Apparently this movie seems targeted for an audience of sociologists, feminists, anthropologists, psychologists, and dare I say perverts. Oh, and yes this is also targeted for comic book fans of the Wonder Woman character. Let's not forget about mentioning that.
For now, I say never mind all the other target audiences I mentioned, because this movie kinda does go out of it's way to hit us over the head with the Wonder Woman fan service references. There were multiple scenes that attempts to parallel it's real life events with what is found on the pages of the comic books. It was cute of the movie to do that at first, but it got a little annoying by how overboard it got. We get it, the glass toy airplane in the movie represents Wonder Woman's invisible jet. We get it, the Greek stage play fits in with Wonder Woman's origins on Paradise Island. We get it, that burlesque outfit looks like Wonder Woman's costume. Tell me something I don't get.
With all that said, the promotional trailer does say that we "would never look at Wonder Woman the same way" after seeing this movie. Going into this film, I was aware about the whole mythos regarding the origin story of Wonder Woman's creation. The bondage thing. The whole lie detector thing. The whole polyamory thing. Even knowing about those things, I honestly now won't be able to look at Wonder Woman the same way again after seeing this movie. There is apparently more to who the character represents, and the narrative of the original comic books. So much so that I'm second guessing how well represented the Wonder Woman movie starring Gal Gadot truly is.
Wonder Woman is only a part of what makes this story work though. You really go into this movie for the three main leads, Luke Evans as Professor William Moulton Marston, Rebecca Hall as Elizabeth Marston, and Bella Heathcote as Olive Byrne. The chemistry that these three actors displayed on screen is palpable. The conversations and observations they had with each other were fascinating. The trials and tribulations they faced together in life were engrossing. They are the real reason to watch this movie, and wow did they have an incredible story to tell us. From their innocent beginnings, to the very complicated end, it was hard not to get caught up with what's happening with William, Elizabeth, and Olive.
Although this is based on a true story, it should be pointed out that Writer-Director Angela Robinson apparently took a lot of liberties with the actual true story. Or so we are told. Fact vs fiction aside, the story as it was shown to us on screen is still a really good one. It also shared some very important social commentaries and themes that are worth the time to be exposed to. I did have some issues with certain plot points that seemed a little too convenient, but overall I liked most everything I saw here.
The mere presence of Wonder Woman might make one think that "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" is a simple biographical movie about the character's creator. It's really not that simple, and this film is really not for everybody. I can see this rubbing some people the wrong way. If people can avoid automatically dismissing this movie with some misguided preconceptions, they might come off it appreciating the message this film is trying to relay to all of us.
lovedit ENJOYED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible
