THE NEW DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE FILM IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FILM OF ALL TIME
This summer I get the pleasure of looking after two of my nephews. I do not have children. In fact I occasionally think about how maybe I never want children. My first thought is, “I’m too selfish to have them.” When my brother reached out to me last fall about seeing if I could look after his kids for a month this summer, I jumped at the chance. My nephews are 13 and 15 [both with birthdays later this summer]. I am just making sure they don’t get into the hard liquor.
Earlier this week I started pushing the idea of checking out the new Wonder Woman film. Not the Spider Man blockbuster featuring Iron Man himself, but Wonder Woman. Their first reaction was shock, “Really?” Here is their “cool” (probably only to me) Uncle Brad saying lets go see a film about a woman. A couple times a day I would bring it up, “Okay so Wonder Woman is playing at 7:30 who is in?” Crickets.
I would tell them all the people, men, who told me what an awesome film it was. I sunk so low to say “Wonder Woman is already being considered an Oscar contender” — like they cared. We even checked their Rotten Tomato score (99%). I got them, albeit a little skeptical, “it will be a really nice nap for me.”
After we parked the car my eldest nephew said, “I don’t mean to sound sexist, but I can’t imagine Wonder Woman being that good.” I was feeling the same. The reason I wanted to go to this film is to see what everyone else was talking about. I too, did not think Wonder Woman would work on the same scale as the Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. No way.
As we grabbed some pizza before the film, my nephews asked me about the origins of Wonder Woman. I didn’t know much and told them what I do know I didn’t want to tell them because I wanted them to experience it for the first time. I knew she was an Amazonian Warrior Princess, but that was about it. We knew everything about Batman, Super Man even Green Lantern and The Flash.
Two and a half hours later, as the credits rolled, both my nephews immediately said in unison, “that was awesome.” We spent the entire walk back to the car, car ride home, and an additional hour plus talking about every element of Wonder Woman. It was not until I was laying in bed that I realized we never really touched on the fact that she was a woman. The fact seemed unnecessary to talk about.
We discussed Wonder Woman like we would any superhero film. What she was able to do that we wish we could do. What parts we liked (a lot) and didn’t like (not much). We spoke at length about World War I, and the hidden island of Themyscira. We mentioned how their little sister, mom and dad all need to see this film. Most importantly for my street cred we talked about how it exceeded the hype. Vindicated!
In under three hours Wonder Woman was able to change our perspective of what it means to be a super hero. And what a super hero looks like. As we sat around the dining room table — as they were playing video games — I said, “I want to be Wonder Woman.” There were no laughs to that statement. What would have been funny or seen as not “masculine” or downright weird to them earlier in the day become accepted. “Yeah that would be cool.”
What is also cool is that little boys and girls around the world are seeing this Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot film and in the process they too are saying that they want to be Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is no longer the lesser of the DC comic superheroes. She is no sissy. In fact, she comes from a much more sincere, heroic place than any of the others. She is the real deal. She is a true hero to all little girls and yes to all little boys.
If you have not seen this film yet, GO! Bring your kids, nieces and nephews, younger siblings and kids your babysitting for. Bring your parents and grandparents (including your grandfathers). If one film can change the world in a positive way it is hands down Wonder Woman.
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