This highly anticipated film has gotten quite the hype, and for good reason. With $86 million in earnings after opening weekend, this movie is not your typical superhero film, and it redefines this classic female hero in both mythological and contemporary terms. The movie shows Wonder Women’s childhood as an Amazon woman, while also emphasizing her connection to the gods. This world violently confronts the modern world of WWI when Major Justin Trevor, played by Chris Pine, and a fleet of Germans fly into the invisible force field concealing the island.
Wonder Woman, also called Diana (and played by Gal Gadot), returns to London with Major Trevor with hopes of killing Ares, the god of war, which she believes would end WWI. This movie is so refreshing because Wonder Woman is this figure of immense and godly power, but this is unbeknownst to herself as well as the rest of the world. No one expects anything from her when they first catch a glimpse of her beautiful appearance, and much of the movie is about Diana proving the people around her wrong. Her strength and courage are quite inspiring, but even more so is her humility in her quest to do good and stop the war.
Her adamant belief that Ares caused the war, and could therefore end it, makes her seem naïve or innocent. She appears unprepared for the real world, and the many tragedies among it. Diana wants to stop and help every person she can while on the front, and Major Trevor has to explain to her that they need to stick to their own mission, and realize that they cannot help everyone.
Throughout the film, Wonder Woman is forced to learn that humankind is not all good, but at the same time, not all bad. She is so sure that Ares is the cause of all of this violence and destruction, but the truth is that one person or god is not solely to blame. Everyone has good and bad within them, and although during WWI the world was faced with a lot of evil, there was also a lot of good. Major Trevor's heroic act of getting rid of the plane of chemical weapons to save millions of people proves this, and also that sometimes one must sacrifice for what he or she believes. Wonder Woman learns this lesson the hard way in the film, but we are all the better for it in our own lives.
Even though it is no longer WWI, the battle of good and evil is still a pressing part of our lives. It can be easy to focus on all of the hate and evil in the world, but as Wonder Woman realized in the film, it is up to each of us to either focus on those that are wrong and bad or see how many people are truly good and in need of help. The recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London have fostered much fear and hatred, but the unity and love people have shown for one another in the face of these tragedies is even more telling of the good in this world. Even though it can be harder to find, as Wonder Woman saw for herself, good is always out there, and it will always prevail.
