The Casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in the Superman/Batman Movie
Superhero fans are reacting to the announcement of the casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in the upcoming Superman and Batman movie
DC Comics big three superheroes will be coming together for the first time in live-action incarnations. We’re not talking about any animated project, this is flesh and blood actors suiting up in those iconic costumes working together to battle evil forces. Comic fans will be seeing Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman on the same screen together!
If the promise of already getting to see Superman and Batman starring in the same movie didn’t excite fans enough, with the announcement that Wonder Woman will be showing up adds even more enthusiastic buzz about what Zack Snyder’s film will be.
However, along with all that comes the inevitable fan trepidation over a lot of stuff here. Concern over the choice of casting of the Amazonian Princess, how exactly will she work in the mix of Bats and Supes, how big a role will she play in this film, is Warner Brothers getting too anxious to create their own mega-hit that The Avengers became (we all know that’s what the goal is here) and are rushing things, now with added rumors the Flash may possibly pop up apprehension that this ‘Man of Steel’ sequel’ is getting a bit crowded. This is meant to be a sequel to Superman’s story wasn’t it? Will there be any room left for the guy?
Let’s get Gadot’s casting out of the way. Yeah she’s an attractive looker. She’s probably a fresh face to most people. Besides being an ex-model, her biggest past movie credits was being in some of the Fast and Furious flicks. I’m not a fan of them so I don’t even know which ones in particular she was in.
But I did realize I did see a little of one that she appeared in actually. You know how it is – you’re getting ready to call it a night and start channel surfing to watch fifteen minutes of whatever’s on. That’s how I must of caught her bikini scene in one of them.
She’s sports a bikini, goes over to the bad guy and he leaves his fingerprints on her ass or something. I do remember thinking she was pretty hot, but nothing more than that.
From that brief encounter seeing that scene with Gadot obviously the idea of casting her as Wonder Woman never entered my mind. I’m not sure if she exercises more sophisticated acting chops in those movies. I think the role of Wonder Woman would probably need more than just looking appetizing to male moviegoers. The character has got to be more than just eye-candy.
I’ve been hearing all the concerns over Gadot’s casting. Whether she can physically sell the idea of being an Amazonian warrior, will she convincingly be able to pull off doing superheroic action and plainly put does she have the acting chops to fill the boots of the most famous super-heroine ever.
I’m not sure. Physically she certainly doesn’t fit the bill of what I envision Wonder Woman would be. Most fans will think of Wonder Woman as tall, well built with muscles and a no-nonsense attitude when it comes to taking care of business. I never imagined her looking like a rail-thin ex-model.
This casting might not have been a big deal twenty-five years ago. Even back in the 70’s Lynda Carter was able to make her Wonder Woman a television success wearing big blue underpants, but the bar wasn’t as high in terms of superhero portrayals back then. Fans were much more forgiving and were more accepting of a more suspension of disbelief with casting.
Today comic fans expect more from their superhero projects, they’re more critical of casting and need more convincing that this actor is this character. If you’re going to roll out a big-budget movie starring one of them you better be sure not only to get the costume right, but the actor wearing it has to be perfect as well.
I suppose even if she’s not up to the physical challenges of the role then they’ll easily help her out with special effects to sell the idea. Let’s face it today anyone can be an action hero with some nifty post-production assistance. But will that be enough to satisfy fans who have been waiting all this time to see Wonder Woman on the big-screen?
Seventy-five years since her creation and this will be the first time she’ll appear in a theatrical film. We all know it’s not necessary to cast some big A-List, famous actor in these superhero roles. The characters themselves are big enough stars.
But I’ll be honest, I haven’t been swept up in the buzz and speculation over Gadot’s casting as others. I’m just more like, “eh we’ll see what happens”. I view it as more like trivial news with this Superman/Batman film. I’ll explain why in a bit.
The thing that most concerns me surrounding this Superman/Batman film is something that’s been attached to it even before it was officially announced – Zack Snyder. I know he supposedly has a big devoted fanbase, but I am just not in it. I won’t bother going into my Snyder indifference, only to say I still think his best film was his Dawn of the Dead remake in 2004. Since then I haven’t really cared for anything he’s done.
If there were any other director attached to this movie my excitement for it would get bumped up acouple of points. I suppose he’s good at incorporating all that visual candy that can be used to make enticing movie trailers, he generates that ‘cool factor with audiences, his use of snazzy special effects helps sell IMAX tickets and 3D glasses, but as a storyteller…..he doesn’t impress me.
After finally getting to see Man of Steel – with lowered expectations after hearing the lukewarm response it received – I was still not blown away by it. I wasn’t even mildly dazzled.
Not to get into that movie, but succinctly put I referred to a friend as it being the superhero equivalent of Prometheus. And if you don’t know how I felt about that movie then check out my review for it. So I did not care for Man of Steel.
What I don’t get is they had to have a read-through of the script at some point. Just going through the script and reading the story around a table. Taking away all the ‘gee whiz/slam bang/epic explosion’ special effects that inevitably would be included around it and listening to the story being told, didn’t anyone pipe up and say “you know this story is kinda lame, it’s not that engaging, there’s a lot of needless subplots and the characters are all over the place”. Maybe we should rewrite some of this”.
I guess they figured, “Nah, it will work. Superman is going to get thrown through lots of buildings and cool stuff like that.”
Anyway, superhero fans know the game has been upped with their superhero films and I sadly feel Man of Steel did not do that. It didn’t even come close to the quality that it should have been, which is especially odd since Christopher Nolan who is attributed with making the superhero genre more sophisticated than it had been before with his Dark Knight trilogy had a hand in writing and producing Man of Steel. Maybe he just hung out acouple days on set and didn’t put too much work into it.
