 32 are neutral and 40 are negative. According to their results, the picture scored 6.781 points out of 10.
Evaluation of acting and directing
From the above data it is clear that the audience pretty well received the picture. However, almost anywhere she did not overcome the 80% barrier. What prevented?
Despite numerous laudatory reviews of Wonder Woman, viewers noticed her flaws.
One of the problems lay in the leading role - Israeli beauty Gal Gadot. And the fault is not her acting.
The fact is that because of the many years of war between the Israeli state and other countries, the latter negatively perceived that the Israeli and Israeli nationality was the main role. In addition, Gadot before the start of her stellar career served in the Armed Forces of Israel. In this regard, in Lebanon, Algeria and Tunisia, the tape was banned for showing. And those residents who still managed to see the project, actively criticized the actress.
In separate reviews of Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot is blamed for the lack of acting talent, just like Superman - Henry Cavill. According to individual viewers, "both artists are very handsome and look great in the frame ... until they start talking."
Also, some did not like the overly fabulous atmosphere of the picture created by Patty Jenkins. However, others, on the contrary, liked this style, as a contrast with the overly gloomy atmosphere of previous projects of the Palace of Culture.
Excessive stereotyping and pathos of dialogues were also criticized. However, this is a superhero movie, as here without high-sounding phrases and actions?
As for other artists, Ewan Bremner (shooter Charlie), David Thewlis (Arey), Robin Wright (Antiope) and Connie Nielsen (Hippolyta) deserved the most pleasant reviews.
Criticism
Having learned how the audience accepted the picture, it is worth considering the reviews of critics about Wonder Woman.
Variety correspondent Andrew Barker praised the direction of Patty Jenkins and the choice of Gal Gadot for the lead role. He also liked the light mood of the picture.
Vox called Steve Trevor the perfect superhero girlfriend. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle praised the humor and starring role. The Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips likened the tape to Marvel’s First Avenger. The Chicago Sun-Times's Richard Roper praised Gal Gadot the most, and his colleague at The New York Times called Wonder Woman one of the best in the genre of the film.
Reviews of the film "Wonder Woman" even by professional critics are positive. This once again confirms that, despite the shortcomings, many really liked this picture.