Spoilers for 2017’s Wonder Woman. Also, why haven’t you seen it yet?
Wonder Woman, seen here in No Man’s Land standing firm amidst a hail of gunfire
At present, comic book film enthusiasts, like ourselves, have been presented with four very distinct modern female-led superhero movies: Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman 1984, and most recently, Black Widow. While there is plenty of love to go around for the entire lot of them, to determine which of the four films is the best is relative to one’s preference on the movie’s style, franchise, and perhaps, lead actress. However, from our perspective, we believe there is a clear winner where female-led superhero films are concerned, one that surpasses all else that followed in its footsteps; the first female-led superhero movie: 2017’s Wonder Woman.
Of course, in no way are we claiming that the film is perfect, far from it, but the reason we believe it still reigns supreme over other offerings in the genre is due to its sincerity in telling its story. While the other female-led superhero films that followed it very conspicuously focused on cringe-inducing gender commentary as a large part of its storytelling, Wonder Woman instead chose to focus solely on giving audiences an honest and agenda-free superhero narrative. There was never a moment when the film felt it was necessary to take a bitter swipe at its male characters in order to uplift its female ones. In fact, the film ingeniously established a balance between the genders, allowing them to showcase their strengths and weaknesses in the unique situations they were cast into within the movie.
In a nutshell, the film felt honest, as it was not trying too hard to make its female lead overshadow her male counterparts. By doing this, the film not only achieved in showing audiences how great of a character Wonder Woman truly is but, in turn, allowed for an organic narrative to unfold. The film demonstrated great courage in depicting its female lead as a flawed yet intriguing character, as opposed to the constant barrage of Mary Sues that followed in other films, making Wonder Woman a genuinely inspiring superhero, not just for women, but men as well.
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