With that in mind I would have hoped a Man of Steel sequel would fix a lot of problems and actually this time get me to like this Superman. But that’s going to be difficult when Supes is a co-star in his own film having to share screen time with his costumed allies.
It’s almost like they feel they successfully established this version of Superman and everyone is ready to move on from his solo adventures already. There’s enough Superman stories to tell with just that character and his supporting characters in Metropolis and Smallville. But now they’re already rushing into an All-Star superhero adventure. So I suppose I’m expected to just do my best to like this Superman based on what I’ve seen of him in Man of Steel and hopefully warm up to him.
It’s an unusual strategy how Warner’s is creating that long-awaited Justice League movie that has been proposed for ages. It’s sort of the reverse model that Marvel has done. Instead of setting up the characters in their own films, gradually building to a big team-up movie, they’re starting with all of them together and then I guess later on do off-shoot flicks starring them.
It all seems like too much too soon. Like they’re trying too hard and it’s not a natural progression of things. Just because they cram all these iconic heroes into one movie doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a good movie.
I’m sure they’ll sell lots of toys and happy meals, but that all is meaningless to me when I’m watching what unfolds onscreen. Plus, all this is immediately being built on a pretty shaky foundation anyway – Man of Steel.I haven’t even thought about more of the minor stuff like costume designs or any of that.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ll be completely wrong. Perhaps all this will work out and Snyder can pull together a real entertaining movie and give DC, Warner’s and the fans exactly what they want. As of now though I have a lot of reservations about it and am not expecting a whole heck of a lot from it yet. Throw in Wonder Woman, Flash, a whole bunch of cameos, that’s all window dressing unless there’s a good story at its core.
The announcement that Superman would be added to the next Batman movie was bad news. This is even worse. It's not just that the film will become a crowded mess like "The Avengers." It's that it's almost certainly going to be an hour of introductions followed by a slapped-into-place, by-the-numbers villain who is defeated by the trio Mission Accomplished Roll Credits. It looks like this Batman franchise is going to go the way of the horrible 90s version- it's going to get bigger and sillier until it finally collapses under it's own weight.
Damn! I hope they feed her for this part!
I was wondering how the sequel would attempt to match, or surpass,the scale of the first film (I haven't seen 'Man of Steel'). I presume having the 3 DC heroes together is going to lead to 3 different crossing subplots with the 3 battling the villain's plot/minions/weapons, etc. My first thought was that if Z.S. was replaced as director……who would they hire instead? I can't think of anyone (who'd probably be willing) who wouldn't essentially be a stylist like Z.S. I think we can wave goodbye to the kind of carefully crafted blockbusters of the late 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's. Movies are now assembly line productions that launch new assembly lines. God help us in the next decade!!
At least we getting Wonder Woman back in live-action. Let face it like it or not, it needs to be try. After the failure of the NBC unofficial release of that Wonder Woman TV pilot by Ally Mcbeal creator David E. Kelly, we need more woman superheros films and TV shows. Face it why is it that it's OK to reboot not once, not twice, but three times with the Punisher, or the Hulk, Spider-Man, Superman, Yet, try to make Catwoman or Elktra, or Brids of Pray and failure and it's "oh well, nobody interesting in Superhero Woman, the want tight catsuit eye candy with some flash" .
I'm sure I'm the only one here, but I enjoy Man of Steel. It may not have been the 80s Superman I grew up with but it's the one today gen and comics reflective now. Seriously read those comics, very much in tone of today's comics.
Better really this needs to happen. Think about it, there has been no real live-action Wonder Woman since that failed TV pilot. I mean the best Wonder Woman was the animated movie DC/WB did back in 2007, but that ended up not been seen or bought, so it failed to bring WW back. It's a good flick you should check it out. Look I like the Fast and Furious films, like enjoy the fast car mod culture which the films have gotten away from. Still, I think there are today's Beverly Hills Cop/The Rock/Top Gun flicks of today. What everybody said was dumb popcorn flicks. But today there's no real action star other then the old guy's coming back to it. I mean think about it, where are the muscle bound or martial arts stars of today. Today's films can make anybody an action star base on the filming technique done in the Bourne films. Look at it movies like the Shooter, new Jack Ryan movie Shadow Recruit, that Total Recall remake all these guys are not the usually action type. I feel this is the type we will see in Wonder Woman action. Also, you forget Mavel. This WB/DC mostly WB failing to cash in on their own property and playing catch up. Which is why I feel where all there deals is being force to be made. Still we need to let more Woman superhero try and try again then just the boys. Look on the bight side. rumor has it Alfred might be cast by a former James Bond you like. Dalton! Timothy Dalton, I hope so, we deserved to come back to the big screen. One thing everybody is doing now ever since the internet came to be. The who anti-it who I want webstie. Remember when Craig become James Bond there are website STILL TO THIS DAY, up saying he's not James Bond and should be replace. I think this is a waste of time. They all should just wait see what happens and the money will be the truth like always. Already Ben and I bet now Gal we all get she not this hero anti campaign and will make a a lot of noise for nothing. Really ashame.
There is definitely a market out there for Wonder Woman.
I remember the buzz that acheal Bilson created when she just wore a costume of Wonder Woman. And that was in a TV show that no one watched.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnZ70Q4SN2g
But the main problem with Hollywood is that they seem to hate to write Women hero's with realistic vulnerabilities. They are either portrayed as always right or self indulgent. If they are the former they're boring as a super heroine. If its the later, their problems seem phony. Like they pine for an old boyfriend or lost love.
If they could show someone naking hard choices and being uncertain they made the right movies, they would have something.
What we need is a twist in plot storyline like that of dark knight trilogy… in Zack Snyder's superhero movie , something to get us hooked on … doesn't matter if it's in accordance with comics or not