Diana of Themyscira

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I saw Wonder Woman yesterday, and I enjoyed it a lot. One of my favorite superhero movies so far, though I can't say how much of that is because of how wonderful it felt to watch a movie about a female superhero.

Things I liked (incomplete):
- The Amazons! Especially Antiope. I really liked that they had complicated interpersonal relationships too, and especially Diana. She's the only one who doesn't share the others' history, she has a special destiny that everyone knows about but her, she doesn't seem to have very close friends – no wonder she didn't hesitate longer to go. The Amazons' fighting was also cool.
- I enjoyed the fight scenes in general. Especially Diana. She's very pretty and also badass.
- Diana got her very own Howling Commandoes! I even liked her love interest. Their first meetings were fun. Diana's cultural adjustment in general was fun. (Btw, how old is she? She has to be older than she looks, going by how much e.g. languages she's studied.)

Things I didn't like (mostly complete):
- Diana's shoes with heels were ridiculous. I don't think she wore them all the time, not on Themyscira and afterwards too I think only for dramatic shots.
- Dr. Poison having an ugly scar/facial prosthesis: really, we're back to ugly/disabled equals evil again? Ugh.
- Diana stops Ares because she believes in love. That's nice and all, but I would have preferred a more general believe in humanity, because one person's romantic love seems a liiitle small to base a planet's fate on. They probably needed one or two more scenes for a more humanity-centric focus, the movie didn't really do a good job selling me on humanity being worth saving. Um. Not that I didn't want Diana to save humanity! I like existing! But they set the movie during WWI, millions of people are dying and millions of lives being wasted, more terrible weapons are being invented all the time to allow for more efficient killing, humans are killing the planet: it's not like Ares' perspective is impossible to understand.
- Nitpicking, at one point when talking about the horrors of war Diana exclaims "[even] women! Children!" For someone who grew up among warrior women that doesn't really make any sense. Later on she only focuses on children.

Random:
- Maybe because Buttercup was there, but at least twice I thought "Hello. My name is Diana of Themyscira. You are Ares, god of war: prepare to die," and I thought it was a) hilarious, b) a crack crossover/fusion that really should exist.


Usually I would go back and read many reaction posts/reviews of the movie by other people now, but I work full-time now and there are fewer hours in the day and it's very annoying. Still no time machine. (Though to be fair if I had a time machine there would be more important things to do than go back a few hours every day just so I have more free time.)

Comments

[strangelyjonathan]

I'm not clicking your spoilers cut because I'm still waiting to see this film. I've heard really great things about it though. It's been sold out every weekend since it's release here. I'm hoping to catch it this upcoming weekend.

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It only came out a week ago here, I was impatient! I was worried I'd expect too much and be disappointed, but it did really turn out to be a good movie. (Not without weaknesses, but every film has those.)

[giandujakiss]

Diana exclaims "[even] women! Children!"

Yes!! That bugged the hell out of me.

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It was illogical and a stupid moment. And iirc we never saw Diana surprised that all the soldiers at the front were men. (Maybe she chalked the strict gender roles up to Ares' corrupting influence?)

[out_there]

- Maybe because Buttercup was there, but at least twice I thought "Hello. My name is Diana of Themyscira. You are Ares, god of war: prepare to die," and I thought it was a) hilarious, b) a crack crossover/fusion that really should exist.

Hee!

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I also want the story were Buttercup is adopted by Antiope, just because ^^

[beatrice_otter]

The Amazons are effectively immortal. All of them, except Diana, have been living on Themiscyra for minimum 3,000 years. The oldest of them that we see look only early-middle-age. So, even if Diana aged at the same rate as a normal human child (big if) once she hit adulthood, she would presumably start aging in the same manner as the rest, i.e. not at all.

YES THE ABLEISM OF DR. POISON, UGH. The original Dr. Poison wore a mask because she was trying to disguise herself as a man to avoid Nazi sexism.

I ... didn't read Diana's thing about love to mean romantic love? I mean, she's not talking about Steve at that point, she's talking about humanity?

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We already know that Diana doesn't age like normal humans do, in the "present" she looked almost the same as in WWI. Convenient :)

Maybe I don't remember correctly, but weren't Diana's flashbacks before she talked of love all of Steve? That seems pretty specific. Ah well, that's what headcanons are for.

[eglantiere]

i was kind of miffed about the conflation of love for humanity / love for steve in general final save out. they've ALMOST made it! the events didn't even have to be changed, she could be persuaded into believed into people again because steve proved their worth to her by sacrificing himself. but nope, it's NOOOOO and it's personal and it - cheapened the moment for me, somehow.

still, this was one damn fine movie.

[schneefink]

Exactly. I didn't even think of using Steve's sacrifice as proof of humans' worth (not sure I would completely buy it because didn't she already see examples of that earlier, but maybe, idk), but that would have been better too. A friend of mine said that it annoyed her because she felt that most of the movie Diana was treated like any male superhero would be, except that a male superhero would never say his motivation is love.