julekmeister

I've decided to write this short review when I saw the previous one.

What you need to understand before watching this movie is that it's about difficult and dark times in Polish history - before the Soviet Union collapse, when Poland was under it's heel.

It's not meant to be funny despite some other reviewers. This is a movie about good people making difficult choices, about people without hope and about people trying to make most of bad situation. It shows how ruthless and corrupt the government was and how one couldn't win with it if he tried.

It's not a movie for everyone. Even the younger generations of Polish might have a problem understanding this film as they can't relate to the passed times. But what is shown here was the reality in many countries of former Eastern Block and is true in many others even now.

I thought a while, how to grade this pilot. I went for 4 out of 10 with 5 as a production that is neither bad nor good - watchable. Here's why I gave it this grade: There is a lot of things people, especially male viewers, would like. There are some decent fight scenes, there is some decent acting and there are beautiful women. That's pretty much it. Elisabeth Hurley and Adrienne Palicki are stunning and they do know what acting is.

Unfortunately these are the only qualities I could find in this production that would make the time spent watching this not entirely wasted. The character of Wonder Woman is significantly different from her portrayal in comic books and other TV series. While it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad this Diana just doesn't make much sense. On one hand we have a successful business woman, on the other lonely, delicate girl living alone and in the middle of this almost a psychopath killer. It's just like the main character has a split personality disorder. One might argue that the whole idea of having and alter ego is that those two personae have to be completely different, so that no one would uncover the secret identity of the hero. But that's not the case here. Wonder Woman in this show is publicly known so there is no need for hiding who she really is. And yet, while being Diana Prince she is lonely, heartbroken and gloomy watching TV with her cat - I think that is the true self of the main character since she doesn't have to hide anything from her pet. And in the same time in her Wonder Woman form she is ruthless, with no regard for law or human life. The most shocking scene for me in the pilot was when she pinned a man to a door with a pipe killing him and she didn't even blink. She even said to her cat, that it was a good day, because she got to beat up some bad guys as if not realizing she's just murdered someone. I'm not opposed to a new, darker, more morally gray hero, but the lack of consequence. It's almost as if different writers wrote different aspects of Wonder Woman's character and private life without reading what the other guys wrote. It just doesn't make any sense.

Further more, what's the case with the lasso? A TV reporter stated, that Wonder Woman used her lasso of TRUTH to capture a villain. That means, her rope has the same properties as in the comic books - it can make every man tell the truth. Yet she still has to torture a guy she's just put in a hospital (!) to tell her anything? Why the h she did that when she just could wrap her golden string around him and ask politely? Maybe for her own pleasure - hence she really IS a psychopath.

So, in my opinion, writing on this show sucks. It is poor and inconsequential. The CG is also not so good. The scenes where Diana flies her "invisible" jet are so static it just hurt my eyes to watch. But I guess that's the least important thing, although in a superhero show you wanna see some good SFX and cool stunts.

So, the acting, cast, gorgeous women (Hurley and Palicky are just stunning as I stated before :)) and the action scenes are a big plus to the show.

The writing, plot holes, character creation, special effects and essentially every thing except the few things mentioned above make a giant minus. Hence the grade 4/10. It's watchable but bad.

PS. Is Wonder Woman even a superhero in this show? She can't fly by her own, she is strong but doesn't seam as strong as in the comic books (she has almost Superman level of strength in the source material) and her jest isn't invisible.

The first good thing about this movie is that it's directed by one of the greatest actors/directors of polish cinematography. The second is that Stuhr introduced new talents to us, such as Matylda Baczynska, a great actress but still unknown to general public. The movie itself is a little cheesy though. It's not bad at all, but judging from previous work of Mr Stuhr I would expect something more. It is still worth seeing, but don't expect a heartwarming comedy or a metaphysical drama. It is a movie about ordinary people living ordinary yet complicated lives. It's also a way of showing us that we cannot fight nor escape our past, especially when our past is connected to security service in former People's Republic of Poland (much like secret police in Germany). Although the film is good, it lacks some clarity.

But who am I to judge? Watch it and judge by yourselves.