Holding Out For a Heroine

Movies: Wonder Woman, Logan

I'm a bit late to the party with these reviews, but here ya go.

Wonder Woman

After many years of wondering (heh) when DC's greatest female superhero would get her own film, it's finally here and it's pretty good! By all accounts waaaaaay better than Man of Steel and the much-loathed Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice (side note: why do all these terrible superhero movies need extra-long, extra-cheesy titles?), and with a lighter touch than Christopher Nolan's Batman reboot, Wonder Woman captures the fun, wholesome popcorn pleasures of a superhero movie while also not being an embarrassing piece of garbage. Much the opposite, in fact.

Gal Gadot stares as Diana, Princess of Themyscria, raised among Amazons who spend their days preparing for battle. But battle against who? Their island is invisible and hidden to all outsiders...until War War I soldier Steve Trevor (Chris Pine, now officially my favorite of the White Chrises of Hollywood) flies his plane through the invisible barrier and right into the ocean while escaping the Germans.

Diana saves Steve from drowning, but a German cruiser chasing Steve also gets past the barrier leading to a bloody battle between the Amazon warriors and the German soldiers. Afterwards, Steve tells Diana about the horrors that the Great War has wrought throughout the world, and she becomes convinced that she must leave the island and search for Ares, the God of War. She believes, based on stories she's been told growing up, that if she destroys Ares, war will be over forever and there will be lasting peace on earth and goodwill among men.

In other words, this little Amazon cupcake has some growing up to do.

Much to the chagrin of her mother, the Queen of Thermyscria, Diana leaves with Steve and the two make their way to London where there are some delightful scenes with Diana trying on the current fashions for ladies, circa 1918, none of which suit her needs (her needs being: to kick ass).

Blah blah blah, stuff happens. Go see the movie. It's your duty as a feminist. There's a great subplot about mustard gas.

I really enjoyed Wonder Woman even though it's not a movie I'd watch over and over. I was less than impressed with Gadot's performance as Wonder Woman. While she certainly looks the part of a stunningly beautiful Amazon warrior, her performance is pretty flat. Even during the most emotional scenes, such as at the climax of the film when she fully realizes her love for Steve Trevor, her facial expressions convey only the most primary emotions: anger, surprise, fear. There's no nuance.

Chris Pine, on other hand, is great. Well, great in comparison to Gadot. His performance is so agreeable, American, wholesome, and patriotic that it's actually a fairly refreshing break from the rash of brooding anti-heroes in superhero movies (see below for an example).

In fact, the entire film could be described as traditional. It's less yuk-it-up than the Avenger movies, not snarky like Deadpool, not cynical and dark like The Dark Knight. It's optimistic, with a truly good heart (there's a moral lesson about how people don't have to "deserve" to be saved in order to justify saving them that wouldn't be out of place in a Sunday school classroom. And I don't say that in a mean or mocking way--the center of this film is a surprisingly spiritual one), just as one would expect from a classic superhero comic.

I'm always going to like my dark, sick superhero movies more than my sunny ones, but I had fun at Wonder Woman and it was nice to see a supposedly "male" genre of film have a kick-ass female lead and make a ton of money at the box office to boot.

Grade: B

***

Logan

Ok, as much fun as Wonder Woman was, Logan is much more my speed. It was gritty and some scenes nearly had me in tears.

I'm not a huge X-Men fan. The only other X-Men movie I've seen is X-Men: First Class and the only reason I saw it was because James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are in it. But I heard great things about the standalone Wolverine movie, Logan (titled after Wolverine's real name), so when the opportunity to watch it at a movie night with friends came along, I took it. I was not disappointed.

Logan takes place in the not-too-distant future (2029, to be exact). Logan, previously known as the self-healing mutant Wolverine, drives limos for a living. He occasionally visits Professor Charles Xavier, once the leader of the mutants who had mind control powers, now a nonagenarian whose seizures must be controlled with medication or they will endanger anyone in the surrounding area.

Logan is approached by a woman, Gabriela, who begs him to take an 11 year old girl, presumably her daughter, to North Dakota to a place named "Eden". It turns out that this girl, named Laura, is a tiny Wolverine herself! She is part of a cohort of child mutants born of forcibly impregnated young women in a government facility and raised to be soldiers with no will of their own. Gabriela was a nurse in the facility and saw the horrors with her own eyes.

Soon, Logan is on the road with Laura and Professor X, trying to make it to this supposed Eden where the kid mutants will meet up and cross the border into Canada together. Logan is skeptical that Eden exists, but he feels a fatherly connection to Laura (which makes sense, since they used his DNA to create her). The trio must outrun the bad guys who are intent of finding Laura and, most likely, killing Logan.

Logan was two things: incredibly violent and incredibly heart-string pulling. The film earns its hard-R rating with the dozens of violent scenes, including shoot-outs and Wolverine-on-Wolverine action (there is another Wolverine mutant, also played by Hugh Jackman, named X-24--a soulless killing machine). There are also a lot of children-in-peril scenes, although they're easier to watch knowing that these kids can fucking rip your head off if they want to.

Yes, this poster is a rip off of the Schindler's List poster.

But, oh god, the heart-string pulling. Seeing the ancient Prof X (played, as always, with warmth and dignity by Patrick Stewart) so weak and unable to control his seizures which have the power to kill people made me want to hug the old man and never let go. And the final scene between Logan and Laura--ACK! The most hardened movie-goer will crack.

Logan has style and substance. It has humor and violence. It's so enthralling, you will get lost in the story while watching it, but then continue to think about it afterwards for days. It's easily one of the best superhero films I've seen, right up there next to The Dark Knight (in fact, I may even rank it slightly above TDK).

Grade: A-