#Wonder woman doing unnecessary but badass acrobatics

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Did anyone else notice Diana doing splits in the air while in combat with superboy

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Justice League or Can You Be Cool for Like, Two Seconds, Batman?

I was pretty excited for Justice League, after the pure and glorious majesty of Wonder Woman, which was probably a bad idea in hindsight. I left the cinema thinking it was okay, I guess, which is hardly the five star review I think this blockbuster was after. The good parts - the jokes, the cool action sequences, getting the team together (which is the best part of any movie) - were overshadowed, for me at least, by how lacklustre the women were. The women were Wonder Woman and Lois Lane! Two of the most badass women in comic book history! So let’s get into the nitty gritty of how this movie let these awesome women down.

*Justice League spoilers follow*

First, Wonder Woman, or Diana Prince (Gal Gadot); a literal demigod, who has been quietly saving humanity from itself for a century, whilst restoring priceless artefacts and artworks in her spare time. In combat, she is immediately presented as powerful, and continues to be incredibly adept throughout the film. In addition to this, she is shown using her lasso to gain information from opponents so that she is less likely to endanger innocents before busting in, destroying bad guys and dodging bullets. Diana’s personality, however, is a far cry from the fierce but benevolent, brave but caring warrior we see in her eponymous film. She is constantly portrayed as lacking somehow, and this is usually attributed to the death of her lover Steve (Chris Pine in Wonder Woman). She makes connections to him that seem unnecessary; upon seeing Batman’s jet she comments, “I once knew a man who would have loved to fly this.” We all saw Wonder Woman not that long ago, we remember what happened. This film seems to feel the need to make Steve an anchor around Diana’s neck, dragging her down even one hundred years after his death.

Furthermore, Batman (Ben Affleck) personally attacks her about this whenever he gets the chance, shouting that “you ran away for a hundred years because your boyfriend died”, and at one point going on a massive rant because she isn't Superman (Henry Cavill), “Superman was a beacon to the world, why aren’t you? […] I’d never even heard of you until Luther lured you out by stealing a picture of your dead boyfriend. You shut yourself down for a century.” This tirade is completely ridiculous, he doesn’t accuse any other superhero of being a failure for not filling Superman’s shoes. He doesn’t stop to consider all the things that Diana is; someone who is silently a hero, who asks for no praise or attention to be drawn to herself as long as she is making the world a better place. Instead, he focuses on what she isn’t, which is very specifically Superman, but the same can be said of literally anyone else, including Batman himself. Also this is all the more ludicrous when Batman’s entire backstory, motivation and character development is built on the death of his parents - who is he to judge Diana for her loss when he wouldn’t be Batman without his? On top of this, Batman attributes this apparent lacking in Diana to the absence of a man. All of this contributes to a Wonder Woman who has a passive personality, despite continuing to be amazing at basically everything she does. We are left with a Wonder Woman who does not want to lead, who says, “so I follow, always.”

Lois Lane (Amy Adams) unfortunately suffers from much the same problem as Diana. One of the first times we see Lois, she is talking to Martha Kent (Diane Lane). In this scene, both women are defined by their lack of Superman. It’s true that the whole world is mourning him and feeling his loss, but these two women describe how they are personally lessened by not having Superman in their lives. Lois in particular talks about writing fluff pieces because she can’t face real journalism, even though that’s who she was long before Superman came into her life, one of the most accomplished and intrepid writers in Metropolis, perhaps even on the planet. Of course this is a depiction of people suffering from deep, personal loss; their grief is valid and they should be allowed to mourn. However, this portrayal of incapacitating sadness is shown to be specifically female - only women put their lives on hold, Batman is in fact motivated by Superman’s death to do more, whereas Lois and Martha stop.  When Lois is finally reunited with Superman, she goes on to say, “I wasn’t very strong, you would have been very disappointed in me.” The only thing I was disappointed in is how often these two amazing ladies subjugate themselves to the memory of a lost man, when they are hugely capable heroes in their own right.

There are a few other women Justice League, however it is worth noting that within the actual team of six heroes - seven, if we include Alfred (Jeremy Irons) - only one is a woman. Personally, I’m not a fan of those numbers. Most prominently, we see the return of the Amazons, led by Queen Hippolyte (Connie Nielsen). They remain a formidable fighting force, working together to perform impressive feats of strength and acrobatic skill, which made it all the more sad when they were so easily defeated by Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds). Furthermore, for some inexplicable reason, they were all wearing leather bikinis. This is completely baffling and quite frankly unacceptable when in Wonder Woman they almost all had fantastic, practical, period-inspired costumes. Surely they must all still be in a wardrobe somewhere? Why the sudden need for all the midriff? To make matters worse, as Steppenwolf triumphs over them, he declares, “You will love me, you will all love me”, bringing an unnecessarily possessive aspect to his conquest.

Aside from the Amazons, we also meet a female Atlantian. Aquauman (Jason Momoa) briefly encounters Mera (Amber Heard) when he returns to the sea. Mera acts almost as a conscience, a reminder of Aquaman’s responsibilities; she tells him, “Your mother would have gone to the surface world to stop that thing, but she’s not here, so it has to be you.” Aquaman almost has the reverse problem to Lois and Diana: the lack of a woman in his life. In this case, his unnamed mother is a driving force in his decision making. Conversely, this loss empowers him, as he is driven to cooperate with the Justice League and play his part in saving the world. It should also be mentioned that, aside from the scores of Amazons in their underwear, Aquaman is definitely the most naked in this film. He takes this particular bullet for the women, in that it’s him who walks half naked and glistening from the sea in slow motion, tossing his luscious locks, so thanks for that, Aquaman.

Overall, Justice League was a disappointment as far as female characters were concerned. Both Lois and Diana have shown themselves to be exceptionally strong, capable and indepenent in other films within this cinematic universe, yet in Justice League they were written as lacking and not living up to their potential because they were sad that their boyfriends had died. This is hugely reductive, and quite frankly, a bit rich seeing as how Batman’s whole thing is that he’s sad because his parents are dead. I hope both of these women are allowed to show how powerful they are in future films, no matter how many dead exes they have between them.

And now for some asides:

Alfred is so horny for grandchildren, I thought my mum was bad.

Good to see how far America has progressed and that they totally aren’t petty at all, when they feel the need to include impoverished Russian peasants pleading, “Who in the world will come for us?” Before busting in the doors to save the day.

The Dostoyevsky joke was my favourite bit of the whole film.