For the YMMV page for the Wonder Woman franchise at large see YMMV/Wonder Woman.
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- This is pretty much written into the movie - suggesting that Hippolyta could be a massive hypocrite for cutting all her people off from the world, implying that they were never given a choice in the matter. What's more is that Hippolyta still got to raise a daughter. Would she have allowed the Amazons to leave if they wished (given the existence of the plane as a way off the island)? Steve also raises a good point that getting into an affair with the God of War was hardly an intelligent move on her part.
- One has to wonder if Persephone really loved Ares, or was she merely latching on to the only man around? Or did she see him as a ticket off the island?
- This version of Wonder Woman is oft criticized for being overly violent, even willing to use deadly force. But the only times she does kill is when in proximity to Ares (who, remember, casts an aura about him that increases violent/hateful feelings, and Amazons are not shown to be immune to this). Admittedly, the film does give critics some ammo in the form of Artemis, who is a full-fledged Blood Knight even outside of Ares' influence, suggesting that at least some of the Amazons probably have similar outlooks. Diana only uses lethal force against Ares and a few of his minions. She doesn't even kill Deimos and is shown as will to subdue or just scare off enemies at times.
- Designated Hero: Steve Trevor. He spends the majority of the film being a sexist creep who seems to only tag along with Diana because he wants to sleep with her. This is despite the fact Diana spends much of the film making it clear she is not interested. At one point, he even offers her alcohol before making a pass on her, ostensibly because he thought alcohol would make her more willing to sleep with him (to be clear, Diana had explicitly never had alcohol before and was unfamiliar with the concept and it's effects; he was trying to take advantage of her ignorance of this). Earlier, he spies on Amazons who are bathing, and even earlier, was hitting on a rookie despite being her commanding officer. Then he lectures Diana on how Not All Men are the monsters she thinks they are, even though he himself has repeatedly demonstrated the behaviours she's criticising, and the narrative presents it as him being right.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Alexa is often cited as one of the best and most popular characters in the movie due to her personality and character arc. Being voiced by Tara Strong certainly helps.
- Persephone is a secondary antagonist but is such a complex Anti-Villain for a supporting character that she's ripe for interpretation and a highlight of the movie.
- Fandom Rivalry:
- Sadly with Wonder Woman (2017) for which one is the best Wonder Woman adaptation, calling out having the best Ares, best fights and not avoiding the feminist talk yet arriving at an equal talk where the hypocrisy of the Amazons' feminism gets called out, but some suggest they're just sad since this movie has a cult following, while the other is a blockbuster success. This has been subdued since in some releases of the 2017 movie, the 2009 movie is included either in the showing or the upcoming Blu-Ray which will help gather some viewers. The sole exception to this rivalry being Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor, whom all sides agree is a vast improvement over his animated counterpart.
- Unsurprisingly, there's a rivalry between fans of this movie and Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. Those who prefer this movie like the fact it clearly focuses on Wonder Woman's, and feel the 2019 movie tries doing too much. Those who prefer the 2019 movie like its connections to the DC Animated Movie Universe due to showing how far Diana has developed as a character in that universe, how it doesn't completely go over the origin story (that's well covered by both this film and Gadot's, so the origin portion of this one is short and sweet, and mostly highlights the bits that are not going to be exactly like past versions), and how it spotlights more obscure characters.
- Faux Symbolism: Hippolyta and her Amazons battle to defeat the god of war's forces... in front of The Vietnam War Memorial (which fortunately did not suffer Monumental Damage).
- Friendly Fandoms: There are of course people who enjoy all three films.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: An Amazonian, named Alexa. Just think about that
. - Les Yay: Inevitable given the source material, but practically everyone seems to assume that Artemis is a lesbian in this version.
- Informed Wrongness: Steve gives Diana a serious What the Hell, Hero? over her constant criticism of him and men in general, and the film ends with Diana learning to not be so judgmental. However, Diana's criticisms of Steve are completely valid; Steve himself is horribly sexist and chauvinistic, has zero respect for women, and at several points behaves in a predatory manner, so it's baffling to see she is somehow meant to be wrong for calling him on it. Even besides Steve, Diana never makes a complaint that isn't valid; among the examples of her being "overly judgmental" include complaining about two young boys excluding a girl from their games because of her gender, which is something that shouldn't be encouraged since it's bullying. At the end of the film, Diana is presented as having "learnt her lesson", and when she expresses annoyance at Steve holding the door for her, he patronisingly scolds her for it, with the implication that she's now learning to stop standing up against behaviour that upsets her or makes her uncomfortable, and this is somehow a good thing.
- Magnificent Bastard: Hades is the lord of the underworld and the god of death. When Ares escapes from his imprisonment on Themyscira, he asks Hades to destroy the bracers keeping him mortal in exchange for giving him new souls to serve him. When Ares calls out Zeus for choosing politics over his own son, Hades parades out Ares's deceased son Thrax as his personal slave to highlight his own hypocrisy. Having earlier been warned by Zeus not to help Ares because he foresaw his eventual defeat, Hades agrees to restore Ares's godly powers knowing he would eventually fail. After Ares is killed in battle by Wonder Woman, Hades turned him into his personal zombified slave, ready to serve at his new master's side.
- Narm: Alexa as a zombie finally decides to fight. Awesome! Oh, no. Wait. Ares simply returns all the Amazon zombies to death ten seconds later. Also doubles as They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character.
- Once Original, Now Common: When this film was released, many felt it was too violent for its PG-13 rating (and this is only after it was edited in preproduction down from an R rating). But after such other DC Animated Features like Batman: Year One, Batman: Under the Red Hood and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, each one even more violent and gruesome than Wonder Woman (and still under a PG-13!), the complaints are looking pretty passé.
- Squick: Hippolyta and Ares have a child, Thrax. In the comics and the myths, Ares is Hippolyta's father. Further, Hippolyta implied that the pregnancy was forced upon her. The movie at least makes it clear that their affair was consensual.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Minor example, but since Ares seemed to be genuinely in love with Persephone, we don't get to see his reaction to her death.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Steve's rant about Diana's misjudgment of him and men in general would be a lot more convincing if he hadn't spent most of the film living down to every bad stereotype about men. His Establishing Character Moment has him flirting with a young female pilot during an aerial reconnaissance and dialogue from another pilot states that this type of behavior is not unusual for him. When he crashes on Themyscira he gets caught peeking on the Amazons while they are bathing and later refers to Diana as "the daughter with a nice rack". While they are trying to stop Ares, Steve tries to get Diana drunk in order to get her in bed. Throughout the movie, Steve behaves like a sexist, lecherous creep and its not helped that other versions of the character are much more likable, including his 2017 movie counterpart who came from a less enlightened time period.
- Artemis's bullying of her little sister Alexa and her lack of grief over her death make her come across as cold and unlikable.
- The Woobie: Poor Alexa. She never wanted to be an Amazon and is terrified on the battlefield. She's also looked down on for this reason and ends up casually killed by Persephone.
