Animation fans DC is back with yet another new movie and oddly enough there released this movie on a Saturday. I will be getting more into that later on in the review because such a weird day to release a movie but i'm a huge fan of not only the Wonder Woman character but also the 2009 animated film and so you can bet that in was excited as all hell when this film was announced and so here is my review of Wonder Woman: Bloodlines.
The plot of the movie is someone is looking for Themyscira and it's up to Diana to stop them for stealing it's tech all the while she's trying to help heel a young girl who's turned evil. This film is part prequel and so you do get the Wonder Woman but a more condensed version of it with alot of stuff cut out as for what I thought the overall story it's fine but it was also a very weak plot with the actual story only coming into play around forty five to fifty minuets into this hour and twenty three minuet movie.
Reprising her role is Rosario Dawson as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman and she is joined by Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Trevor , Marie Avgeropoulos as Vanessa Kapatelis / Silver Swan , Adrienne C. Moore as Etta Candy , Kimberly Brooks as Cheetah and Giganta , Courtenay Taylor as Doctor Poison , Constance Zimmer as Veronica Cale , Nia Vardalos as Julia Kapatelis , Michael Dorn as Ferdinand , voice acting legend Cree Summer as Hippolyta and Mozhan Marnò as Doctor Cyber.
Honestly the acting in the film was alot better then what I thought it was going to be and i'm saying that because the acting in the 2009 film is so good that I can't picture those characters played by anyone else. Altho I will say that Nathan Fillion has alot more charm in his performance then Jeffrey Donovan does but that's just my opinion and Rosario is honestly getting better in the role of Wonder Woman.
The animation for the film was done by Digital eMation who have done the animation for the recent Scooby Doo! movies. They might have done some DC films as well but their website doesn't list their credits and their name isn't listed on the film's IMDB but it is listed in the actual film. Their animation is usually really good but here I don't know why but the animation seen in this film just feels really lazy to me I don't if it's because they were busy working on Return To Zombie Island or if they just didn't have enough time or money but they could have done alot better in my opinion.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you can see in the above picture Diana does get a new costume and in my opinion it's miles better then the one she's been wearing in the recent animated films. If your wondering why it looks familiar it's because it looks exactly like the one that Gal Gadot wore in the 2017 film it's actually unreal how similar it looks but for some strange reason they choose to have her in her Animated Movie Universe attire for the majority of the film but when it comes to the final battle she suddenly needs a costume change.
They did Steven Trevor dirty not only did they give him nothing to do outside of being the toyboy for Diana they also emasculate him at every single chance he's always the but of the joke. Which for a film where the main character is a feminist icon isn't something to be proud of as it comes across as you saying that all men should be the but of all the jokes and that women are better then men at everything and that was something that really annoyed me because both the 2017 film and the 2009 animated film treated him better then this film did.
Not to keep on bringing up the 2009 film but in that film they at least explain how Diana got her costume and they explain away things like the lasso of truth. Here while they do explain how she got her costume nothing is explained which is something I thought to be rather odd since there could be people who have only seen the 2017 film and thus don't know the lore that well and so they won't really know how the lasso works that well and why when Diana wraps it around herself it's a big deal.
This is going to be the last time I mention the 2009 film but in that film when Diana got her costume it felt earned it felt like we earned that moment of seeing her standing proudly in her costume. Here she comes out wearing it after no build up and very little time spent with her and establishing what this version of the character was like when she was younger while that might not seem like a big deal to some of you it is to me because we don't know what this version of the character is like because the only time she's featured she's a bit player in someone else's story where as here she's the main character so we need to know more about her.
Now I said i'd mention this at the start of the review and i'm a man of my word but they released this movie on a Saturday. Which to me is such a weird day to be releasing a movie because no one is going to be checking out a new direct to DVD movie on a Saturday if anything alot of people are going to be spending the day in bed or out with friends or family. The only reason why I think they did this is because Teen Titans Go1 Vs Teen Titans on a Tuesday which is when DC would normally release there direct to DVD movies and because TTG makes them more money they gave that the prime date and this gets the weird weekend date for it's release.
Like I said there is alot of jokes in this film and alot of them are oddly centred around Steve Trevor for no reason what so ever. That said there are some jokes which aren't centred on him and that are actually funny the film overall is actually entertaining outside of the issues that I mentioned and having funny jokes does help the film be more entertaining it's just a shame that there's more jokes emasculating Steven then this about literally anything else.
There are alot of villains in this film and if i'm being honest alot of them are really weak and I say that because outside of one villain the rest have no motivation what so ever. In fact the only one who does have motivation is Veronica Cale which is she wants the tech from Diana's homeland and that's it the rest of them are just there to serve as bosses for Diana to fight. I'm not saying that every villain in a movie like this needs a reason to be fighting the bad guy but it honestly help the film if they were given one even if it's just something small it would at least be something.
Now I Know I said I wasn't going to be talking about the 2009 film anymore but there is just one more thing I want to bring up and that's Queen Hippolyta. In the 2009 film we know why she doesn't want Diana to go of to man's world because we've seen some of what she's gone throw and so it makes sense here even tho she does kind of give a reason as to why she doesn't want her to go it still doesn't explain why she's cold towards her daughter during the final battle or wouldn't even offer to help her when she was fighting Medusa if the film makers are going to have her act like that then at least give us a solid reason and not "I was afraid of loosing you.................even tho your here on the island defending me".
Now since this is a superhero action movie we finally get to talk about the action seen in the film itself. To me the action wasn't that bad I meant it wasn't really great either but it's alot better then what it could have been in my opinion and for me the best action sequence in the whole film is the one in the third act on Themyscira it's a long drawn out fight to the death and there are several times in which Diana could have died and I was left on the edge of my seat because of that fact and yes they do show her bleeding and yes there is an after credits scene which i'm mentioning now because its my last chance to do so.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall like I said this is a very entertaining film and out of the two Wonder Woman animated films I think i've made it clear which one I prefer and so this film gets a modest 5.5 out of 10 from me