Showing posts with label Chris Pines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Pines. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Coming Soon: Power, Grace, Wisdom, Wonder

I've said it before.  How can a woman who stands for peace, an alternate way of living from the violence of man, carry a sword?  Why?  Who decided this should be?  In the recently released trailer for the June 2017 release of the looooong awaited Wonder Woman film, the fucking sword is very prevalent.  And she seems very ready to "whip it out".  Now that said, she seems to use it not to hack at people, but at things-- wood, weapons, and to distract and dazzle.  To my mind her golden lasso does just as good a job, but I suppose you can't expect the movie to go TOO far from it's usual philosophy that for women to be as good as men they must be warriors(although, in truth, I do).

Apart from the presence of the sword, there's a lot to be excited about with this trailer.  There is a great screen chemistry between Gal Gadot and Chris Pine's, and he carries a lot of the humor featured in the trailer to great affect.  Etta Candy (Wonder Woman's earthly side kick from the 40's) even makes an appearance, and she's handled with the right amount of care, or so it seems at least from this tiny glimpse. Although, can I for one say let's get rid of that awful, insulting name.  "Etta Candy"????  Aw, for fuck's sake.

I did think it interesting that the setting for the movie is not World War II, but World War I.  The original story was so firmly grounded in the mid-twentieth century aesthetic and mindset, that I never thought they would set it anywhere except the forties, assuming they didn't set it in the present.  This decision does a few things though...  it distances the look from campy visual aesthetics and anything "Old Hollywood".  As much as I love the forties, that glamor, that packaging and that era has become a lot more associated with camp, and for a film that wants to have the appropriate amount of humor and relatively camp free, I understand it.

  It also sets it apart from Captain America and its "aw shucks" mentality, which worked beautifully in that film, but anything similar at this point from a competing franchise's character could be seen as retreading through subject matter that has already been done exceedingly well.

Finally, and possibly most significantly, this time period coincides with the women's suffrage movement, the heroine's of which were major inspirations for the character.  The realization of a major achievement for women's equality could be a wonderful context to really show Wonder Woman in all her glory.

I have to say, this could be a really fun and empowering film, and Gadot certainly seems strong enough, extremely charismatic (in a super serious way, taking care of business way).


Cursive

  Last week I returned to doing my  morning pages , a practice I was committed to for years, and then abandoned, at least partially in the d...