Sometimes a film’s reputation really takes a hit. When this first came out I kept hearing how great it is, and now I only hear it is mediocre at best or just awful. I have not seen this movie since 2020 when I actively caught up on all the DC Universe Animated Original Movies (DCUAOM), of which this is the fourth one. Time to see if I think it holds up.
It never got a sequel due to “low sales.” At the time this was highly criticized, but as its reputation plummeted we saw why. It made only “good” numbers, and it was the first time they did Wonder Woman. Naturally the next one would be lower, and this has a very prestigious team.
Like all the early DCUAOM films Bruce Timm is the producer. Some people have said no woman would make this or the creators must have never read a Wonder Woman comic, and they are dead wrong. Lauren Montgomery, an award winning woman director is the director. Gail Simone is the primary story creator, and she has written over 30 Wonder Woman comics. In addition it has some expensive actors.
It starts with the Amazons battling Ares’s army. On one side the fighting is very lackluster by DCUAOM standards (at least early ones). On the other hand the characterization is a major strength. Alexa is introduced as a cowardly Amazon, and that gets another killed. Ares reveals he and Hippolyta used to be lovers and his top soldier is their son. Hippolyta beheads her own son as her introductory move. To her fury Zeus makes her spare Ares, but his godhood powers (but not immortality) are removed. After this Hippolyta makes the Amazons an isolationist society with no interactions with man and is allowed to miraculously create a daughter, Diana. After this good opening the first half completely collapses.
Wonder Woman is quickly introduced as the toughest Amazon and voiced by Keri Russell. I do not like her acting. It lacks range and comedic timing. I presume this was made for men, as there are lots of angles to make them look hotter. A key problem is Wonder Woman herself is not interesting. She is the basic ambassador who slowly comes around and wants more out of life. Where have I seen that before?
While the animation movement is good the animation designs are bad. They are trying way too hard to make them look attractive at the cost of personality and expressions. I got really tired of looking at them.
Steve (voiced by Nathan Fillion) is introduced. He is by far the best acted and second worst character. Bad flashbacks to Fox and the Hound 2 there. This movie has to quit reminding me of bad Disney sequels I have already reviewed. Does he say anything that is not a sexual joke? he is shot down by… somebody, and he ogles at Amazons bathing until Wonder Woman dominates him (the fight is clearly supposed to bring that image to mind), and they interoggate him. This results in a long “crap” joke. As much as I love most of the early DCUAOM movies I always try to forget all the moderate cursing they use to show this is not rated TV-Y7 anymore.
They agree to take Steve back home escorted by a champion. Diana is supposed to help Persephone guard Ares at that time, but Alexa takes her place so she can win, which she does. Alexa while reading is betrayed and killed by Persephone who was seduced by Ares. Artemis is furious at Alexa for that, and I hate this iteration of her (actually more than Steve). Why blame her instead of the traitor or Ares. For somebody with no experience with men she knows a lot of castration jokes. Also where does Alexa get all those modernish books? They are an isolationist society.
Rosario Dawson voiced the unlikeable Amazon Artemis. In several years in the DCAMU she would voice Wonder Woman, an unlikeable Amazon in their version. In two years she would be Persephone in the first Percy Jackson movie.
Our villains are mixed. Ares is a basic villain, no complex motivations, just gain more power. Even worse he was defeated in the prologue making him not that threatening. Persephone is more like a watered down Shakespearian villain. She has a motivation, have a kid, but her actual goals are ambiguous. Despite her limited screen time she is far more intriguing than her boss, and I wish she was the main villain.
Steve and Diana arrive in America, and these next few scenes are terrible. I have done lots of stick sword fighting, and I am upset by Wonder Woman not knowing how play sword fighting works. Why is Etta Candy blonde and thin? Diana gets mad and takes it out on some muggers. No deaths, but she injures many showing she is more brutal than Batman and Superman. It is a pretty good fight, but Steve is so terrible in these scenes. He is way too obsessed with making Diana drunk, so he can… Just moving on.
After a lackluster first half things kick off. Deimos is sent to kill Wonder Woman, and they get in a really good fight where Wonder Woman wins thanks to regularly going for the eyes. She is going to use the lasso to make him reveal where Ares is, but he commits suicide first.
They fight Ares in Tartarus. Steve saves Diana when she gets knocked out. In the hospital she is furious that a man selfishly saved her, and I am fully on Steve’s side here. Could he have actually saved the world without her? It is not like Ares’s god powers are restored, and he is right she keeps playing the sexism card. I am sure most hardcore Wonder Woman fans will not like his speech about men trying to be caring and The Amazons’ cowardly flaw of hiding, but I am really ready for it by this point.
In Tartarus Ares goes to Hades to get his powers back, and he gets him mad at Zeus by showing him his son’s corpse. Good logic except he needlessly angers Ares by mistreating his son right in front of him. I kept expecting Ares to kill him for that.
Ares’s army is faced by Wonder Woman and the Amazons. I thought this was a terrible idea, as it is already established the heroes are a better army. Instead The President’s female advisor convinces him to nuke Paradise Island resulting in Ares getting a huge power boost making him wipe out Wonder Woman, and he gets an army of every dead Amazon. This is actually intimidating and cool. Artemis The Cruel is happy to kill Alexa again and instead loses and is saved by Alexa telling her the incantation to remove them from the fight. Sure it forced more of the film’s worst character, but that was a good sendoff for Alexa. Hipplolyta kills Persephone who reveals she betrayed them to be a mother, as that was her want. Good motivation, but nothing comes from Hippolyta’s reaction. Does she regret this now or not? Probably, as she does let Wonder Woman stay in Man’s world who ends the film in a happy relationship with Steve. Wonder Woman defeats Ares and Steve defeats the nuke. After some letdown fights this was quite the climax. It was fast, felt brutal, and all the moving parts had a clear role. The problem is the one liners stank. I think they were trying way too hard to be memes and sounded dumb.
Three Tree Stars. Weak beginning and really good ending. Good animation movement but bad designs. Bad script and story, but good fights to keep me entertained. Overall it balances out into being an average movie.
Next time- a Rare live action film for me-
Dragonheart 3.
The Animation Historian 