The Wheel and Axle

Continued From:

The Wonder Woman, Part 4: Stop A Bullet Cold

I started this series of Wonder Woman reviews having watched it four times. As of this writing, the last of the review series, I’ve watched it a fifth time (IMAX again, because obv) and still came out of it exhilarated. I watched it with my friends over at Pinoy DC Fans, a group we founded way back in the early 2000s when we met through the now-defunct DC Message Boards.

It’s been over a week since the movie was released worldwide, and it has broken some box office records. On its opening weekend, its gross earnings reached approximately $103M domestically (US), much higher than the original $65M-$70M projections. Moreover, worldwide, it hit $223M that same weekend – with some markets still not even open yet at the time, including France, Germany, Spain, and Japan.

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Continued From:

The Wonder Woman, Part 2: Stop A War With Love

*** SPOILERS ***

Despite how much I loved Wonder Woman, there were still a few things I didn’t quite like. Mostly minor, to be fair, but could’ve been better in these areas.

1. Etta was severely under-utilized. In many ways, Etta is Wonder Woman’s Jimmy Olsen. However, she is so much more. Aside from a couple of periods wherein she was unused, she was even more actively involved in Diana’s heroics across varied interpretations (sorority girl, lounge singer, soldier). So it was sad that her role was significantly diminished.

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*** SPOILERS ***

As of this writing, I’ve watched Wonder Woman four times. I started on Day Zero, an IMAX midnight screening the night before it officially opened in Manila on June 1st. Then almost every day until Sunday, except for Friday where we took a break with Baywatch, I saw it again and again and again. And again.

It’s been almost a week since I first watched the movie, and it took me this long to start putting my thoughts into written words because I am still overwhelmed with my love for the film.

After a long long time of anticipation and excitement, Wonder Woman arrived, and it surpassed my expectations… and even more. The critics seem to think so, too, because even before its official release, it had already garnered a huge number of pre-screening positive reviews – rivaling several top-rated superhero movies, particularly Logan and the currently-unbeatable The Dark Knight.

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Wonder Countdown: three days to go in the Philippines!

A hero is only as good as his or her villain, as the cliché goes. There is much truth to this. Superman and Batman wouldn’t be as interesting as they are without Luthor or the Joker. The same goes for Wonder Woman, whose rogues gallery – while not as famous as those of her male counterparts – is full of interesting characters, especially in the hands of the correct writer.

Many of them are metaphors, symbolic of the psychology and advocacies associated with Wonder Woman. Ares is the war to Diana’s peace. Dr. Psycho is a misogynistic freak. Various versions of the Cheetah, recognized as Diana’s archenemy, represent different things: the beast to Diana’s humanity, the predator to her hunter, the greed to her selflessness. The Silver Swan, in many of her versions, has always been about insecurity regarding beauty, a struggle many women relate in the face of sexist expectations. Circe represents a lot of things antithetical to Diana, including the transformation of men to beasts as opposed to the reformation Diana usually advocates.

And so on and so forth.

For the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, they’ve chosen Ares and Doctor Poison.

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