The Wonder Woman live action movie from a few years ago was pretty decent by comic book movie standards, but by DC standards that's practically a homerun. Recently that got a follow-up in the form of Wonder Woman 1984. Did that manage to top the original and assert itself as a solid entry in the Detective Comics Expanded Universe?
Well, kinda. But that's not what I'm here to talk about today. (Spoilers for both Wonder Woman movies, then again is it really a spoiler if it's shown in trailers?)
In the first film, an American fighter pilot called Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine) crash-lands his plane on the hidden Amazon island of Themyscira. It's here he meets the demigoddess Diana; the two share a connection and he later introduces her to outside world, helping her adjust to the contemprorary values of 1918 while The Great War rages on through Europe. During the movie's climax, Steve wishes Diana goodbye before he sacrifices himself to dispose of chemical bombs while she fights Ares, the God of War, and accepts her role as Wonder Woman, protector of humanity.
But as is often the case with movies these days, no one's ever really gone. In WW84, Diana is now leading a successful professional life while superheroing in her free time, but she still hasn't gotten over her dead boyfriend from 66 years ago. The plot this time revolves around a wish-granting MacGuffin called the Dreamstone. Diana absent-mindedly wishes she could see Steve again. Guess who she bumps into before long?
And the two start making up for those 66 years apart before you could start pondering the implication. The mechanics behind his resurrection are explained, at least. Steve died in 1918, so when Diana wished for him back he was reincarnated in the body of a random guy who lived near her and had a similar build to him. So when the audience sees Chris Pine on screen their seeing him world through Diana's eyes; to everyone else he's a completely different person (played by Kristoffer Polaha).
Are you still with me? To sum up, Diana had sex with a guy who was not in control of his mind or body, but was conscious the entire time. That pretty much fits the definition of rape as far as I'm aware. But not everyone thinks Wonder Woman is a rapist; including one fan whose arguments were backed by the movie's director, Patty Jenkins. They asserted that the film is intentionally referencing body-swap movies that were popular in the 80s like Big; where Tom Hanks plays a 12 year old in the body of an adult who, in one scene, has sex with an adult woman. That may techinically make the woman in this situation a rapist, but those kind of uncomfortable implications are pretty common in the body swap genre. Here, Jenkins is intentionally pointing this out as the Dreamstone takes something away even after granting a wish - Barbara loses her humanity as she becomes Cheetah, Max Lord loses his soul as he gets more powerful, and Diana loses her powers and her reason as she spends more time with Steve. Finally, the film's climax shows that everyone's wish is undone after they've revoked it, so it's possible that the sex they had never happened in the first place by the end of the movie. Hell, stranger things have happened in the world of DC.
So you're telling me both their moms are called Martha?
Over to you guys, have you seen Wonder Woman 1984? What did you think of it? And what do you think of this controversy? Sound off below!
