'Wonder Woman' and the Power of Love

DC's latest finally understands what makes a superhero film so super.

By: Josh McCormack

                          

In 2013's Man of Steel, a young Clark Kent asks Pa Kent (played by Kevin Costner) if he should hold back his powers in order to not be found out by the government, and therefore, allowing innocent people to die. In what could be an inspirational moment in which our character learns that great power comes great responsibility or that his powers must be used for only good, the incredible parental figure of Pa Kent responds with, "Maybe".

Maybe let people die, Superman. Sure you're a symbol of hope. Sure you stand for truth, justice, and the American way. But maybe you should put that all behind you and let people die sometimes. Someone actually wrote this.

This is a long way from Richard Donner's wonderful, 1978 Superman: The Movie. While many may look at that film now and find it a tad bit old fashioned, it's still my favorite superhero movie of all time. And one of the main reasons for that is that Christopher Reeve's Superman loves people. He loves using his powers to save people and he does not look at his strength as a burden. And better yet,  he knows he can't always save everyone in a given situation, but he will use all of his extraterrestrial power to try and fight for everyone no matter what. This is because he loves the human race and thinks they are capable of being just as heroic as him. For me, that sounds more like a super hero than some moody frat boy who throws his enemies through solid concrete and 100 square blocks of occupied office buildings.

Last weekend, DC and Warner Brothers unleashed its latest film in the train wreck franchise known as the DC Expanded Universe; Wonder Woman. With films like the mediocre Man of Steel, the utterly mind-numbing Batman v. Superman, and the one I didn't even care to see so I'm just going to assume it's as bad as everyone says called Suicide Squad all preceding it, Wonder Woman had a lot to prove.

After seeing the film twice, I can gladly say that DC and Warner Brothers can rest easy for the first time in years knowing that they've made not only a good superhero movie, but a great one. At 140 minutes, Wonder Woman never drags its feet or wears out its welcome. Director Patty Jenkins (the first female superhero director AND the first female director to work with a budget of over $100 million) provides some much needed levity to the DC universe, as well as some truly exciting action sequences. The lead performance from the beautiful Gal Gadot is star-making material and she's absolutely mesmerizing, the same way Christopher Reeve was when he portrayed the man of steel. Overall, it's one of the absolute purest and most exciting superhero films I've seen in quite a while.


                                               

However, what makes Wonder Woman stands out in the current glut of superhero films, is its main character. Our protagonist, Diana Prince, is so inherently good and is raised with such an awareness of the light within all people that when Chris Pine's Steve Trevor tells her of "The War to End All Wars", she feels an utter need to help a human race she has never had any prior contact with. Diana is so full of love for those who cannot fight for themselves that it seems to actually hurt her when she can not save everyone who is in pain or suffering.

In what may be my favorite sequence of the film, Diana walks with Trevor and his ragtag group of misfits through the trenches of "No Man's Land". In this setting, Diana is introduced to the brutal reality of war. She sees mothers crying for their children, soldiers with lost limbs screaming out in pain, and worst of all, no one stopping to help them. Diana keeps asking why everyone can't be saved, and, logically, her companions tell her that it's impossible to save everyone and that they need to focus on the mission at hand.

Yet, Diana doesn't budge. She unveils her incredible Amazonian body armor and nearly single-handedly clears out the entire barrage of German soldiers in a badass and simultaneously beautiful display of her power. It's fantastic stuff. The kind of exciting movie moment we all go to the cinemas for.

What makes this scene so fantastic in my opinion is not just the great action and pacing, but rather that, as an audience, we admire and our inspired by Diana's motivations. She will stop at nothing to heal those in pain and give them hope. And even when the film starts to fall into the same trappings of crazy CGI and explosions that plague most superhero films in their third act, Wonder Woman still finds a way to remain heartfelt. When the central villain says to Diana that humans are capable of doing more evils than she knows, Diana responds by saying, "They're everything you say they are. But they're so much more".

That's the point in the movie where I found myself getting incredibly choked up. Her actions are more in line with Superman than any so-called "Superman" movie in over thirty years.

                                             

Films are inherently political. Anyone who tells you otherwise only does so to undermine their importance. A film, like all other forms of art, is a product of its time and a reflection of the social attitudes of either the filmmaker or the audience member.

There have been plenty of articles written on the relevance of Wonder Woman being released nearly five months into the Trump presidency, and rightly so. As late night host Conan O'Brien recently said in an interview with the film's director, "We needed--right now--a movie where a woman just completely kicks ass and takes over the world".

That being said, I think the proud feminist undertones of the film are just a piece of what makes Wonder Woman so important in our current political climate. It's a film that is about the power of love. As cheesy as that may sound, it's one of the most important aspects that has been missing from current superhero films. It's a movie less focused on how hard someone can hit or how to stop a giant doomsday weapon, but rather sets out to remind us that love can indeed trump hate.

If you haven't seen Wonder Woman yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. Even with some strange looking CGI and an overall generic final fifteen minutes, it's a truly engaging origin story with one of the most interesting love stories you'll see in a modern blockbuster. And for those who have already seen it; see it again. And this time focus on how Gal Gadot's Diana not only creates a strong role model for young girls, but how her message of love is one that the whole world needs right now.