Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Why can't DC deliver a decent Wonder Woman movie?

Despite the mixed reception being given to the upcoming Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice film(with the release of it's first major trailer this past weekend not being reassuring), many of us were happy to see that Wonder Woman was going to be part of the film,as well as get her own movie out by 2017.

Hope for this project grew strong as it was announced that a female director,Michelle Maclaren, was hired yet just the other week, she left the film due to that old standby excuse "creative differences" and was quickly replaced by Patty Jenkins.

Now, changing directors is not a new thing and considering that it was done before filming even began, you might reasonably think "What's the big deal?" Well, I'm here to tell you,folks, that this is only the beginning of the bad news. It turns out that the creative differences were a lot more than just Maclaren wanting a talking tiger in the film(which I'm highly doubting is true at this point):



The big creative gap between Maclaren and the studio executives was the scale of the story. She wanted to do an epic origin story,complete with major battle scenes, while the head honchos are looking for a "character driven story" with very little action. They also claimed that Maclaren was "too inexperienced" to  make a big screen action packed piece, due to her TV work.

Since that TV work in question includes Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, both of which have had huge action sequences and pretty good sized budgets, that talking point is rather moot. What they're really saying is "Hey, honey, we want the credit for having a woman director but we don't want to give you the kind of budget that man directing a movie about a male superhero would have. Can't you just play ball?'

This is so ridiculous on so many levels, the biggest one for me is that Wonder Woman is AN AMAZON WARRIOR PRINCESS, for Minerva's sake! Her origin story should have incredible battle scenes, that's what her fans expect! Not some moody whiner drama, come on! Why do you have to make a Wonder Woman movie on the cheap, DC? Yes, I'm holding you just as responsible as Warner Bros, if not more so,because this is your creative property and it's high time that you treat Wonder Woman with the respect she deserves:


Why is it,DC, when it comes to live action versions of Wonder Woman that your brains suddenly turn off? Maybe the people who work on the animated versions need to take over here.

You had Joss Whedon on board at one time to make a WW movie and you drove him away(which given the Avengers films alone was the ultimate in bad ideas) with nonsense.

 Then, you attempt to bring her back to TV but between the awful new costume and a set-up that would make Diana Prince a Bruce Wayne type, the ball was monumentally dropped. Wonder Woman is not Batman for girls, okay? For one, we have Batgirl and Batwoman and for another, being a CEO means most of your time has to be accounted for and Bruce Wayne only gets away with that due to his "millionaire playboy" image.

Diana Prince is not like that at all. When she was on TV back in the day, she was a government agent who could slip off to be a superhero as her duties involved undercover work. This is pretty basic stuff,guys, you need to be on your game here. Granted, the 1970s show was rather hokey and silly at times but Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman with a sincerity that won audiences over and you need to get some of that back:



A good start would be listening to the fans. Yes, they can be a contentious lot at times but plenty of them are experts when it comes to the character.

It would be in your best interest, since they're the ones you want to buy those movie tickets and other tie-in merchandise, and they are also the ones who can get people who are not into/sick of superheroes movies to join in the fun.

As for the script, maybe consult with some of the writers who have turned out the best Wonder Woman comics. Good examples would be Paul Dini(who did Wonder Woman; Spirit of Truth), Greg Rucka(who wrote Down to Earth) or Gail Simone, whose writing is legendary for the Wonder Woman books. Pair them with a Hollywood screenwriter if you must, but tap that resource,seriously!

Look,DC, we're not asking for much. Just get your act together and don't flick this up. Enough with the shoddy treatment and sexist assumptions towards a live action Wonder Woman. If you want us to shell out our hard earned dollars to reserve tickets for summer 2017, you need to make this worth our while. Not to mention that Wonder Woman deserves,nay, demands to be honored in her big screen debut like the regal champion that she is-make it so,people!:


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