Fans had been waiting for what felt like an eternity for a Wonder Woman movie, so when
it finally arrived, it was a worldwide phenomenon that made Gal Gadot a superstar and set a
new standard for DC’s movie universe.
Needless to say, kids loved it, but when they watch it with their parents, the adults in
the room latch onto a few things that children might not pick up on.
From the quirks of Themysciran society to Chris Pine's love of a certain mode of transport,
here are the things only adults notice in Wonder Woman.
Secrets and wars
Before it dives into an adventure set against the backdrop of World War I, the film opens
with Diana receiving a package from Bruce Wayne containing a photo which proved to him
that Diana had been around, looking exactly the same, for decades.
Bruce tracked the original down and sent it to Diana as a gesture of friendship to help
her keep her secret, and we later learn the photo was taken in the village of Veld after
Diana, Steve, and their compatriots liberated the town from German soldiers, and apparently
passed into history later without anyone ever taking too much notice.
But let's unpack this for a moment: A photographer captured this image, featuring a lady with
a glowing rope who'd just taken an entire town back from the Germans, and then it just…went
away?
No one followed up?
No one ever asked the photographer what was up with the literal Amazon hanging out with
soldiers?
Well, maybe someone did.
There are plenty of legends of supernatural events occuring during World War I, including
tales of angelic figures who helped defend the Belgian city of Mons.
Diana certainly fits the bill of an angelic figure who showed up to help soldiers, so
maybe she was just written off as a legend… who just happened to have her picture taken.
Selective understanding
The film’s greatest source of comedy is the culture clash that ensues as Steve Trevor
tries to introduce Diana to modern life in 1917, and her difficulty understanding it.
Not that we can blame her.
Things get pretty complicated when Steve has to explain the legal concept of a marriage
that’s permanent until it isn’t, for instance.
“Then why do they do it?
I have no idea”
If marriage is that difficult to understand, though, it stands to reason that she’s going
to have a hard time with the rest of the world.
Diana stays in our world after the events of the movie, which means she suddenly has
to learn about everything from banking to home ownership.
Imagine the conversation that ensues the first time someone has to explain bankruptcy or
parking tickets to her.
Of course, if the film stopped to acknowledge every single explanation that Steve and Etta
had to offer, Ares probably would’ve conquered the world without much trouble.
There are a few other examples that are pretty notable, however.
“What’s THAT?”
“It’s a… uh..”
On the boat from Themyscira, Diana makes it clear that she has an understanding of reproduction,
but is puzzled by the sight of a couple holding hands.
Themyscira is rich in art and culture, but Diana doesn't seem to understand the purpose
of clothes that exist for anything other than fighting.
She views ice cream as a true miracle, yet has no trouble with the concept of a camera.
Bullets and bracelets
It's established pretty early on that Wonder Woman has powers other Amazon warriors do
not, and by the end of the movie, we know why.
Diana isn’t just an Amazon, she’s a demigod, the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta, giving
her powers far beyond the warrior prowess of a typical Amazon.
These powers apparently include jumping to incredible heights, supernatural toughness,
and super-strength.
We see her do things like walking out of a collapsing tower unscathed, and tossing around
armored vehicles on more than one occasion.
Yet whenever anyone fires a gun at her, she deflects it either with her bracelets or with
her shield.
If Diana can walk away from being tossed around by the literal God of War, there's a good
chance bullets won't do much against her, but the film never shows us that.
In the comics, it’s mentioned that she’s so skilled that she can control where they
ricochet, but in the movie, we’re guessing it’s because deflecting slow-mo bullets
just looks really cool.
There’s another reason, though: at the beginning of the film, she watches all of her Amazon
sisters die in a hail of gunfire.
Maybe it's not that Diana can't survive bullets, but that she just doesn't want to try.
Motorcycle madness
If you go to see a movie starring Chris Pine, chances are pretty good that you’re going
to see him on a motorcycle.
He even rode one in the distant future of the Star Trek films, including the one in
which he had to find a motorcycle on an alien planet.
If Disney had let him, he probably would have done it in Into the Woods, too.
World War I makes for a much easier place to find a motorcycle than the 24th century,
but it still feels a little shoehorned in.
After Diana and Steve head to the village of Veld on horses to investigate Dr. Poison’s
chemical weapons, Diana flies into a rage and hops back on her horse to pursue Ludendorff.
Steve gets to the village moments after Diana, but instead of mounting up to join her, he
spends a few moments looking for a motorcycle instead, even though his horse is still standing
right there.
Maybe Steve only rides horses as a last resort, or maybe Pine wanted to look cool on a motorcycle
again.
And honestly, can you blame him?
Sharp-dressed
When Etta Candy and Steve Trevor first try to dress Diana in modern clothes, Steve slips
a pair of glasses on her, and Etta makes the a pretty obvious observation about that disguise:
“Suddenly she’s not the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen”
Glasses or no, Diana stands out in a crowd, and when she and Steve infiltrate a German
party, it’s understandably difficult for anyone in the crowd to take their eyes off
of her.
Her goal is to kill Ludendorff, and she aims to do so by stuffing her sword down the back
of her dress until it's time for some stabbing.
It's a great visual, but it doesn’t quite hold up if you take a minute to think about
it.
With the number of people taking second looks at Diana as she walks past, someone probably
should’ve noticed she was carrying a giant piece of magic metal.
Could they have seen the hilt of the sword and simply thought it was elaborate jewelry?
Sure, but Ludendorff probably should’ve noticed something was up when he literally
put his hands on it.
Leftover weapons
Diana spends the film convinced that all she has to do to stop the war is kill Ares, but
Steve has a different mission.
His goal is the same, but he’s going after General Ludendorff and Doctor Poison, who
have manufactured extremely powerful chemical weapons.
The evil doctor didn't just make the poison gas that will kill untold numbers of people
if it's unleashed on the world, though — she also granted Ludendorff incredible strength
and durability,which almost makes him Diana’s equal in combat.
Almost.
At the end of the film, Ares tries to get Diana to kill Doctor Poison, who he considers
the ultimate example of humanity's corruption.
Diana spares her, but her lab is destroyed by Steve and his team, and the poison gas
is neutralized when Steve sacrifices his life to blow it all up.
It all seems like a pretty tidy ending, except that we know Doctor Poison worked in multiple
places to perfect her formula.
Research like this tends to involve a lot of documentation, and it makes sense that
she’d even have earlier, slightly less deadly versions of both the poison and the strength
enhancer that we never saw.
Even assuming she never made a chemical weapon again after Diana spared her, it's not hard
to imagine Doctor Poison’s creations, or the science behind them, falling into the
hands of the Nazis just a few years later.
Gods and monsters
The film's climactic showdown between Diana and Ares reveals a twist: Ares was not Ludendorff,
as Diana had assumed, but was actually Sir Patrick Morgan, who’s been manipulating
events for ages in order to give humanity the right machines of war to destroy themselves.
In a battle with the unmasked Ares, the God of War seems to have telekinetic command over
just about everything in sight.
He uses that to fashion himself some fierce-looking, comic accurate scrap metal armor, and hurl
shards of airplanes and tanks at our heroine.
Those are very cool things for him to do, but as the battle progresses, he reaches into
the skies and… summons lightning bolts.
The movie can give its gods whatever powers it wants, but isn't lightning Zeus' thing?
And don’t we know that because we see him using it in a flashback in this very same
film?
Why does the the power that Ares has over weapons of war, which makes perfect sense,
suddenly extend to lightning?
Sure, it definitely looks cool, but viewers with a very basic understanding of mythology
might have a hard time figuring that one out.