A Well Polished Turd is Still Just a Turd: 'Wonder Woman Bloodlines' Review
The flux in quality of DC's animated ventures in recent years is a topic that, if you have followed any of my previous writings from Comic Relief and all the way back to moviepilot, I have lamented in great lengths. I grew up in the golden age of DC animation. I saw the rise and fall of the Timmverse throughout my childhood, and my first experience of DC animation was Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. These projects created an unprecedented gold standard for animated features and series, and up until the last few years, that standard was upheld. However, with the rise of the new DC Animated Universe, based primarily on storylines from the New 52, came the downfall of DC animation. We saw a rise of animated features that were hit or miss with more misses than hits. The aesthetic of animation itself went through an evolution to become more crisp and stylized, but it came at the price of practically everything else. Voice acting became stale, the concept of good character writing and narrative structure were thrown out the window completely, and fight scenes that used to be epic and flow as seamlessly as any live-action counterpart became rigid and hollow (for example watch the Justice League fight Darkseid in JL War versus literally any time Superman fought him in the Timm verse). But still, there were enough gems in these later years that made me hold on to a lingering hope that maybe it would get better, that maybe we would have a return to form. There were moments where we came close, The Death of Superman film and Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films were the best displays of my favorite characters that I had seen in a long time, but then Batman: Hush happened and I could not be more upset with an adaptation of one of Batman's greatest storylines. The animation was lifeless, the story was butchered, and the voice acting was trash, and so I vowed never again. I was done. I would live in the past and remember brighter times, but I should have known that curiosity would kill the proverbial cat that is my love for DC animation.
While doing a binge of Batman Beyond HD remaster on my laptop using the DC Universe streaming app, I got a notification that Wonder Woman: Bloodlines was now up and ready to stream for my viewing pleasure. At first, I ignored it. I was done, Batman: Hush ruined this for me. I wasn't going to be hurt again. However, as the days went by and I continued to watch other things like the criminally canceled Constantine show which I had never fully watched, the app would open and the movie would be right there. Just one tap of the finger away. So I relented (admittedly this process sadly only lasted for maybe two days, what can I say I'm weak and I write a blog that is having a shortage of content problem). I watched Wonder Woman Bloodlines, and I found the animated equivalent of a Snyderverse DC film. All style, no substance.
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines is by and far the best display of animation that DC has produced, maybe ever. The fight scenes are dynamic, the designs are gorgeous, the flow of everything is so smooth that I am at a loss to pinpoint any real faults outside of a minor shot in the first few minutes where Diana's nose looks a bit crooked. The point is that this film really tries to showcase its design and visuals (almost as if to redeem itself for just how fucking ugly Hush was). However, this is where the positives end. The only voice actors that showed up for this film were Rosario Dawson and a few of the minor characters of the movie. Everyone else's performances brought little identity to their characters, and in the worst-case scenarios sped through deliveries that result in some conversations have wonky pacing. It's a shame because Rosario Dawson has been voicing this character for a while, and while she has definitely come into her own as this role, the performance of her peers can only be described as mediocre. However, the biggest flaw of the film is it's writing. Everything about it is bad outside of the core drive of the story, and that's what really sucks.
Just like in most Snyder films in the DC catalog, there is a good movie somewhere in this horribly written screenplay. Clean up the dialogue a bit, maybe switch a few voice actors around, but the most important thing that needs to be done is restructure! This movie starts off a fucking mess and never stops being one. The opening of this movie is a condensed version of Wonder Woman's origin, from meeting Steve Trevor to coming to the world of man. However, this endeavor is done so choppily that it's just downright bad. Whoever wrote this screenplay needs to look up the dictionary definition for narrative pacing and slam their face into the page till they grasp the concept through contact osmosis. I understand that they wanted to showcase Wonder Woman had a massive falling out with her mother. That the conflict between mother and daughter is the driving concept of the film, but you also don't have to tell a story so damn linearly. Using devices like flashbacks in this film would have been fantastic and cleaned up a lot of problems. If the film there is a scene where Dr. Julia Kapatellis (the woman who brought Diana into her home to bring Diana up to speed on the world of man) is being buried, and Wonder Woman is looking down at her grave in thought. That's where you insert this flashback. Wonder Woman has lost another mother figure, and on top of that can empathize with the strain between Julia and her daughter (that oh, by the way, Diana was the cause of).
Butchering narrative was hardly the only writing sin. Characters were treated terribly, Vanessa literally just stops her development as a highschooler essentially and as such we have an incredibly shallow and annoying antagonistic force to serve as Wonder Woman's foil in the film. What was done to Etta Candy is the hardest agenda push I've ever seen. The waste of Wonder Woman's rogues was awful, and Medusa being the big bad at the end was honestly just bad. What was her motivation to destroy Themyscara? There's no foreshadowing to this antagonist at all. She was a monster killed ages ago by Perseus, and now that she's been brought back to life she wants to kill... Amazons? Then the most climactic and important character reveal of the film is saved for a goddamn post-credit snub!
