Wonder Woman: The Feature Film

By Sonia Aurora

I’ve always secretly wanted to be Wonder Woman. It makes sense, seeing as I have flowing (when not tangled) naturally black hair; pretty much the same reason I’m more drawn to Snow White than Cinderella – we brunettes have to stick together.

And like all fans of something sacred I’ve been yearning as much as dreading what Hollywood could do with something that in its original form we can worship, but can also hate as much when done poorly (oh Catwoman, how I loathe thee…). Having already gone through the elation and depression of learning Joss Whedon was developing a feature film Wonder Woman script (and, subsequently, not), I just resigned myself to the fact that it wouldn’t be done because it couldn’t be done, and I’d prefer that over the ghastly rumor that Lindsay Lohan would play the Princess of Themyscira.

So imagine my two-fold surprise this past Friday, while at New York Comic Con: not only did I get to attend the premiere of the Wonder Woman animation full length feature film, but it may be one of the best superhero films ever made.

The film begins with a great battle between the Queen Hippolyta and the Amazons and Ares, the God of War and his minions. We learn that Hippolyta and Ares conceived a child, but it doesn’t stop her from beheading him in the course of the fight. Ultimately Zeus and Hera step in, robbing Ares of his Godly powers (by outfitting him with familiar looking bracelets), and sending the Amazons to the paradise island of Themyscira. While there, Hippolyta fashions a baby out of sand, raises her to the heavens…and Wonder Woman, I mean Diana, is born.

Fast forward to warrior-in-training Diana, who can best Artemis at sword fighting. Diana is strong, feisty, a little defiant. For example, she asks what’s the pointing learning how to fight if they are on an invisible island away from Man? Well, Evil can still exist, with Ares their prisoner in a cave with round-the-clock surveillance. Regardless of the threat, Hippolyta secretly yearns for the outside world, and makes the island visible just as Steve Trevor, the only survivor of his fleet in a sky battle, descends and crashes on the island. A meet-cute by way of action movie, Steve falls for Diana (even literally) as she beats him up. After the Queen mandates a warrior competition to see who gets to see him home, a disguised Diana proves herself and wins the honor. But its not so simple to just escort Steve home – one of the Amazons has betrayed her sisters and Ares is now free, and searching to get those pesky bracelets off and rule as he once did. And through the course of all this, Wonder Woman really is born. The rest of the film is greatly paced, with incredibly deft dialogue and grandiose (but not overly so) fight scenes, and a climatic battle sequence that can rival the great live action ones that have been screened of late. Most importantly, Diana is not a girl growing into her womanhood as much as she is a woman who needs to grow into the understanding of what the world of Man is, and differentiating between what she has been taught and what she learns as truth.

Kerri Russell voices Wonder Woman and I’m relieved to report I did not get visions of Felicity dancing in my head. In fact, it took me a while to really catch on that it was her. Her voice isn’t so distinct as to get defined as “Kerri Russell,” so much kudos to that choice of casting, as well as Rosario Dawson as Artemis (strong, powerful) and Oliver Platt as Hades (just delicious, really). Overall, all the voice actors were great, but none moreso than Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor. I can’t help but be a fan of his, he just comes off as so likable (even as the evil priest on Buffy) and his Steve is likable, masculine but defensive of his own manhood and of Mankind. When Diana scolds him for saving her (and when I say “scold” I mean “punches him in the face”) he’s angered by her accusation that he did it only because she was a “defenseless woman”. He’s a soldier, and he doesn’t leave anyone behind, especially not someone he cares about, man or woman.

In the panel that followed the film, screenwriter Michael Jelenic and producer Bruce Timm admitted that one of the good things about working with the story of Wonder Woman is that there is no standard story to stick to, just some basic points that need to be kept intact (I would imagine those are at least the Amazonian elements and Steve Trevor as paramour). It’s been bandied about that the hardest part (contributing to all the previous stops and starts for Wonder Woman films before) is deciding between keeping the story as a period piece (1940’s Nazis) or making it present day, and how to do so without compromising the story that she is a capable woman, regardless of the era. The most impressive part of this film was how they managed to not only to make a choice, but to also blend the mythological aspects in the modern. It was a seamless marriage, and while, yes, fantastical, no less believable than a man in a bat suit or a man made of steel. I think it also helped that the director was also a woman (Lauren Montgomery) and I like to believe that through her guidance (and her enthusiasm to be a part of such a strong female character, as was evident when she talked about it as part of the panel) helped to shape this final executed film even more smoothly.

As far as the animation, it was very well done. The women were womanly but not overly Barbie-ized or Pam Anderson-ed as women in comics can be. That is another fine line hard not to cross, and with the exception of the Angelina Jolie’d lips most of the women seemed to have, as a whole the depictions weren’t sexist…unless tongue in cheek, as in the scene when Diana first dons her Wonder Woman breastplate, and the cut is her boobs jiggling into place. The best part was those little, almost throw away scenes, just like with any movie, live action or animation, is the little jokes that move not only the story but help shape the characterization. Like when Steve has to explain to the Amazons his exclamation of the word crap (yes, it’s excrement), or when trying his hand at roping Diana into his own Lasso of Truth (i.e., tequila). Or, in the best line of the film, when a an aide is debriefing the President that it appears that the threat was “neutralized by armored supermodels.”

The bottom line is that for all the Industry whining that a Wonder Woman feature is hard to make, that you have to stick a sexpot automaton like Megan Fox to try and sell it, well, that’s just “crap.” It is possible to make a great female-oriented film that doesn’t involve sex, shoes and cities. Just one wondrous woman. It’s possible, because it’s already been made. I urge you all to buy the DVD on March 3rd so you can prove to those knuckleheads in Hollywood just how important she really is.

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About Sonia Aurora: Aspiring screenwriter and seamstress, Sonia’s dream is to write life-changing films while product-placing her own line of handbags. In 1999, she wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the short film Dr. Lovestrange, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bug, a satirical homage to Stanley Kubrick set amidst the panic of Y2K (Featured on ifilm.com & Coming Soon to YouTube!). While Sonia waits patiently for the Studios to call, she continues her selfless, humanitarian efforts (think Mother Teresa) through her scripts, short stories and sewing (a true triple-threat!), knowing all the while that someday her efforts will indeed save (or at least mildly tweak) the world. She still struggles with which picture to kiss before bedtime: her boyfriend’s or Bruce Campbell’s. And, in the interest of time, she’d like to start thanking the Academy now.

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