Comic Book Films

"Kerry Washington – Alicia Masters"

"The Fantastic Four are, in short, underwhelming. The edges kind of blur between them and other superhero teams. That's understandable. How many people could pass a test right now on who the X-Men are and what their powers are? Or would want to? I wasn't watching "Fantastic Four" to study it, but to be entertained by it, but how could I be amazed by a movie that makes its own characters so indifferent about themselves? The Human Torch, to repeat, can burn at supernova temperatures! He can become so hot, indeed, that he could threaten the very existence of the Earth itself! This is absolutely stupendously amazing, wouldn't you agree? If you could burn at supernova temperatures, would you be able to stop talking about it? I know people who won't shut up about winning 50 bucks in the lottery. But after Johnny Storm finds out he has become the Human Torch, he takes it pretty much in stride, showing off a little by setting his thumb on fire. Later he saves the Earth, while Invisible Woman simultaneously contains his supernova so he doesn't destroy it. That means Invisible Woman could maybe create a force field to contain the sun, which would be a big deal, but she's too distracted to explore the possibilities; she gets uptight because she will have to be naked to be invisible, because otherwise people could see her empty clothes; it is no consolation to her that invisible nudity is more of a metaphysical concept than a condition. Are these people complete idiots? The entire nature of their existence has radically changed, and they're about as excited as if they got a makeover on "Oprah." The exception is Ben Grimm, as the Thing, who gets depressed when he looks in the mirror. Unlike the others, who look normal except when actually exhibiting superpowers, he looks like - well, he looks like his suits would fit The Hulk, just as the Human Torch looks like The Flash, and the Invisible Woman reminds me of Storm in "X-Men.". Is this the road company? Thing clomps around on his Size 18 boulders and feels like an outcast until he meets a blind woman named Alicia (Kerry Washington) who loves him, in part because she can't see him. But the Thing looks like Don Rickles crossed with Mt. Rushmore; he has a body that feels like a driveway and a face with crevices you could hide a toothbrush in. Alicia tenderly feels his face with her fingers, like blind people often do while falling in love in the movies, and I guess she likes what she feels. Maybe she's extrapolating."

"Q: Tim, could you elaborate on the dysfunctional family aspect of the group?"

"Q: For the whole cast, how much fun is it to be a superhero, at the end of the day?"

"ALBA: Oh my God. My character, yeah, I mean, she's very intelligent and she's very maternal and she's outwardly emotional because she's a woman. And the guys kind of run the show and they don't see her. She might as well just be invisible because she still lives in a man's world and she has to work double hard to get ahead, and they still overshadow her."

"Ioan Gruffudd – Reed Richards"

"I will fight – for those who cannot fight for themselves."

"You're wrong about them. They're everything you say... but so much more."

"It's not about "deserve". It's about what you believe. And I believe in Love."

"What one does when faced with the truth is more difficult than you think."

"I used to want to save the world. This beautiful place. But I knew so little then. It is a land of magic and wonder. Worth cherishing in every way. But the closer you get, the more you see the great darkness shimmering within. And mankind? Mankind is another story altogether. What one does when faced with the truth, is more difficult than you think. I learned this the hard way. A long long time ago. And now, I will never be the same."

"I used to want to save the world. To end war and bring peace to mankind; but then I glimpsed the darkness that lives within their light. I learnt that inside every one of them there will always be both. The choice each must make for themselves – something no hero will ever defeat. And now I know ... that only Love can truly save the world. So now I stay, I fight, and I give – for the world I know can be. This is my mission now. Forever."

"My father told me once, he said, "If you see something wrong happening in the world, you can do nothing or you can do something." And I already tried nothing."

"[with a German accent] I love fire, don't you? It is like a living act of entropy. The ultimate weapon of destruction. Reminding us that in the end everything eventually returns to the ash it came from."

"[wrapping the Lasso around his arm and painfully forcing himself to tell Diana the truth] I am taking you to the front. We are probably gonna die. This is a terrible idea!"

"It has to be me. I can save today. You can save the world. I wish we had more time. [backing way from Diana] I love you!"

