Coastal View News
Recently some dude in Austin, Texas sent an email to the
mayor of Austin complaining about a women-only screening of “Wonder Woman”.
This dude said all this Neanderthal stuff about women not being as good at doing
things as men are, or some nonsense like that. The mayor (thankfully) tore him
a new one. It’s all very hilarious.
My Facebook feed hasn’t told me yet what I am supposed to
think about the politics in “Wonder Woman”—seemed to me like a mixed bag
(empowerment, yah!, objectification, boo!)—so I’ll steer clear of all that. But
what I am sure of is that Wonder Woman—or Diana (Gal Gadot), as she’s called—is
much better at doing things than I am.
She lives on this island with a bunch of other Amazonian women—all
women—who are also better at doing things than any of us. They are faster and stronger
than us, know over a hundred languages, and are also just more advanced and civilized
than any group of people I’ve ever met. Zeus gave them this isolated island as
a gift, allegedly, and, whether or not that’s gods’ honest truth, they sure are
putting the gift to good use.
But then a man comes in a plane. It’s Steve Trevor (Chris
Pine), a spy for British Intelligence. After Diana saves him from his smoldering
wreck of a plain, he relates—more like confesses—to her that there is a war
going on out there (WWI, to be precise). This comes as a surprise to everyone
on the island, because they all assumed that Zeus killed Ares, the god of war,
and thus, that there was no war.
So the way Diana thinks of it is she has to go to the
Western Front, find Ares—that’s right, find Ares, god of war—and finish what
Zeus started. Trevor is a little perplexed, naturally, but he is happy to go
along with the story, because that means he gets to go back home … and with
Wonder Woman no less.
Then there’s Wonder Woman in London, trying to fit in,
buying clothes at a fancy boutique, but still tripping over the culture shock
left and right. What a riot.
At any rate, Diana is less than enthusiastic about
traipsing around London when she’s supposed to be ending the War to End All
Wars. Luckily, she is a persuasive woman. So she convinces Trevor to take her
to the front. Trevor has independent motivation, anyway, because he has
unearthed a plot by one General Ludendorff (Danny Huston) and one Dr. Maru
(Elena Anaya) of the German army to release a terrible poison on both military
and civilian targets, a deed which promises to kill millions.
So off to battle they go. Diana’s approach to everything is
so mythical and otherworldly. She can’t help but see every event as a struggle
between Good and Evil, and, in particular, herself and Ares. She thinks humans
are mere victims—entranced by Ares for the moment, but otherwise good,
peaceful, and innocent by nature.
Trevor has a more practical—realistic, you might say—approach
to things. Not only does he think war is more complicated than a mano-a-mano brawl,
he also realizes that humans are not mere victims—they are, in fact, part of
the problem.
For a super hero movie, this is a nice bit of complexity.
There’s this idea that there are forces of good and evil greater than us, and a
contrasting idea that, nope, we just did this to ourselves. “Wonder Woman” does
a nice job of not just raising these competing ideas, but also of weaving them
together and resolving their apparent conflict.
But, let’s be real, this movie has one mission: To
entertain. And boy does it. “Wonder Woman” is thoroughly enjoyable at every
turn. Two of the main contributors to this enjoyment are Gal Gadot and Chris
Pine. They nail it. They are engaging, and compelling, and funny (and good
looking, of course).
But this movie also has a lot of other flavors, too. It
of course has all the bold flavors of a superhero saga. And yet these spices
are less overpowering than in less subtle fare. This movie also has the gritty
yet zesty zing of fast-paced, very well-choreographed violence—kind of like “300”.
And, sure, it also has some rather cheesy moments, as well as some cornball, “Indiana
Jones”-esque notes that aren’t my taste. But overall, these flavors balanced
nicely. This movie is sometimes funny (thanks mostly to Chris Pine), sometimes
sad, often exhilarating, and always entertaining.
Whether or not this is fine dining, I think you’ll find
that “Wonder Woman” goes down plenty easy.
