Or "Tropes are not bad, but being slave to tropes kills you: The movie."
Most of the reviews pointed out pretty well many of the problems with this movie, but there are some things that I thought that needed to be brought up. After seeing Wonder Woman, I hoped that DC had learned a thing or two about subverting tropes and that just because you're making an action/hero movie, it doesn't mean you can't make something awesome.
Sadly, nearly every single trope that was thwarted by WW returns here with a vengeance. Morality? Diana thinks that Ares is controlling humankind, but shows no remorse about killing enemy soldiers, having the bigger goal in mind, being rather clear that she can't help if she is dead and she is in a frigging war. Arthur shows regret on not helping someone who he clearly pointed out being a bloodthirsty pirate that kills people needlessly and revels on the infamy gained, spares his genocidal brother... and doesn't bat an eye about killing hundreds of atlantean soldiers that were just doing their jobs.
WW showed that the dynamic between heroines and heroes doesn't have to be neither A- big strong 'charming' sexist guy and mcguffin-useless-gal nor B- Meany frost queen action heroine and dumb jackass guy. And here for most of the movie Mera belittles Arthur about nearly every single thing, every single time, only warming up after a date montage, she has hydrokinesis in the middle of the ocean in such a scale that she could end the movie in the middle if she challenged Oceanmaster herself, but casually forgets about it in many points in order to give Arthur something to do, or to move the plot forward, like for example, fighting soldiers that are in literal armor full of water.
What I found most jarring was how they showed the powers of both heroes, only to try to rise dramatic tension right afterwards by something rendered trivial by said powers. For example: Both Arthur and Mera can jump off a plane and land in the middle of a desert without parachutes, but a chasm full of grips is threated as something dangerous, and worse four-store fall is suddenly a threat with Arthur desperately clinging to the roof.
The villain could be an interesting machiavellian warmonger that preys on the fears and bias of the atlanteans, but instead stabs kings in the middle of their kingdoms in front of the royal family for the evilz (tip kids, that's the fastest way to ensure someone will shoot you in the back or poison your food), fire upon his own city trying to capture a small craft (and conveniently doesn't show all the dead). Everything listed here could be avoided by small changes, like making Ocean Master hold one of the royal family of the merfolk hostage, ensuring their cooperation, show and blame the destruction caused by the canons on Arthur, show why Arthur doesn't think that killing soldiers and not sparing Atlanteans, and use it to make him relate with Mera who would be the opposite, etc.
Also what kind of arena champion turns his back on an opponent that is still alive, well and breathing, just because he split his triden in half? You want a backstab? That's how you get a backstab.
But still, entertaining flick, good action scenes, interesting music, colorful scenarios
Could be really good, ended up merely entertaining.
Or "Tropes are not bad, but being slave to tropes kills you: The movie."
Most of the reviews pointed out pretty well many of the problems with this movie, but there are some things that I thought that needed to be brought up. After seeing Wonder Woman, I hoped that DC had learned a thing or two about subverting tropes and that just because you're making an action/hero movie, it doesn't mean you can't make something awesome.
Sadly, nearly every single trope that was thwarted by WW returns here with a vengeance. Morality? Diana thinks that Ares is controlling humankind, but shows no remorse about killing enemy soldiers, having the bigger goal in mind, being rather clear that she can't help if she is dead and she is in a frigging war. Arthur shows regret on not helping someone who he clearly pointed out being a bloodthirsty pirate that kills people needlessly and revels on the infamy gained, spares his genocidal brother... and doesn't bat an eye about killing hundreds of atlantean soldiers that were just doing their jobs.
WW showed that the dynamic between heroines and heroes doesn't have to be neither A- big strong 'charming' sexist guy and mcguffin-useless-gal nor B- Meany frost queen action heroine and dumb jackass guy. And here for most of the movie Mera belittles Arthur about nearly every single thing, every single time, only warming up after a date montage, she has hydrokinesis in the middle of the ocean in such a scale that she could end the movie in the middle if she challenged Oceanmaster herself, but casually forgets about it in many points in order to give Arthur something to do, or to move the plot forward, like for example, fighting soldiers that are in literal armor full of water.
What I found most jarring was how they showed the powers of both heroes, only to try to rise dramatic tension right afterwards by something rendered trivial by said powers. For example: Both Arthur and Mera can jump off a plane and land in the middle of a desert without parachutes, but a chasm full of grips is threated as something dangerous, and worse four-store fall is suddenly a threat with Arthur desperately clinging to the roof.
The villain could be an interesting machiavellian warmonger that preys on the fears and bias of the atlanteans, but instead stabs kings in the middle of their kingdoms in front of the royal family for the evilz (tip kids, that's the fastest way to ensure someone will shoot you in the back or poison your food), fire upon his own city trying to capture a small craft (and conveniently doesn't show all the dead). Everything listed here could be avoided by small changes, like making Ocean Master hold one of the royal family of the merfolk hostage, ensuring their cooperation, show and blame the destruction caused by the canons on Arthur, show why Arthur doesn't think that killing soldiers and not sparing Atlanteans, and use it to make him relate with Mera who would be the opposite, etc.
Also what kind of arena champion turns his back on an opponent that is still alive, well and breathing, just because he split his triden in half? You want a backstab? That's how you get a backstab.
But still, entertaining flick, good action scenes, interesting music, colorful scenarios