As Is Her Destiny

Wonder woman.  I’d heard good things.  A guy I was speaking to on the phone the other day told me, proudly he was taking his daughters off to see it.  My younger one asked, or was it I who suggested?  Last night dinner plans got scuttled, the Mrs. returned, later than expected so the little one and I decided to head off immediately for the eight o’clock show at the neighborhood's newest overbuilt, yet to be eclipsed, but for who knows how long, mega-mall. 

Smart girl, my daughter remembered to bring her and my 3D glasses, lest we had to purchase new ones.  I find it all a bit blurry and not especially worth it to strap these things on but there we were on the magic Amazonian island, with a multi-culti-cast of Uber women, who fight to win and ride horses about cliff sides and stoically dread the return, of Ares and warfare. 

Wonder woman, Diana, with a decidedly ‘other’ accent, is the chosen one.  Her mom wants to protect her and her aunt, the realist knows she must toughen her up.  Toughness training leads to the realization in a moment of self defense that she has magic powers.  And, as my daughter pointed out, this must have broken the barrier that protected the island. And before long a German biplane is spied, flying through the air and crashing into the sea.  Diana saves the pilot, an, to my reckoning, annoyingly handsome American pilot, Steve Trevor.

I sighed when he refers to the Germans as the bad guys and when he refers to himself as “above average,” but things pick up when they sail in to a wonderfully realistic representation of polluted, early twentieth century London, smoke belching up from a hundred small stove pipes.  Diana’s radiant contrast to the stodgy city’s norms seems plausible as she secures the requisite attire and the band of brothers who will lead her to the front, where she hopes to find the god of war himself, Ares, so she can put a stop to all this, as is her destiny.  That in the end, evil isn’t simply the Germans, (though never squarely the Americans), proves a nice twist that elevates the final battle. 

For the first time in a while, I’d enjoyed a Hollywood super hero action movie.  There were bits one could pick apart, but I’d almost certainly return to see the next installment when she’ll no doubt return to save the day again in World War II.  I was glad not to have to suppress bilious disregard when I debriefed with my little one.  She dug it too. 

Saturday, 06/17/17