The most heartbreaking thing about all of this is that I know people who are going to praise this shit show. I remember being absolutely flummoxed at the number of people that defended Hush and accused me of just being a purist. I am sorry that I remember a time where the people who made these films treated them like genuine cinema; when the films had scores that would give you chills and writing that was worthy of accolades. So forgive me for having standards, and not accepting half-assed defenses like "it's better than anything Marvel is doing" or "it's just nostalgia, I bet those films aren't even that good." A. Marvel hasn't been doing any animated projects because they were tired of getting their ass kicked, and B. you're just wrong. Here' ns the thing, DC animation can have no more perfect film to represent the analogy for the current state of their films than Wonder Woman: Bloodlines: a turd with so much glamor and polish on it to distract people from the fact that what they are consuming is indeed shit. Great job handling the legacy of your animation DC. Great job.
While doing a binge of Batman Beyond HD remaster on my laptop using the DC Universe streaming app, I got a notification that Wonder Woman: Bloodlines was now up and ready to stream for my viewing pleasure. At first, I ignored it. I was done, Batman: Hush ruined this for me. I wasn't going to be hurt again. However, as the days went by and I continued to watch other things like the criminally canceled Constantine show which I had never fully watched, the app would open and the movie would be right there. Just one tap of the finger away. So I relented (admittedly this process sadly only lasted for maybe two days, what can I say I'm weak and I write a blog that is having a shortage of content problem). I watched Wonder Woman Bloodlines, and I found the animated equivalent of a Snyderverse DC film. All style, no substance.
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines is by and far the best display of animation that DC has produced, maybe ever. The fight scenes are dynamic, the designs are gorgeous, the flow of everything is so smooth that I am at a loss to pinpoint any real faults outside of a minor shot in the first few minutes where Diana's nose looks a bit crooked. The point is that this film really tries to showcase its design and visuals (almost as if to redeem itself for just how fucking ugly Hush was). However, this is where the positives end. The only voice actors that showed up for this film were Rosario Dawson and a few of the minor characters of the movie. Everyone else's performances brought little identity to their characters, and in the worst-case scenarios sped through deliveries that result in some conversations have wonky pacing. It's a shame because Rosario Dawson has been voicing this character for a while, and while she has definitely come into her own as this role, the performance of her peers can only be described as mediocre. However, the biggest flaw of the film is it's writing. Everything about it is bad outside of the core drive of the story, and that's what really sucks.
Just like in most Snyder films in the DC catalog, there is a good movie somewhere in this horribly written screenplay. Clean up the dialogue a bit, maybe switch a few voice actors around, but the most important thing that needs to be done is restructure! This movie starts off a fucking mess and never stops being one. The opening of this movie is a condensed version of Wonder Woman's origin, from meeting Steve Trevor to coming to the world of man. However, this endeavor is done so choppily that it's just downright bad. Whoever wrote this screenplay needs to look up the dictionary definition for narrative pacing and slam their face into the page till they grasp the concept through contact osmosis. I understand that they wanted to showcase Wonder Woman had a massive falling out with her mother. That the conflict between mother and daughter is the driving concept of the film, but you also don't have to tell a story so damn linearly. Using devices like flashbacks in this film would have been fantastic and cleaned up a lot of problems. If the film there is a scene where Dr. Julia Kapatellis (the woman who brought Diana into her home to bring Diana up to speed on the world of man) is being buried, and Wonder Woman is looking down at her grave in thought. That's where you insert this flashback. Wonder Woman has lost another mother figure, and on top of that can empathize with the strain between Julia and her daughter (that oh, by the way, Diana was the cause of).
Butchering narrative was hardly the only writing sin. Characters were treated terribly, Vanessa literally just stops her development as a highschooler essentially and as such we have an incredibly shallow and annoying antagonistic force to serve as Wonder Woman's foil in the film. What was done to Etta Candy is the hardest agenda push I've ever seen. The waste of Wonder Woman's rogues was awful, and Medusa being the big bad at the end was honestly just bad. What was her motivation to destroy Themyscara? There's no foreshadowing to this antagonist at all. She was a monster killed ages ago by Perseus, and now that she's been brought back to life she wants to kill... Amazons? Then the most climactic and important character reveal of the film is saved for a goddamn post-credit snub!
The most heartbreaking thing about all of this is that I know people who are going to praise this shit show. I remember being absolutely flummoxed at the number of people that defended Hush and accused me of just being a purist. I am sorry that I remember a time where the people who made these films treated them like genuine cinema; when the films had scores that would give you chills and writing that was worthy of accolades. So forgive me for having standards, and not accepting half-assed defenses like "it's better than anything Marvel is doing" or "it's just nostalgia, I bet those films aren't even that good." A. Marvel hasn't been doing any animated projects because they were tired of getting their ass kicked, and B. you're just wrong. Here' ns the thing, DC animation can have no more perfect film to represent the analogy for the current state of their films than Wonder Woman: Bloodlines: a turd with so much glamor and polish on it to distract people from the fact that what they are consuming is indeed shit. Great job handling the legacy of your animation DC. Great job.
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