5 Responses to “Wonder Woman 2009”

• R. Underhill says:

  March 4, 2010 at 10:51 am

  As a rule, I always a rent a movie before I consider it worthy enough to buy it to watch again from time to time. In this case, I rented this DVD of Wonder Woman recently. I did saw Justice League: the New Frontier movie last year, and was very impressed with it (four stars). Sadly, this animated movie of Wonder Woman did not live up to my expectations. The Wonder Woman TV series is something I remembered for a long time and Lynda Carter who played Wonder Woman do always held a special place in my heart. I would say the Wonder Woman TV series was much better than the animated movie, especially when it comes to imitate real world situations, real life human interaction and communication, and real world politics. But who am I kidding to? The Wonder Woman video is, basically, a cartoon movie, and it seems only good enough for fanboys and people with arrested adolescent developments. The movie is definitely not for little kids or girls, due to the not-so-obvious nude scenes, the quite-so-obvious sexual connotations, the violent scenes with killing (with little or no blood shown) and beheading situations.

  My biggest beefs with this animated movie are the script, the plot, and the dialogue/interaction between characters. Was the plot outlined and scripted by an adolescent while the movie was in production? How did intelligent people in this animation business let this “crap” (as Steve Trevor so fondly said often) flew right by, produced, assembled, finalized and distributed it en masse? There were exchanges in some scenes that rolled my eyes, the poor attempt in real-word conversations reduced the movie to college-level, frat-boy entertainment. Half of the time, I wanted to press “stop” and return the video back to the store, but the other half of me decided to suck it up and watched it to the very end, thanks to some well-done animation scenes (minus the dialogue, the plot and interactions). The final battle between Wonder Woman and Ares in, of all places, Washington, DC seems very outlandish and ridiculous but, again, this is a cartoon movie not for the little kids, but grrrreat for fanboys who grew up reading Wonder Woman comics and watching Superman, Batman and Justice League animations.

  The message about bringing and promoting peace between men and women in a world of chaos, strife and war seems eternal but naive in this movie, but that’s my opinion. The survival of men and women is based on human nature, not peace.

  Few things I wanted to address to the creators of this Wonder Woman movie: first, this Steven Trevor in the movie does not do US Air Force personnel any justice, most USAF pilots are professional, upstanding, hard-working people who fly million-dollar aircraft in high-risk missions, and they do not speak and act like this sexist-pigish Steven Trevor character (George Perez’s Steven Trevor character was way better in the revised WW comic series! Why the downgrade?). Second, there are few plot holes in the movie: where did the invisible jet or books in the Amazon Island come from? How did the Amazons speak in the 20th century language when they were separated and invisible from the man’s world for few thousands years? Especially, how did Ares knows and speaks Latin when he is supposed to be a Greek god of war? Third, why reduce the language between men and women to the level of juvenile, chauvinistic connotations? Fourth, why the Amazons and Wonder Woman not aware of real world politics and diplomatic efforts by notable peoples working hard for peace? Lastly, why did you let an adolescent wrote the script for the movie and let it fly?!

  Animation is well-done for the most parts. The juvenile-laden script and plot holes killed it. Great for fanboys, not great for the little kids and girls. I await the day when a live-version movie of Wonder Woman come out very professionally done, with real-world connotations and grown-up adult interaction (when if it has to come to the absurd, tiresome “battle of the sexes”, *sigh*).
  Rating: 2 / 5
• Jeffrey Moore says:

  March 4, 2010 at 11:44 am

  Aside from cartooning that is nowhere near the high standard that Disney has set, the story line is a hugely, blatant, men-bashing fest. Not fun unless you want to teach girls to hate men. It also teaches by example that little girls with training can beat up big men with equal training – a falsehood that will probably get some young women in real trouble one day.
  Rating: 1 / 5
• Mr. Michael Drake says:

  March 4, 2010 at 2:36 pm

  *spoilers contained*
  
  As a huge fan of animated super heroes, I’d been looking forward to this one for a while. What a waste of energy. This is by far the worst of the 3 features produced by Bruce Timm (the genius behind Batman TAS and Justice League Unlimited – both classics).