"Wonder Woman was originally designed to draw strength from empathy and love. To her great credit, Jenkins doesn’t shy away from these stereotypically feminine attributes, but makes them the basis of Diana’s power. She doesn’t run on primeval adrenaline, but deep compassion. Too often, we see superheroes engage in combat because, well, that’s what they’re supposed to do. Here, there’s a true and meaningful connection between cause and effect. Diana is shocked, for example, when Steve encourages their hastily-assembled team (including standout Saïd Taghmaoui as Sameer) to rush past a devastated village on the way to the front lines. Steve is saddened by the sight of starving families being preyed on by mercenaries. But the priority is to reach Ludendorff as quickly as possible, and Steve won’t deviate from the plan secretly approved by his superior, Sir Patrick Morgan … Diana can’t follow him. Benevolence is the force that drives her. She sees suffering, and she has to alleviate it. Don’t get the wrong idea, though: while Amazons don’t like violence, they’re more than willing to use it – and, it seems, in flashy, fiery style. … Jenkins and screenwriter Allan Heinberg have created an unassailable icon, one who fits into the pantheon with ease, and stands out like no other. By viewing the familiar tropes of an origin story through a new – and, one can only hope, game-changing – lens, they have delivered us a lasting legend."

"Power. Grace. Wisdom. Wonder."

"The future of justice begins with her."

"Wonder Woman offers something missing from the previous DCEU movies – joy. But it’s an absolutely magnetic, star-making turn from Gal Gadot that really makes the film go. … Wonder Woman probably does the best job with a superhero origin story than any film of its kind since the first Iron Man, back in 2008. And beyond everything else, from the direction to the action scenes to the cinematography, that’s a testament to Gal Gadot, who’s as perfectly cast as any superhero in recent years. She’s got a presence that’s something to behold, and not just her looks. Gadot commands the screen in every scene she’s in, and her chemistry with Pine is off the charts."

"As opposed to most comic book superhero movies, “Wonder Woman” isn’t a nonstop clobberfest. Set in 1918 at the height of World War I (a switch from the World War II setting of the original comic book, which was created by William Moulton Marston), the film has Wonder Woman progressing from her Amazonian all-female island of Themyscira to London and then the fighting trenches in her heroic effort to annihilate Ares, the god of war, who she believes is responsible for all wars, and whose demise would bring eternal peace to the planet. How naive, you may think. Until, of course, Ares actually does show up … But here’s a spoiler alert: Ares or no Ares, there’s no way going forward that the “Wonder Woman” franchise will dispense with war."

"The thing that I think that Christopher Reeve’s Superman had that our Wonder Woman has is the genuine compassion for man. Wanting to see the best in him, and wanting to help mankind, men and women, human beings. But what the character also had in every incarnation was her desire from the time that she was a young girl to be a hero. Her mother was a hero, her aunt was a hero, and she felt it was the destiny of herself and the other Amazons to be heroic, and so she wanted to fulfill that destiny from the very beginning, from the time that she was a little girl. That was always there, how she was gonna go about doing it wasn’t always there."

"One of the great things that came with Patty was this great use of Diana’s naiveté from living such a sheltered life on Themyscira. So even though she ends up […] becoming a fighter, she’s still pretty sheltered because she’s never been off the island. So she’s got no life experience really. When she meets a man for the first time that gives you great potential humor, and when she goes off the island there’s great potential humor just in her sense of what life is like and her finding out what life is like in man’s world. So a lot of the humor of the movie, or the circumstances, was pulled out by Patty."

"Reviewer David Edelstein focuses excessively on Gadot’s appearance in his review, even opening with this sentence: “The only grace note in the generally clunky Wonder Woman is its star, the five-foot-ten-inch Israeli actress and model Gal Gadot, who is somehow the perfect blend of superbabe-in-the-woods innocence and mouthiness.” He continues to objectify and exoticize Gadot as the review goes on, noting, “She’s a treat here with her raspy accented voice and driving delivery. (Israeli women are a breed unto themselves, which I say with both admiration and trepidation.)” He also lets us know that, even when she’s not in her superhero costume, Gadot is still – phew! – attractive. “She looks fabulous in her suffragette outfit with little specs,” the review reads, “but it’s not until she strips down to her superheroine bodice and shorts, pulls out her sword, and leaps into the fray, that she comes into her own.” Worst of all, though, is his disclaimer about a lack of “kinkiness” in the film: “While this Wonder Woman is still into ropes (Diana’s lasso both catches bad guys and squeezes the truth out of them), fans might be disappointed that there’s no trace of the comic’s well-documented S&M kinkiness. With a female director, Patty Jenkins, at the helm, Diana isn’t even photographed to elicit slobbers.”"

"As the world’s most well-adjusted superhero, Wonder Woman breaks the genre mold. She’s openhearted, not angsty — an anomaly within the DC Universe, “extended” or otherwise. So, too, is her long-awaited foray into the live-action big-screen spotlight: that openheartedness makes the movie something of an outlier."

