When did you realize you’d bring back Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright? Was that always written in? Was it because of the success of the first film?
PJ: It was not always written in. It was the success of the first film, but it was also something else. I wouldn’t of jammed it in there because of the success of the film, because it actually made the movie too long. We have two openings in our movie and we would talk about it with the studio all the time and they would say, you’ve got to cut the mall and the Eighties, or you’ve got to cut the Amazon. I was like, we can’t, we can’t cut either. The reason that I ended up realizing that you need the Amazon is because I suddenly, you do that thing where you’re like, wait, you have to remember all the people that haven’t seen the first Wonder Woman who watch this on a plane. And suddenly it’s like, oh, it’s super hard to understand who Diana is and what’s going on without touching base there. I love the fact that you hear all of the ‘being a great hero takes your whole life,’ you know? So there was this wisdom there that they were trying to tell her which is not about being the strongest or the fastest, it’s about these complex observations you have to make during life in order to become a true hero. I love that she doesn’t understand that until that final speech [Reply]
I liked the Amazon opening, the only question I had is that in first movie she told the Aunt, to not train her, then in the first movie she chastises her for training her when she's around 14ish years old, which in the opening scene of the second one she's around 10ish years old and knows how to ride a horse, do a crazy obstacle course, and fire a bow with deadly precision and the Mom just comes up at the end and says "Stay truthful, the world is not ready for your truth." or some gibberish like that. So I don't get why she's okay with the training there and not in the first movie when she's four years older. Some inconsistencies with this movie for sure. [Reply]
It was better than I expected after what I read here...I guess? It did some things right (which I was not expecting), but it missed on far more. So all put together, it was pretty well a shitshow rodeo.
Gadot and Pine really did a nice job. They really did. The way I saw it was the problems they had were script/direction problems. I'll go to bat for their performances. Pascal I think is in a similar position, but his character was so over the top cheese that it would have been a tough sell for anyone. Wiig, I thought did pretty well before she broke bad. She does a pretty good every woman kind of thing. She was a horribad bad ass. I'm open to being wrong there, I don't like Wiig at all, but trying to be fair.
The action sequences were straight terrible. Was that a COVID thing? In the first WW, I didn't really like the end fight with Ares, but the CGI was solid. The rest of the action, especially the WWI stuff was fucking awesome. All the action in this one was bad enough it took me out of it. Every fucking scene - Buehler445 is out. A few of those scenes should be career enders.
The story was convoluted as fuck. I didn't necessarily hate how she got it done right at the end, but there were such massive plot holes it was a fucking joke.
Regarding the amazon scene, it was way, way too long. And like Gravedigger said, there were contradictions with the other one. All they needed to do was show her training with Robin Wright for 90 seconds, say the line they're after and GTFO. Plus, again, the graphics and stunts were bad. They'd pull off a move that looked good and then the next 30 seconds would be absolute late 90s cheese. Plus, they tried, but they couldn't hide how much faster the adult women were moving than young Diana, then cut scene and the chicks that started 10 yards behind her in the water are now 75 yards back 200 yards in. Just cut the shit. Just train with Robin Wright with her mom looking on, you don't need the child actor and save several minutes.
It's 150 (!) minutes long. Obviously too much. So my mind wandered pretty bad in a lot of places, and I found myself walking through the not-as-good Marvel movies. You know, Thor 2, Iron Man 2 and 3, etc. Man, they've got some problems, but they're still passable as a movie. And this one had some of the same elements that if you took some scenes out of the context of the movie, they're on par with some of the Marvel stuff. But it's so fucked compared to the WORST of what Marvel put out and (fair or not) was panned. The end result of the line of thought was a re-iteration from another perspective of how just goddamned special what Feige pulled off. WB can't get to 2 movies and 2 cameos without fucking it up something terrible. The Marvel stuff is super special.
So, yeah. Shitshow Rodeo. And it's unfortunate. WW was fucking excellent and has aged well. And the hell of it is that Gadot and Pine don't deserve it. They brought it, and what a fucking joke it turned out to be.
tl;dr Shitshow Rodeo except Gadot and Pine. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Gravedigger:
I liked the Amazon opening, the only question I had is that in first movie she told the Aunt, to not train her, then in the first movie she chastises her for training her when she's around 14ish years old, which in the opening scene of the second one she's around 10ish years old and knows how to ride a horse, do a crazy obstacle course, and fire a bow with deadly precision and the Mom just comes up at the end and says "Stay truthful, the world is not ready for your truth." or some gibberish like that. So I don't get why she's okay with the training there and not in the first movie when she's four years older. Some inconsistencies with this movie for sure.
I had forgotten about the training stuff. Plus the damn flying shit! Someone else said she appeared to be flying in the first. I'm not gonna go back and watch the first, but she definitely learned to fly at the end of the first movie, right!?! Am I completely remembering wrong? [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
I had forgotten about the training stuff. Plus the damn flying shit! Someone else said she appeared to be flying in the first. I'm not gonna go back and watch the first, but she definitely learned to fly at the end of the first movie, right!?! Am I completely remembering wrong?
It was kind of a slo mo take off thing. I guess they could just justify it as a big jump. But yeah.
And that’s not a HUGE continuity issue in and of itself. She’d have learned to fly before any of the current movies so she could have definitely flew at the end of WW.
Where it gets dumb is she was in 4 movies and only MAYBE flew once.
Originally Posted by keg in kc:
It wasn't Battlefield Earth bad. Not even close. That there is some rarified air.
I'd say it falls somewhere between Superman 3 and The Quest for Peace.
High praise, I know.
The worst part is that I don't know if Jenkins was trying to be schlocky or if it just came off as schlocky.
Either way, it was garbage.
I've never seen Battlefield Earth so I can't compare but I can't imagine another $200 million dollar movie being as bad as this film because it doesn't even follow its own rules set forth in the original.
"Mess" doesn't even come close to describing it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
I've avoided Battlefield Earth the movie because I was a ridiculous level of fan of the book. . . . Like, 'best I read since Dune' fan.
It's schlocky and pulpy, but it's also breezy and entertaining. I mean it's nearly 1,000 pages and I read it in under a week.
Kind of curious from time to time what exactly makes the movie SO bad, but not curious enough to find out.
Harrier Jets are brand new and fly perfect even though they have been in storage for 1000 years. Travolta and co stars overact in every scene. etc.
Battlefield Earth is amazing. You have to grab a 6 pack and some friends when watching. [Reply]
