I am one of the die-hard original Wonder Woman fans and so to watch the pilot for this cancelled show, I had to get rid of any pre-conceived notions I had and watch it fresh. The worst thing you can do is watch something like this and compare it to Lynda Carter’s perfection.
There were some reviews out there that blasted the technical aspects, but they are stupid enough to not realize that this pilot is a draft to try to shop it around to the networks. You can’t put so much money and time into it without knowing it would get picked up. And it didn’t, from the last thing I read.
So, on with my review… I was waiting for a theme song at the beginning, but then realized that I was already comparing it to the original Wonder Woman, so I let it go. When it first started, I thought they had put a United Negro College Fund commercial at the beginning, until the “commercial” started getting weird and bloody!
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Then SHE appeared, running after a criminal down the streets, through (and OVER) traffic. The matrix-like jumping over cars was a nice touch. I was already excited about seeing her.
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Then, when she got close enough to the guy running, she whipped out the lasso and jerked the crap out of him!
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Mind you, I don’t really like watching violent action movies, but when a woman snatches a guy like this, you get into it. Without the audience knowing what she was doing, she used a hypodermic needle on his neck. This was confusing because you didn’t know whether she was injecting him with something or removing blood from him.
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Then, the show starts building the story. They make Diana Prince a lonely, frustrated cat lady. They imply at one point that she needed to get laid. Odd.
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(Sylvester the cat should end up being her sidekick and going into places where she couldn’t go with a webcam attached…)
They break the fourth wall by starting to talk about “the doll”.
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"How many here think that these reflect my breasts?"
It seems that Wonder Woman is actually marketing things with her image on it. I rolled my eyes and started moaning about this, until they explain that the sales of the doll finance all the technology and her headquarters. Ok, I get it. If Wonder Woman was around, she would need money. Things were cheaper in the 70’s, so Diana Prince could have gotten away with an admin assistant job, just helping local people. They show “the doll” and it is a grossly exaggerated breast and butt replica. They argue over its enhancements, with WW saying that she didn’t sign off on it. The show has a little language in it, with her saying tits and ass.
According to this shot, the doll’s breasts DO reflect her own… LOL
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She is more global these days, and to take on big businesses and to afford the beautiful WORK apartment (she also has a small apartment with “Sylvester” the cat), she needs cash. At one point, they show her watching a tween show with her cat and eating chips and remembering Steve Trevor and when she left him. GASP!
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Yes, Steve Trevor is an old flame, and thank god! He’s too tweeny. This needed to be a handsome, graying-templed older man (maybe a Senator? wink wink). Maybe Anderson Cooper-ish? Steve Trevor has moved on and gotten married.
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Elizabeth Hurley(!) plays the villain in this, the head of a steroid company. I knew from the moment I saw her that she and Wonder Woman were going to have a cat fight. I was wrong, though. Wonder Woman just snatched the crap out of her, too. Another fourth wall incident was when Elizabeth’s character called Wonder Woman an “action figure”.
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I would have loved to see a lesbian kiss in this scene… they were getting VERY close!
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The “invisible plane” from the 70’s show is replaced with a small jet-not invisible-but it might have been explained that it was invisible to radar. They used this several times and at one point, Wonder Woman is pissed off and she flies around wildly. I know that feeling! 🙂
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To appeal to the gay male audience that would be watching this show, the gaggle of guys Wonder Woman has to fight is a group of huge (probably gay) bodybuilders. If this was my show, when she walked in on them, I would have had her say, “I hope you have your cups on, boys…” LOL One of the bodybuilders tells her he is a fan of hers. LOLOL
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There are some great action shots and I am really impressed with the lasso. (Oh, and the lasso must have lost it’s truth-extracting abilities, because she shows it to a guy and then chokes him into telling her what she needs to know.) Instead of her “roping” people, she uses it like a whip and at some points, it looks like a spike or dagger type instrument. Looks good, though.
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The one scene that really made me “whoop it up” was something that I had momentarily forgotten about…. THE BRACELETS!!! At the climax of the fight scene, a gun appears and the sparks start flying. I was talking to the screen like Shaniqua! Just enough of that happening before Wonder Woman throws a pipe through the shooter’s throat!
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Oh, did I mention that Wonder Woman has no problem killing people in this version? Punching someone into fainting doesn’t kick it for this one. She lets them really have it.
All-in-all, I would say this is a good remake, but not campy enough to be funny and too focused on sad moments and tacky lovelorn scenes. If they had put some real camp into this, I would have given this 5 stars. Overlooking the “lonely superhero” storyline, I would give it 4.5 stars. The possible bringing back of this icon gives it 6 stars, no matter how it ended up. The legging version of the suit gets 4.5 stars (weird length on the torso). The panty suit gets 5 stars! (Only shown once at the end! 🙁 )
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I want to go back to the apartment situation… It seems she has an apartment at headquarters and a small one, off-site. The off-site one is a tiny place. The apartment at headquarters is AMAZING.
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The artwork and opulence is over the top!
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The imagining of this huge and open studio(?) is genius! The bedroom had to be 20 feet wide with a huge window overlooking the city, opening to a living room.
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Everyone knows Diana Prince is Wonder Woman in this version, so I guess it doesn’t matter if they see into her place. Which brings me to why she would need the “Diana Prince” identity at all, if everyone knows. And if everyone knows, she could probably get away without wearing the costume. Maybe instead of the doll sales funding her opulence, she could be like a Nascar driver and sell ad space on a Nike running suit?
Please get a disco theme song-that would have sold it! 🙂