"Throughout, Lindy Hemming’s superb costume designs are in sync with production designer Aline Bonetto’s vivid locales, contrasting the poetic, not-quite-real timelessness of Themyscira, the all-female isle where Diana was raised, with the prosaic reality of early-20th-century Europe, from cosmopolitan London to the provinces to the devastating chaos of the trenches. Matthew Jensen’s cinematography heightens every shift, while the score by Rupert Gregson-Williams alternates between obvious emotional chords and enriching counterpoint."

"There are several extraordinary sequences in Wonder Woman, but at one point halfway through the film there is a scene (you’ve seen part of it in the trailers) where Diana rises into battle and we see her stride onto the field for the first time in her full costume; I want to see the movie again just for this shot, which gave me major goosebumps. This is a moment 75 years in the making where the hopes and dreams and fantasies of millions of little girls and adult women finally crystallize into one transcendent image that is proud, defiant, more than welcome, and a long time coming. Women are, in so many ways that are never acknowledged, the true superheroes of the world, and it’s both a profound relief and joy to report that the first fictional one has come to the big screen with pride, respect… and love."

"Wonder Woman walks with confidence because she believes that the world is kind. And when it’s revealed not to be, her body language changes. Now, her confidence is layered with sacrifice and resolve—emotions that Gadot thought a lot about before she shot each take so that when she was in the moment, she wouldn’t have to be consciously aware of them at all. She imagined herself wearing Wonder Woman’s qualities almost like a second costume. The character’s inner life told her how to move."

"The setting also helps to make the film’s resonant feminist subtext feel more organic and less forced. At a time when women were still without the right to vote and were subjugated to a position of being seen and not heard, the fearsome Diana becomes a spokeswoman in word and deed of resistance and empowerment. She refuses to be treated like a second-class citizen by politicians and generals. No one puts Wonder Woman in a corner. On the battlefield in Belgium, she displays a martial courage that her brothers in arms (even including Pine) don’t possess. She’s completely fearless…not to mention a long way from Lynda Carter. It’s only in the movie’s unnecessary final half-hour or so that Wonder Woman finally meets her match: the special-effects imperatives of contemporary blockbuster filmmaking against which even the Germans onscreen seem insignificant."

"Directed by Patty Jenkins (Monster), Wonder Woman takes a page from, dare we say it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe playbook by telling a mostly straightforward origin story. While it is somewhat predictable in its basic structure, the movie also provides the kind of satisfying narrative and character arc missing from its predecessors. And for possibly the first time since the DCEU officially started with 2013’s Man of Steel, the movie features a lead character who unambiguously embraces the call instead of refusing it with aspects of that character’s own personality and history creating more organic conflicts later on. There is also genuine warmth in the relationships that the movie sets up, creating the kind of empathy that was sorely missing from the more nihilistic BvS and Suicide Squad. Both of those movies had their strengths, as did Man of Steel, but Wonder Woman feels like the first unabashed superhero movie in the DCEU to date."

"While “Wonder Woman” is an overall light, humorous and hopeful movie, it isn’t afraid of touching on politics. The feminism of the film is sly. It’s seen in moments when characters of color comment on their station in life and Diana faces sexism from powerful men who doubt her intelligence. Of course, the feminism, charming performances, and delightful humor would be nothing without the direction by Patty Jenkins."

"While having a female director perhaps gives Wonder Woman a subtly different perspective, the real strengths of this production are its lead actors, the period piece setting, and an unexpected emotional resonance that one doesn’t expect from a popcorn movie. … Wonder Woman’s central premise – that the main character, Diana (Gal Gadot), is the demigod daughter of the immortal Zeus and the amazon Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) – is absurd (although no more than Marvel’s Thor) but the screenplay, credited to Allan Heinberg, develops this fantasy-flavored alternate reality in such a way that we buy into it."

"Alex Cranz: You know what was really revelatory about Steve Trevor? The moment she saves him from the plane. Any other film it would have been his story from then on. It would have been about him using these women to win the war, and teaching them how everything was different. And the movie never ever ever went that direction."

"Gadot wonderfully inhabits the mix of curiosity, sincerity, badassery, and compassion that has undergirded Wonder Woman since the beginning. Most importantly, she wears her suit, the suit doesn’t wear her. She evokes a classic heroism that is a breath of fresh air and nods to Christopher Reeve’s approach to Superman from the 1970s. Likewise, Pine matches her hopefulness with a world weariness and sharp sense of humor. He’s more than capable at bringing an emotional complexity to a character most aptly described as a dude-in-distress. There are particularly great scenes at the beginning, as Diana talks about men being unnecessary for female pleasure. Steve seems undone by her presence, which makes the development of their story authentic. Their chemistry is electrifying, making “Wonder Woman” a successful romance and superhero origin story set during one of the most brutal wars."

