Acting: *** Effects: *** Story: **-1/2 Casting: ****
On Saturday night, I decided to finally sit down and see this travesty that NBC called ‘Wonder Woman.” Let me tell you a little bit about myself: I grew up watching the show live; I collected (and still do) the comic books. Been there at the end when she died at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths to be resurrected back in 1986 by George Perez in a totally new take on the origin. She’s always been my favorite character. So, call me a little biased, but I know my Wonder Woman, I know what would work and what would not.
Personally, I don’t know why it’s so hard to get a movie off the ground — you start with the origin we all know from World War II and bring her forward to the present; or take a page from the George Perez comic version and have her come to man’s work in the early 1990′s but anyway – that’s an argument for another day.
Wond
er Woman. NBC pilot. When I first heard about this happening, I thought, “Oh wow, finally, something cool. but NBC? Really? That is such a fail – it won’t last. Maybe on the CM for sure to replace Smallville. But regular prime-time? I would think maybe NBC was trying to fill a hole left by Heroes a few years back, and that everyone was getting into the fantasy programming again, (‘Grimm’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’) but who knows.
We were all there when the pictures of the costume was unveiled – the hot-pants, streetwalker version of Wonder Woman. Oh hell no – this was never going to work. It was all latex, too shiny, hooker heels and the rest. It had the right colors, but something was missing. What is funny about the release was that they timed it when the comic convention in Chicago was gearing up. Oh how I wanted to go to the Warner Bros. Chicago office and tell them they had a great opportunity to right their wrong by getting people’s opinion NOW if they wanted their show to succeed (With us geeks/nerds, costumes play a big part into things and we were not going to be teased for 10 years like we were in Smallville!).
Needless to say, WB heard us and made changes to the costume. Now she was wearing more fabric like pants with stars running down the sides, the heels are gone and red boots appeared. Personally, I think she had too much “lasso” – its magical – it can become as long and durable as she needs it to be.
Now onto the PILOT — I did not find it THAT bad. Yes, it needs work and some fine-tuning; but it could work in this day and age. One just has to get past the idea that the lead actress has THREE separate identities – there’s Wonder Woman, of course, vigilante and hero to many, there’s Diana Themyscira, the CEO of Themyscira Industries – basically a company that markets and sells Wonder Woman merchandise to fund her Wonder Woman activities (labs, weapons, etc) and then there is Diana Prince.
(Themyscira is the birthplace of Wonder Woman, known also as Paradise Island)
Diana Prince – once she wears her glasses and puts her hair into a pony-tail and uses her real hair color, somehow doesn’t look like Diana Themyscira or Wonder Woman. This persona allows her to have a normal life away from being Wonder Woman and the head of a major company. At first i thought, “Oh come on, it’s hard enough to have two persona’s going, but three? Surprisingly it works.
Wonder Woman, Diana Themyscira and Diana Prince (Adrianne Palicki). An interesting choice to say the least – but it works. She’s got spunk, her facial expressions work perfectly for what her character feels. Although I heard she was the only woman to goto the casting and one it by default — it works.
Etta Candy (Tracie Thoms), who play’s Diana’s best friend and confidant and is her “rock” to help keep her sane. Perfect casting for Tracie. She and Adrianne Palicki hit it off and it “works” as it’s portrayed on screen.
Henry Johns (Cary Elwes) – he’s the guy that runs the day-to-day operations for Diana. Almost a father figure. He’s the kind of guy that would be watching the news reports showing Wonder Woman doing something so wrong and just covering his face with his hand and then turn to Diana and mildly scold her. A great character.
Steve Trevor (Justin Bruening) – doesn’t work as much. Acting seems a bit stiff, Plays the love interest to Diana. They had a history of dating for two years before Diana called it quits so she could focus on Wonder Woman. We find out that he’s now working for the Justice Department and been transferred to Los Angeles (where Diana lives and is Wonder Woman); but is married; rather complicated.
And finally, Veronica Cale (Elizabeth Hurley). Perfect casting for the villainous Veronica. Ms. Cale runs a pharmaceutical company that is experimenting on men to enhance their speed, agility, strength to start an army. From the looks of it, She was to be a regular villain. That could work.
The effects and stunt work were superb. Yes, we had the “bullets and bracelets” routine and it was done well. The stunts in conjunction to beating up the bad guys was done well. A lot of wire work from what I could see (yes, the pilot I saw still needed to clean things up, but it was good enough to show to NBC). And finally the golden lasso – this thing sorta shot out of her hand, she’d use this as a weapon some that anything (as in the comic books). Although we didn’t get to see it in action to make the bad guy “tell the truth,” it was pretty impressive.