Wonder Woman Movie (2017) Review Through Gender and Psychoanalysis Aspects
Wonder woman is an American superhero live-action movie starring Gal Gadot as Diana Prince aka the Wonder Woman, Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, and David Thewlis as Ares. This movie was released in 2017 and received 7.5/10 rating in IMDB and 93% in Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Patty Jenkins, the story tells about Diana who lives in Themyscira which is all inhabited by women. Grow between women who are natural-born fighters, Diana turns become one under her aunt’s training, who opposes Diana’s mother, the Queen of Themyscira, who forbids Diana to take any form of battle-training yet allows her as the time goes by. She grows up believing the legend about humans who are created to be wise and all-goodness by Zeus and Ares was the one who corrupted them. Until one day, there’s a pilot named Steve Trevor from the Allies in WW I who breaks through the island’s barrier from the outside world and told the Amazons that his world is on a great war. Startled by his appearance and his story about WW I, she decides to join him to the WW I, soon learns and about to unravel the truth about the war, human world, and herself.
From its cinematography, overall, the movie managed to maintain a smooth CGI, though in some scenes the CGI tends to get a bit hazy and harsh. Some scenes even successfully make its way through as iconic scenes. For example, the “No Man’s Land” scene which depicts Diana Prince as Wonder Woman outstandingly where she walks in her full-costumed classic suit, dodging bullets and launch attacks to the Germans. Another scene which also can be considered iconic, where Wonder Woman, Steve, and their team saves ‘t Veld, a small village occupied by the Germans and later becomes the background of vintage photograph of Wonder Woman and her team. Patty Jenkins successfully creates that depiction of Wonder Woman as an iconic heroine of the DC Universe, as the comic has always portrayed her as a feminist icon. Some critics, however, points out why Wonder Woman suit should be too revealing, with its short skirt and reveal her upper chest, indicating how woman in Hollywood industry still get sexualized. Yet, from my perspective, Patty Jenkins managed to avoid male-gaze shots on Wonder Woman.
The plot also succeeds to deliver the movie as a movie of Wonder Woman background story. Opens with Wonder Woman lives her identity as Diana Prince who works as a curator, the plot traces back to her past lives in Themyscira and joined the WW I battle. Some iconic scenes which I have previously mentioned above, also serves to become build-ups scenes that leads to the climax scene of Wonder Woman versus Ares.
The characters serve strong roles and their interactions and relations create symbolisms. Starts from the Gods, the Amazons and the humans. From my observation, there is a relation of Freud’s structural model of the psyche created between them. Ares symbolizes the id which contain traits such as rage, raw desires to create conflicts that leads to war, and other chaotic aspects of human nature. Zeus, however, are depicted as this divine being who is powerful, wise, and cherishing his creature which is humans. He develops these traits of superego. These two aspects, id and superego, balanced by the ego, which is portrayed by humans in this movie. The ego compromises these two aspects and has the capability to leans more whether to the id or the superego, which the capability the humans have. In this movie, there are some examples of the ones who chooses to comply to the id or superego. Erich Ludendorf here portrays the ego that leans to the id side of human. Despite Germans decided to retreat at that time, Ludendorf follows his lust to continue the war with Dr Poison’s weapon. On the other hand, Steve, develops the characteristic of ego that reasoning with superego by complying to the social values and norms several times — when he asks Diana to wear polite clothes and when he refuses to sleep beside her — and even when he refuses to comply to his superior order to retract the mission, he is still holding that idealism of fighting for what he believe as right, which is also the characteristic of superego; having high values of something and believe that value is right for the greater good.
To conclude, overall, this movie success in delivering the adaptation of Wonder Woman as a famous feminist icon of DC comics through its plot and cinematography, despite of its harsh critics. This movie can also be seen through the perspective of Freud’s structural model of the psyche through the characters. Because of that, I would like to recommend this movie to those who are both fans of DC and viewers in general.