"It says quite a lot about the general tenor of the DC cinematic universe that a film set in the trenches of WWI, with a plot revolving around the development of chemical warfare, is nonetheless its most cheerful and kid-friendly entry. But while “Wonder Woman” may dabble in moments of horror, it never revels in the vicissitudes of human depravity quite like its predecessors. A huge factor in its ability to convey a note of inherent goodness lies in Gadot, whose visage radiates dewy-eyed empathy and determination — and whose response to the iniquity of human nature isn’t withdrawn cynicism but rather outrage."

"As a longtime Wonder Woman fan, I worried her distinctive edges would be sanded off when it came time for her standalone film. It’s arguably easier to sell Wonder Woman as a vengeful heroine in the vein of countless others, but less distinctive. But early in the film I noticed the terrain that director Patty Jenkins turned to most often in order to create the emotional through-line. It wasn’t the glimmer of a blade or even the picturesque shores of Themyscira, the utopian paradise Wonder Woman calls home. Through moments of quiet verisimilitude and blistering action sequences, Jenkins’ gaze often wisely returns to the face of her lead heroine, Diana (Gal Gadot). At times, her face is inquisitive, morose, and marked by fury. But more often than not she wears a bright, open smile that carries the optimism and hope that is true to the character’s long history as well as a much-needed salve from what other blockbusters offer."

"Cinematographer Matthew Jensen, production designer Aline Bonetto, and costume designer Lindy Hemming form Themyscira into a gorgeous utopia that utilizes a variety of cultural touchstones. It’s free of the Hellenic influence you’d expect from a story that takes such inspiration from Greek myth with the Amazons creating their home in a way that respects the lush nature around them rather than destroying it. It isn’t sterile either. The scenes set in Themyscira have a dazzling array of colors including the gold of armor, the cerulean blue of the sea that surrounds them, warm creams, and deep browns. Jenkins films many of these scenes in wide shot, reveling in the majestic nature of this culture. Similarly, the history of the Amazons, told in a dense but beautifully rendered backstory by Hippolyta, evokes a painterly quality reminiscent of Caravaggio."

"I think she'd kick Thor's a**"

"Really, specs? And suddenly she's not the most beautiful woman you've ever seen?"

"Everyone is fighting their own battle, Diana. Just as you're fighting yours."

"Maybe you're better off without me, yeah?"

"“She’s not vicious,” says Jenkins. Watch closely and spot Gadot flipping her sword to whack Germans with the non-fatal handle. Audiences are used to blockbusters that pause the plot during action scenes so people can cheer. But study Gadot’s movements and see how Wonder Woman reveals dimensions of her personality even when she’s silently running across a field."

"I have nowhere else. The last war took everything from my people. We have nothing left. At least here, I'm free."

"I am not the god of war, Diana, I am the god of truth. Mankind stole this world from us. They ruined it, day by day. And I, the only one wise enough to see it, was left too weak to stop them. All these years, I have struggled alone, whispering into their ears. Ideas, inspiration for formulas, weapons... but I don't make them use them. They start these wars on their own. All I do is orchestrate an armistice I know they cannot keep, in the hope they will destroy themselves. But it has never been enough... until you. When you first arrived, I was going to crush you. But I knew that if only you could see what the other gods could not, then you would join me, and with our powers combined, we could finally end all the pain, all the suffering, the destruction they bring. And we could return this world to the paradise it was before them, forever."

"Let's see what kind of god you really are!"

"I am not your enemy, Diana. I am the only one who truly knows you, and who truly knows them, as you now do. They have always been and will always be weak, cruel, selfish and capable of the greatest horrors. All I ever wanted was for the gods to see how evil my father's creation was. But they refused. So I destroyed them."

"You will help me destroy them, Diana. Or you will die."

"NEVER let your guard down! You expect a battle to be fair! A battle will NEVER be fair!"

"Ah, you know your ancient Greeks. They understood... That war is a god. A god who requires human sacrifice. In exchange, war gives man purpose. Meaning. A chance to rise above his petty mortal little self and be courageous. Noble. Better."

"You were right, Diana, they don't deserve our help. They only deserve destruction."