Tutu Adefolalu

Fails completely as a Tolkien adaptation; but passable as generic fantasy. I'm sure many things have been said and will be said regarding the complete lack of connection between the story Amazon is telling and anything in Tolkien's texts (even those they had the rights to use). I'll try to be brief in my review in that regard. Amazon clearly decided to tell the kind of story that they wanted to from the beginning, inserting character names and locations from Tolkien that would be recognizable where needed. But so many things are altered or completely missing that it's basically an original story by Amazon with characters and locations licensed from Tolkien. So story-wise, completely different. Just have to look at it as a generic fantasy show. Most characters range from boring to just unpleasant: Galadriel has correctly been described as a combination of a Mary Sue and a Karen. She’s obsessed with revenge, doesn’t listen to anyone else, doesn’t really care about anyone else, but she has plot armor stronger than mithril. To make her seem strong they make those around her weak (even though she’s supposed to be part of an elven “strike team” looking for Sauron). To make her seem smart they make everyone around her kind of dumb, so no else takes the threat of Sauron seriously or wants to do anything about it. I could get behind the flawed overconfident protagonist thing if they gave her a “save the cat” moment, but they don’t really do that in these first two episodes. Arondir isn’t much better. He’s also a pretty flat character and to be honest the whole situation with the southern elves and their occupation of these towns is pretty cringe. It made me not like those elves. They all unapologetically still view the townspeople as potential Sauron allies even though it’s been a thousand years since the war against Morgoth took place. It would be one thing if the elves had helped advance their communities or taught the people over the centuries the error of their ways, but it’s just a standard military occupation where the soldiers all look down on the people. The only human Arondir has a connection with is the girl he finds pretty, which is also cringe. Cause he talks down to the rest of them still and even talks down on Bronwyn’s people in front of her, where she has to call him out on it. This is our elf/human romance? The Hobbits we’re trying too hard to draw on the charm of the LOTR Shire scenes. They were just kind of boring most of the time. The “prophecy book” was an interesting touch though. Also they made them all dirty and gross. Even as nomads I think you’d still want to wash up a bit? Or wash your clothes? And why is there no consistency with their accents? I thought this was one homogenous band of hobbits? The dwarves were the best part of the show. Fun, better acting, actual emotion and energy in the scenes. I don’t like Disa’s actress but I love the character. If the show was just about the dwarves I’d give it four stars at least. The pacing is trying too hard to be like GOT, complete with sweeping map transitions over and over again. Too many overlapping storylines without anything major actually happening. And no “Starks” for us to latch on to (dwarves are great but the elves are the main characters). As generic fantasy it’s passable, but if you want to go back to Middle Earth you should look elsewhere.

Besides the fact that this film is badly written, full of plot-holes, has watered-down characters (some of whom are more caricature than character), is full of questionable decisions, and somehow looks worse than the previous film--besides all of that--this film is possibly the most anti-feminist thing I've had to sit through in recent memory. Which I'm pretty sure is the opposite of what they are supposed to go for. Wonder Woman seems less intelligent, morally dubious, and extremely reckless in this film. Also (I can't believe I have to say this about a comic book superhero movie), sex without consent is NOT OKAY. I'll explain more below, but this is a thing that happens and Wonder Woman is the culprit. Sorry but those are the facts this movie gives us. *SPOILER ALERT* Steve Trevor comes back due to the wish power of the dreamstone, but he doesn't just reappear (which would have been perfectly believable in a movie with a wish-granting magic rock). His soul comes back to possess some poor random dude. A random dude who isn't even given a name in the film. In the credits he is referred to simply as "Handsome Guy." I won't get into the irony of a film supposedly speaking against objectification literally objectifying a central character in the same film. Anyway, Steve takes over Handsome Guy's body, so his soul is like "asleep" I guess? He wakes up at the end of the movie with no memory of what's happened apparently. Needless to say, the rightful owner of the body has his autonomy and body stripped from him, and then our hero has sex with his body. Yes, Steve is in control now, but that's not his body, and both main characters acknowledge this several times in the film. This isn't even a case of Handsome Guy "transforming" into Steve's appearance. He looks the same, but when Wonder Woman looks at him, it's "her mind" that projects the image of Steve onto him. Steve himself only sees Handsome Guy when he looks in the mirror. So yes, both of them know exactly what's going on but don't care. So sex without consent is ok if magic is involved? That doesn't seem like a great message to be promoting. What if this man had a girlfriend, or was engaged? Or what if he was saving himself for marriage? (Yes, that is a thing people still do and would be a more common mindset in the culture back in the 80's than now). We aren't given any info besides Handsome Guy's career and wardrobe choices. Nothing to help us feel more comfortable about what's happening on the screen. I'm not trying to be alarmist or make things bigger than they are, but this is actually a big problem. Imagine if the roles were reversed. What if a male superhero had a chance to sleep with his dead girlfriend, but said girlfriend's soul had to possess an unsuspecting young lady's body to do it? And after several days of sleeping together and dealing with dangerous situations the male hero just says bye to the girlfriend's soul and leaves the poor girl just standing in the street? No explanation of what's happened, no apology, no help orienting to the chaos around her? And then, at the end of the movie, what if the male hero has a somewhat flirty conversation with this same girl, who has no clue what's been done to her? He has full knowledge of how he slept with her multiple times but she has no clue? He just smiles and walks away? I guarantee there would be no five star reviews for that.