Super hero movies, for me, have always been a disappointment. I remember watching Dawn of Justice and feeling Superman’s character to be too pristine. I cringed while watching Deadpool, the humour was forced and halfway into the movie, I had had enough and I never finished watching it. My excitement for the release of Batman vs Superman deflated when I sat through 2 hours to watch an anti-climatic 8 minute ending that hardly made any sense. The only super hero movie I watched with a female lead was Cat Woman and it was terrible. In my opinion, the worst superhero movie I have ever watched,for reasons that will require a different post altogether.
I have known about Wonder Woman all my life, but not in the way that I knew Batman or the other Justice League superheroes. She was mostly portrayed as an on and off love interest of Batman in the cartoons that used to run on Saturday morning on KTN. My limited knowledge of her was both a good and a bad thing. It was good because, I entered the movie theater with no back story or bias to inform my viewing. It was a bad thing because I have always known that female heroes, despite their power, would always somehow end up as the damsel in distress.
Director Patty Jenkins gave us a superhero movie that trumps all superhero movies thus far. She brought to life a character that is strong, fierce and full of empathy. She did not sexualize Diana Prince’s femininity, instead, her character wore it with grace, showing us that being fierce and feminine were not mutually exclusive.
This movie is the origin story of Wonder Woman. She is Diana, Princess of Themyscira, Daughter of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Her civilian identity is Diana Prince. She is raised on the beautiful island of Themyscira which is cut off from the rest of the world. Her mother and aunt train her to be fiercest warrior that has ever lived and her mission is to destroy Ares,the god of war in a fight the will end all wars. Her destiny, however, is hidden from her until Steve Trevor’s aeroplane crashes on the island and tells her of a great war that is going on in the world, a war, that in her belief, could only be waged by Ares. Diana takes it upon herself to stop the war and leaves with Steve.
The fight scenes in the movie are epic. The best part of the movie is her battle in the Veld where she subdues the German army and frees a small village. The climax gave me goose bumps, so much so, that I was moved to tears when she realizes the true nature of mankind but decides to save it anyway. Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman is an excellent actress, her performance of Diana as a powerful and graceful and empathetic warrior is worthy of praise.
The movie takes you on an emotional roller coaster of the best kind, you will be awestruck at Diana’s awesome power, root for her as she fights to save and protect the world and you will cry with her when she loses one of the things that is most important to her. The biggest lesson that I learnt from this movie is that we are stronger and more badass than we realize.