Disclaimer: I never read Wonder Woman as a kid. My time was spent with the X-Men, the Avengers, the Defenders and the Fantastic Four. (Not sure what it says about me that I mostly preferred ensemble books instead of solo hero books, but never mind.)
One HUGE problem with Wonder Woman is the lasso. The fact that it's a Golden Lasso of Truth is irrelevant. It's a BDSM icon, through and through. One loop of rope and the person tied up has to submit utterly to the person holding the leash... er, lasso.
So how do you do a Wonder Woman movie when one of the main sources of her power is the obvious tool of a 42-DD dominatrix? Answer: make the lasso the missing MacGuffin.
Seriously.
Base the entire plot around a MacGuffin hunt. Somebody broke into the Magic Golden Dungeon on the Island of Beautiful-Women-Who-Are-Totally-Not-Lesbians-But-Even-If-They-Are-That's-Perfectly-Fine and stole the Golden Lasso of Truth so they can use it in some nefarious plot (to hypnotize the President, force a scientist to make a superweapon, etc., etc. i.e. the usual crap). Diana has to go out into the world to get it back.
Adventure ensues.
This means that she can ONLY kick ass on her way to getting the GLT back. It shows that she doesn't need the lasso. No bondage, no "kneel and tell me the truth, slave", no knot work. You could even show how the bad guys use the GLT for icky purposes, thereby making Wonder Woman look even better for wanting to get it back so she can lock it up again.
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I could totally see a wacky campy Wonder Woman movie for the quest to get the lasso back.
ReplyDeleteIn this script, her reaction to the outside world would not be, "Wow, your culture is so unknown and strange! So exciting to explore it and protect your world!". It would be, "I know all about your culture and I think it sucks. I'm just here to get my lasso back. Now get out of my way."
Deleteis it okay to not mind the dominatrix theme? Catwoman has a catsuit and a whip and no one's making her ditch those. Wonder Woman doesn't even look like a dominatrix if you stand her next to Catwoman or Black Canary. I'm not sure why the rope suddenly makes this a thing.
ReplyDeleteThe lasso is actually a pretty neat gimmick, all told - weaponizing the truth is awesome. Also, plots where the hero has to regain the thing they're actually most known for in their stories are really tedious.
All this movie needs to do to succeed is work in the mythology to a high enough degree that the moviegoing public realizes this can be another amazing-effects fantasy movie. Mythology has been a pretty successful hook for movies lately - and most people know a modicum of greek/roman mythology without ever having to know anything about Wonder Woman lore. Make her costume match her myth while still keeping the iconic aspects (some fan redesigns have done this amazingly, it's actually a really easy character design project all told) and the public will be able to pick up Wonder Woman pretty easily. Heck, the Thor approach worked, use that as a model.
I think it's borderline OK for Catwoman to be dark and kinky sexy because she's seen as a villain. Shades of Gray aside, BDSM isn't nearly mainstream enough for a "good guy" to have it as a central feature. As for Black Canary, she's like Hawkeye: not an A-list hero and not high profile enough to judge.
DeleteSure, MacGuffin hunts are formulaic, but that's the kind of movie I'm envisioning. Green Lantern tried to do a big, deep mythology re-write and it flopped completely.
As far as the mythology goes, Thor was an actual deity and Asgard was a pantheon. Wonder Woman isn't exactly the same as Diana, goddess of the hunt. It would take more explanation than a simple reference to the Greek pantheon.