(no subject)

[skygiants]

I enjoyed it a lot! I wish we had not been 10 minutes late and thus missed a chunk of Baby Diana On Themyscira. The dialogue & delivery were very funny and our audience was very willing to be entertained and as a result I did not hear a solid third of the lines because everyone was laughing too hard, which is not a bad thing.

A short list of things I found distracting, but hilarious:
- Wonder Woman's version of 'undercover operations.' Put on an enemy uniform, grab some Important Enemy Documents, and then RUN AWAY RUN AWAY RUN AWAAAAAY until you can march into the middle of Parliament and throw them at a politician's feet! It's adorable.
- the film's dedicated commitment to making it as hard as possible to tell the difference between Chris Evans|Steve Rogers and Chris Pine|Steve Trevor. I almost had to look that up to correctly match the Chrises and the Steves. I have had "Different Chris" stuck in my head all night. I cannot believe they literally had him go down in a plane carrying a superweapon. I mean, I can believe it, I'm just still laughing about it. (genarti: "Some say that Steve will end in fire, some say in ice.")
- THE TINY TOOTHBRUSH MOUSTACHE OF THE GREAT GOD ARES. Do you think that David Thewliss just flat-out refused to shave it? I think maybe he did. I think I would, if I were David Thewliss, because it would bring me great personal joy to know that the great god Ares would forever be immortalized with a tiny toothbrush moustache.

Diana goddessing her way through WWI battlefields was pretty amazing. I kept bracing myself for her to stumble or fail and have to be pulled up or rescued or overshadowed by Steve, and bless the film, she never was. Still, I wish she had talked to more women once she left Themyscira.

Overheard on the T on the way back: "I know you have all the Chris Pine feelings and you need to process those feelings but I need to process OTHER feelings right now."

Comments

[kore]

"Some say that Steve will end in fire, some say in ice."

//SNORT Ow.

[skygiants]

I pretty much made this whole post so I had the opportunity to immortalize that for posterity.

[genarti]

I also wish more non-Themysciran women in the film were not a) Diana, b) Etta Candy, or c) disfigured and eeeeeevil; was there any other woman at all who wasn't a background extra once she got off Themyscira?

Also I started off the film cranky about the Germans And Turks Make Bombs Together bit but then we had sympathetic Germans and unsympathetic Brits and a lot of background diversity in the crowd scenes, so I was reluctantly won over on that score. I did appreciate the background diversity, and how it was true in multiple contexts and scenes!

These are quibbles, and I have others, and of course one's inner classics nerd just has to throw up hands and go "SURE WHY NOT" right from the start and roll with it (but why did Ares wield lightning though??? seriously I spent like five minutes genuinely wondering if he was going to turn out to be Zeus Gone Evil after all or something) -- but despite nitpicks I loved the movie a whole lot. It did so many things well! It was Diana's movie all through, never Steve's! There are no good guys, just people, and it's about what you believe and do! Such excellent fight scenes! And then the ending, where Steve is fridged and Diana is at ease in the modern world but still herself and still full of fierceness and hope! And all the actors involved were clearly having tons of fun.

[skygiants]

We talked about this yesterday, but I'm going to put down here for the record that in my ideal version of this film there is a cross-dressing soldier at the Front who becomes part of Diana's ragtag band of misfits!!

As much as I liked it, I think I'll probably like it even more whenever I watch it again -- I'm realizing that I kept waiting cynically for the moment of betrayal (the Amazons fail against modern weaponry, or Steve Rescues Diana From Herself, or whatever), and knowing that it's not going to come and I can just relax? What a feeling!

(One's inner classics nerd and one's inner espionage history nerd both get to have a fun time. >.>)

[genarti]

And I will point out, from that discussion, that cross-dressing is optional -- we could also have had a woman from that village joining the band as a local guide/helper/whatever, or something!!

Anyway, I feel bad that whenever I start talking about it, I end up going "AND ANOTHER THING--" about minor nitpicks or the hilarity of the depictions of spying and David Thewlis's mustache. Because all of that is genuinely stuff that kept me from being fully immersed in the movie, but also I LOVED IT A LOT, I LOVED IT, IT DID SO MANY THINGS RIGHT THAT I GLUMLY EXPECT MOVIES TO NEVER DO RIGHT. Really my only actual major complaint is that Diana never really interacts post-Themyscira with any other women onscreen. All the rest is minor quibbling or minor detail, and THE MOVIE WAS SO GOOD IN SO MANY WAYS. DIANA.

...Also for the record a) thank you for immortalizing the post-movie quip I'm proudest of, and b) one can easily finish the poem:

Some say that Steve gets fridged in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire,
I hold with those who fridge with fire.
But if Steve had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of tropes
To say that for a fridging ice
Can raise vain hopes
And would suffice.

