Wonder Woman: 10 Major DCEU Problems It Fixed
The hero Warner Bros. needed to save them from themselves.
Wonder Woman not only saved the world in her first feature film, but also single-handedly saved the DC Extended Universe from the crash course it appeared to be on. It was a truly spectacular film that not only blew its DCEU predecessors out of the water, but has also come to be one of the single most critically acclaimed superhero movies in years.
So, why was it so good? In short, because it dared to be different from the films that preceded it and was allowed to be its own thing. Rather than keep the subpar status quo that the DCEU established with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman made some key changes and in doing so, managed to avoid every pitfall that its predecessors fell into.
Seemingly every one of the specific ways Wonder Woman deviated from DC's formula for mediocrity contributed to both its creative, commercial, and critical success. And this is exactly how this movie did things differently, and in turn, better than the previous films it left in the dust.
Wonder Woman was not the hero that Warner Bros. deserved, but also the one the studio absolutely needed.
10. A Creative World For The Characters To Inhabit
When you are telling the story of inherently outlandish characters such as Batman, Superman, or Wonder Woman, you have to get creative with the environments they reside in. To put it another way, filming a big city and simply calling it Gotham or Metropolis is not going to cut it. Especially when nothing is done to make them feel truly unique or even distinguishable from one another.
In Wonder Woman, the environments we see actually fully embrace the outlandish nature of the character. We're given an extensive look at Themyscira and also receive insight into their customs, beliefs, and teachings. Diana's ties to Greek mythology are given the spotlight as well, further illustrating that Warner Bros. has finally become comfortable with embracing what makes these larger-than-life characters so great to begin with.
Finally, when Diana does enter the "real world", as it were, she feels confused and out of place, which doubles down on the same idea. And what follows is World War I, but a version of it that further lends itself to Wonder Woman's inherent uniqueness.
It's a movie that makes the world just as interesting as the characters, something the DCEU has failed to do in the past.