Wonder Woman - Kickass!

WARNING: Spoilers! Spoilers! Don't I always have them? You know the deal. If you haven't seen Wonder Woman and don't want things ruined for you (how have you not seen this yet?) then surf away from the page. Come back when you've wised up and gone to see it. Don't give me any excuses either. ;)

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Wonder Woman Movie Poster

I feel bad that it's taken me so long to comment on Wonder Woman, since I did see it on release weekend! First, I have to admit that weekend my brain was in a bit of a fog, so I went into the movie with the sole intent on just enjoying it and not analyzing it at all. That was apparent after I came out of the movie and I seemed to have enjoyed it way more than my husband did (mind you, he had some valid points after I thought about it). So, I'm not sure how discerning I'll be in this post, especially since it's been a while.

Funny enough, I never actually planned to go see Wonder Woman. Not because of the subject matter (I love superhero movies and I also love kickass women). DC hasn't had the best track record lately. I never saw Batman v. Superman either. Plus, when I watched the previews for Wonder Woman, I wasn't all that impressed.

But then the movie released to great reviews, and a bunch of my friends raved about it. So, I decided to go, and I quickly realized that they just did a shit job with the trailer (I'm not a fan of the Justice League trailer either - I'm hoping the movie is better than the trailer for that, too).

Wonder Woman was amazing. And I'm happy I took both of my girls to see it - they need strong female role models like this. I even took a picture of both of them next to the movie poster. :D They did a great job portraying Diana as a strong, independent woman. She wasn't dwarfed by any of the male characters at any point, even though I thought most of her supporting male characters were also well rounded.

This movie could have easily made a wrong turn and pretended to be a feminist movie while still condescending to stereotypes and falling into the pit of "sexy woman with a sword and no brain". It didn't, though. And I hope to grab a copy when it releases on DVD so I can take it all in when my head is a little less in La La Land.

Not only was Diana portrayed excellently, I loved the main villain, Ares. I have to admit, I didn't see it coming. I didn't think Ludendorff was Ares, but I didn't know it was Sir Patrick. Usually I see through such things, but this time I was surprised! And it was a good surprise.

I think my favorite part of the movie was all of the Greek mythology and Diana's time on the island. I'm always a sucker for that stuff.

Of course, though the story was strong for the most part, and the characters great, the movie wasn't perfect. My husband pointed out the overuse of the slow motion. It didn't bother me much, mostly was background noise for me since I was paying attention to the story more, but when I thought about it was was probably a little heavy-handed. Comes with the territory for the director. He also mentioned that it lagged a bit when they were in London, and I had to agree with him.

Honestly, I was worried about the World War I setting originally, expecting Diana at some point to be "put in her place" because of the era, but was happy to see that the time period only strengthened her character. I can't wait to see the movie again!

What was your favorite part of Wonder Woman?

Suicide Squad - Fun But Could Have Been Better

No catchy title this time. I think that part of my brain may be on vacation. Sorry about that. Anyway, here's your warning.

Warning, warning! *turns on the flashing red light* SPOILERS ahead!!! If you haven't seen Suicide Squad yet and don't want it ruined, don't read on. If you don't care, well, dive right in.

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Suicide Squad (2016) Movie Poster

I could probably go on and on about a lot of things in this movie that could be improved, but I'll try to keep this post under novel length. Promise. ;)

First, I do want to say that I don't think Suicide Squad is a horrible movie by any means. It was fun to watch (though my poor husband missed nearly half of it because the toddler decided she wasn't going to be cooperative in the theater), but it's not one I'm crazy, excited about to see again.

I was looking forward to this movie. But I was also scared they were going to botch things up. Personally, I was mostly looking forward to Harley Quinn - forget all those other bozos. Heck, this should have been a Harley movie (and I hope we get one in the future, as long as they take some lessons on the mistakes of this movie to improve on their delivery). And Harley was fun. Best part of the movie, of course. Margot Robbie played the roll well (which is why I'd love to see her in her own Harley movie).

That said, I think there were several things that could have been improved. I have a pretty long list, too, which I think I'll have to shorten for this post!

The beginning. Oh, the beginning. It was a bit too disjointed for me and contained massive info dumps. Why couldn't they have done briefer story flashbacks as they were pulling the team together? I think the beginning suffers from the Started the Story Too Early Syndrome. The story really starts when this band of misfits is pulled together. Kind of like with Guardians of the Galaxy. Guardians wove the backstory into the movie (aside from the brief beginning when Star Lord was nabbed by aliens), instead of dumping it all at the beginning. And when they were taken to the prison and had their dossiers read, it was brief. Suicide Squad was long-winded with the backstory. Not to mention they told rather showed. It's a freaking movie - we should see more, not just have it all fed to us!

Another thing that bugged me is that none of the characters clicked well. At the end they have this big thing about how they're now a family. Diablo says, "I already lost one family. I'm not going to lose another." Aside from that being overly melodramatic and a tad cliche, I didn't feel it. These characters still felt like merely individuals forced to work together. That little "bonding" scene in the bar wasn't enough for me to make them feel like they were family or worked well together. Not like by the end of Guardians (yes, I'm a Guardians fan girl - I can't wait until the next one). I wanted to see them mesh better, but they just didn't.

Oh, and the whole Slipknot thing (you might be asking yourself, "Who?" - I don't blame you). How was it not clear that he was going to be the example for if they got out of line? They plop him in with no backstory at the beginning like all of the others. I mean, really? You knew his head was going to be blown off rather quickly.

I know some people didn't like the villain in the movie much. Honestly, I didn't think she was that bad of a villain. I liked her as a villain. What I didn't like were her zombies. And you can say all you want that they aren't zombies. They are - mindless creatures intent on killing (you don't need a thirst for brains to be a zombie). I did enjoy the fight scene at the end with Enchantress though. That was fun.

Now, I mentioned I loved Harley. Sadly, her backstory with Joker wasn't done enough justice. It could have been much better. The way they presented it all was very disjointed. The best scene though was when Harley jumped into the chemical vat and Joker followed her. I loved that scene. It had a lot of emotion in it and it showed people not only how much she loved Joker but also how much he loved her. But. You knew there was a but coming, didn't you? That scene was horribly out of place. It's triggered when she looks down a stairwell because she thinks of the drop to the chemical vat, but the placement still felt off with what was happening before and after in the movie.

I'll leave this review on a positive note, though. Or maybe a positive bullet? Heh. Oh, I'm not funny? Fine, then. I loved Harley's revolver. At the end when Deadshot uses it, you see the LOVE and then the HATE etched on the cylinder. I thought that was awesome. Sometimes you just got to smile at the small touches.