[skygiants]

I'M SO PROUD OF YOU TODAY

[genarti]

MY FINEST HOUR I THINK

[skygiants]

Also I think on consideration I sort of feel about WW the same way I do about Jupiter Ascending? And, I mean, obviously there are a lot of differences, and JA is a lot more unabashedly over-the-top, but in the general sense -- like, it's pretty ridiculous, many of the plot elements fall apart if you just kind of wave a stick vaguely near them, but it's also just so clearly something made for women and with a deep understanding of the kinds of ridiculous things that women actually want to see. I will delight in making fun of it for years and also defend it against anyone who attempts to come after it without that same delight.

[genarti]

Ooh, yes. Very well put, and I totally agree.

[dorothy1901]

May I post your poem on metaquotes, please?

[genarti]

Sure thing!

Metaquoted!

[dorothy1901]

Done! Thanks.

[whimsyful]

OMG *snorts* That is brilliant.

[starlady]

Another Steve flies off into the sky and leaves a woman behind to fix the world.

There is NO WAY David Thewlis didn't refuse to shave that mustache, though tbh that was not what I found most ridiculous about that two second shot.

God, I loved it. Not that there weren't quibbles or that I won't hear criticism, but god, I loved it.

[skygiants]

A trope I can get behind, to be honest. I can't wait to read the inevitable five million crossover fanfics.

I mean, if we're going to commit to Petty Bureaucrat Ares Is The Worst Warmonger Of All, awesome, I'm into it, but if we're committing to that then maybe -- not -- OR MAYBE DO, I mean, it's a scene I will forever cherish for its entertainment factor so why should I complain??

I'm very excited for it to replace whatever the latest Marvel dude movie is as the 'people are over, what should we watch and cheer at?' staple.

[glitteryv]

My one quibble was that it'd have been great if we'd gotten MORE Etta.

Other than that, the ONLY thing u didn't like abt the show I went to (a few hours ago) was that the audience was really quiet. Aside from myself and two other women, no one laughed or gasped throughout the entire movie.

Overall, it was exactly the movie that Diana deserved. I did snorted at the idea of a second Chris flying off (though I must admit that I was legit crying during that scene.)

[skygiants]

MORE ETTA. More other women in general! I'm real excited for Solo Wonder Woman II (there had better be a solo Wonder Woman II) when presumably we can have scenes FILLED with women, not just on Themyscira.

Aw, I'm sorry about your quiet audience! I loved that ours was so loud - everyone was laughing and cheering and applauding at all the right moments and everyone was so clearly happy to be there that I didn't even mind missing dialogue in the least.

As soon as he headed for that plane I was like 'are they really -- YES THEY ARE!' and that combined with the Thewlisstache meant I was giggling quietly to myself through most of the climax. The parts that got me were earlier, Diana Conquers The Front -- that was very very much.

[glitteryv]

Etta was so cool and her simpatico with Diana was sweet to see. Unfortch, even though there's going to be a WW sequel, there was an announcement that it will be set in modern times. I'm hoping that we will get to see Diana hanging out with more women (especially WOC) in her next solo movie.

TBH, I don't even understand why people were so quiet. Like, I could theorize that some of the audience was unsure as to whether they could trust the movie? Like, first-time-watching-it-jitters-and-hoping-it-won't-suck. I'm hoping that the people will be more lively next time I see it. :(

Diana Conquers the Front made my heart burst with happiness and joy at seeing so much badassery from her. Also, super props to Chris Pine for realizing he was the sidekick and/or love interest. So there wasn't any of that "Oh, I know better because I'm a MAN" bullshitery. :)

[monanotlisa]

The dialogue & delivery were very funny

Yes! This was probably the biggest surprise of the movie: that the scriptwriters knew how to write comedy; all DCEU movies so far have seemed extremely self-important.

genarti: "Some say that Steve will end in fire, some say in ice."

LOL! Priceless.

To be fair, White Cis Hero Steves are abundant in the MCU and DCEU; I still thought they were sufficiently different, both physically and by characterization. The scene at the ball, Trevor and Doctor Poison, totally sold me on him as a spy.

"I know you have all the Chris Pine feelings and you need to process those feelings but I need to process OTHER feelings right now."

Mhh, Chris Pine. So delicious. I'd forgotten that I'm quite into him. (Not as much as I am into Diana the character, but still.)

[skygiants]

Yes! That's why I have had no interest really in DCEU movies up to now -- superhero movies are meant to be fun! They should have jokes! They are not incompatible with the feels!

That scene was the one scene where I legit bought him as a spy! The rest of the time I was just like "this is the world's cutest version of espionage." I'M JUST GONNA RUN THIS TOP SECRET INFORMATION STRAIGHT INTO PARLIAMENT, IT'S NO BIG.

I'm so glad Chris Pine looked like he was having such a good time throughout the movie! He was so happy to be there, Supporting Wonder Woman.