  My biggest issue is with the story. It is all ancient gods and demons, monsters and gates of hell. Basically a bad episode of Xena, without the humour or irony. It climaxes with hairy beasties fighting on Washington DC’s front lawn with a bunch of bow and arrow wielding ancient Amazons; a pointless, joyless mess of ridiculous action. If I’m watching a Super Hero film, I want said amazing hero duking it out with his/her nemesis in the mundane every-day world. Leave the gods and demons to the fantasy set.

  Beyond the boring, stupid story was the way it was told. For some untold reason, Wonder Woman can not fly (despite being able to in all previous incarnations). Also she has been significantly powered down, in Comic Lore she is almost as strong as Superman, but can barely handle a mortal man when he lands on her hidden island paradise. This strength level seems to fluctuate throughout the film with no justification. One minute she is able to lift a huge desk as if it were made of paper, next minute she can be knocked out by a mortal. Also though the Amazons have lived on their island since ancient times, maintaining their spartan and technology-free existence, no one bats an eye when WW whips out, and expertly flies an invisible jet. I’m sorry what?! This woman has never even seen a mobile phone, but she can not only fly the height of technology, a fighter jet, she can do it without even seeing the controls (they’re invisible after all).

  There are frequent other times in the story that make no sense, treating the viewer like a idiot and demanding you just go with the flow. Sorry, I know I’m a grown man watching an animated film about a super powered immortal Amazon, but story is story, and it needs to make sense no matter how trivial the content may seem.

  Finally the positives. Andrea Romano, who casts and directs the voice talent needs to be given a huge raise, now. She has done a great job in casting Kerri Russel in the lead role. Kerri was excellent with her badly written character. Andrea is always spot on with her casting, and also illicites great performances from her cast. You never get over the top ‘cartooney’ voice acting under her watch.

  The film also looks good. It’s not as good as the Justice League: The New Frontier, but is slightly better than Superman: Doomsday. The character designs are good without being amazing or overly interesting. The animation is also of a high quality.

  As much as I want more animated super hero films, if this is the quality I’m going to get I’d sooner have nothing. I highly recommend AGAINST buying this piece of tripe.
  Rating: 1 / 5
• LGANS316 says:

  March 4, 2010 at 4:38 pm

  Version: U.S.A / Warner / Region Free
  
  VC-1 BD-25 / Advanced Profile 3
  
  Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
  
  Running time: 1:13:39
  
  Movie size: 12,23 GB
  
  Disc size: 19,07 GB
  
  Total bit rate: 22.16 Mbps
  
  Average video bit rate: 16.82 Mbps

  Dolby TrueHD Audio English 1641 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1641 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
  
  Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
  
  Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / Dolby Surround

  Subtitles: English (SDH), French
  
  Number of chapters: 10

  #Audio commentary
  
  #Wonder Woman: A Subversive Dream (25m:35s)
  
  #Wonder Woman: Daughter of Myth (25m:38s)
  
  #A First Look at the Animated Feature Film Green Lantern (10m:12s)
  
  #The Amazon Princess (10m:26s)
  
  #Batman Gotham Knight: An Anime Evolution (10s:11s)
  
  #4 Bonus Episodes (10m:45s)
  
  #DVD Digital Copy
  Rating: 3 / 5
• MR. KENT says:

  March 4, 2010 at 7:15 pm

  It was my understanding that the driving reason for this movie was becasue Wonder Woman had somehow been overlooked in the animated movies of recent years. I do agree with that. She was one of the founding members of the JLA. She is one of the most powerful and respected members of the JLA and the DC universe in general. Which makes it hard for me to understand that with all of these OUTSTANDING facts to support this movie, THIS is the BEST they could come up with? THIS is the BEST animation they have to offer one of the most overlooked, yet deserving super heros in the DC universe? I was thankful I NETFLIX-ed this one first. If I had wasted my money by streaming it from AMAZON, I would have been pissed! Im just saying.
  Rating: 1 / 5