With all the buzz about superhero films lately I am truly in my own little playground. This excites me more than anything. It also got me thinking about what other movies would be great to see and the thought of Wonder Woman came to mind.
There has been a lot of talk and controversy revolving around this third of the iconic core of the Justice League and instinctively I think she NEEDS to have her own movie. Having the king of girl power movies Joss Whedon write it seemed like a match made in heaven, but it fell through. Other plot rumours surfaced and the fan base was outraged. Will this movie ever get made? Last we heard The Wachowskis were giving the project a makeover and we don’t even know what that means.
TheFerrett writes an insightful essay on the topic called The Empty Superhero Suit, and addresses what makes a character WORTH a story.
Almost all of the big names in comics have now had their own movies – X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman. The non-comics-readin’ man on the street only knows a handful of superheroes, and they’ve all had their movies made.
There is one notable exception: Wonder Woman. And therein lies the new problem with making comic movies – Wonder Woman has no actual stories.
See, when the average Spider-Man fan thinks of Spider-Man, there are a couple of iconic story arcs that immediately spring to mind: Letting that criminal go, and discovering that with great power comes great responsibility. The death of Gwen Stacey and the subsequent death of Norman Osborn. The first time he stopped being Spider-Man.
=
But if you think about, “Wow, this storyline defines this character,” Wonder Woman doesn’t have one. She comes from Paradise Island, a pretty ill-defined place that’s either a colony of warriors, or a hippie love-fest, or an isolated out-of-touch Greek/Roman enclave, or whatever the writer needs it to be for that story line. Nobody’s really nailed it down so that it matters.And she comes to, uh, America, to be pretty and fight shit. And get tied up.
=
In the end, Wonder Woman is famous for being an idea – the first kick-ass female heroine, a set of golden bracelets, an invisible plane – than anything she’s actually done. That’s troublesome.
The essay hits on more than just Wonder Woman and really dissects why some choices are made in Hollywood, and digs deep into the heart of these characters we know and love.
I encourage you to read the essay. You may not like what he has to say entirely but it is eye opening peek from the mind of an insightfully intelligent comic fan and a good starting point for discussion. TheFerrett can also beat Doug at Magic The Gathering.
You can read the rest of it by clicking HERE
@Rodney :
As some people pointed elsewhere, Hiketeia and Spirit of Truth are quite iconic of who Wonder Woman is, without having lots of prerequisites. But still, if the director and/or the screenplay writer(s) suck, the result can’t be good.
@Jay :
I think they were poorly conceived because they were spin-offs. But that’s just my opinion. By the looks of it, I really think the directors / writers of both Catwoman and Elektra went along the lines of : “This is the call of fandom. And fanboys shall answer. We don’t have to even try. Just make sure the title role is casted as a superhot babe and make her wear the tightest and most revealing costume that won’t hurt the movie PG-13 rating. If we do it, they will come.”
I strongly disagree about the “female hero of any type […] does not garner the same mass appeal when challenged against a male hero”. The best example for me is the whole Alien saga. While you could argue that the alien is the true star of the movie, Lt. Ellen Ripley is definitely a female hero and she totally rocks. While it is more an exception than the common case, it proves that a female hero can work.
We just need a director and writer(s) who actually give a damn about the whole thing, and are not only looking for easy bucks.
@ Samaliel :
I do realize the other two are spin-off characters, but the those two spin-offs failed not for that reason, they were poorly conceived in development and terribly made.
The point I was attempting to thow was being a female hero of any type (despite the credibility); it’s does not garner the same mass appeal when challenged against a male hero.
Even though WW is an original character, WW is still a woman.
Sam, you might be missing something there.
Wonder Woman still needs a story. What would the movie be about?
No one can answer that because everyone’s answer will be different. And none of them will be a solid character defining moment unless they make the story up completely… and fans wont like that either.
@Jay :
I think you’re missing a very important point about why Catwoman and Elektra failed, and why Wonder Woman might be something good. They didn’t fail because they were movies about women, but because they are mostly spin-off characters.
Their spin-off quality was accounted for, I think. To me, it’s as if the people who made those films went : “We do it for the fans. They don’t care. They’ll buy : they’re fans, after all”. This led to a lot of bad decisions in regards of storytelling and character development, and a global lack in the quality of those productions.
Catwoman was aimed at the Batman fans, and it had not even one remote connection to either the comics or the preexisting Batman movies. It couldn’t not fail.
Elektra, was aimed at the Dare Devil fans, and explicitly presented as a spin-off from the Dare Devil movie, which was the only logical way to go. But given the poor quality of the Dare Devil movie in the first place, no body should have expected Elektra to be a good movie.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is an original character, who first appeared in her own adventures, before teaming up with other superheroes. This doesn’t prevent an eventual Wonder Woman movie to suck badly. But it gives it a little more chance not to suck.
I never thought about it before but she doesn’t have a definitive story. In a way though, that really frees up whoever adapts the character for the big screen because they’re not constricted by having fans tell them that a certain story has to be told, and told in such and such a way.
It’s funny to be reading this article on one of my favorite sites just after reading a similar article a month or two back. The former article was based on why woman can’t carry a movie, yet here we are wondering why there is no Wonder WOMAN movie. I would think that it’s obvious… I was, at the time, somewhat inclined to agree with the previous article. Now, however, I think it might be our inability to envision that great origin or finite story of Diana of… (Is it Lesbos?)
Anyway… Undoubtedly, they (TPTB) are busy of writing a new script. I just wonder if the ‘fanboys/girls’, who believe a woman can’t carry a movie, will go see it when it’s done.
I suppose they could do something crazy like make up their own story. It has been done before.
Based on what I just read on wiki, there doesn’t seem to be a story that can make for an interesting film. The only thing that could possibly make for a good movie is where WW breaks “do-not-kill code of DC superheroes” and kills Maxwell Lord. Something like that could maybe make for a good story.
Or maybe a good way to introduce WW is rather than make a movie about her, make a movie dedicated to one of her villains. Since nobody really knows any WW villians (well i dont) it could be a way to build up a villain in a tragedy story and turn WW into the menace then at the end the lead character is killed off by WW. Thus in the sequel, hopefully the audience will want to see more of WW.
Great article link Rodney.
So in similar vein, I was not familar with WW’s background and makes me think why make a WW movie. If it happens it may end in the same pile of crap as it did for Electra and Catwoman. A female superhero on it’s own does not have solid footing regardless of their origin.
So here is my thinking after reading that article gave me an idea for the next Superman movie, introduce the Amazon lady in there, since there is nothing more exciting with the Lex Luthor storyline.
As the article hints, the stories on Earth are pale and I agree. Supes need to battle other nemesis. He could use WW’s help. No more silly tales with Louis Lane and the rest of the measly earthly characters.