Some quick thoughts on Wondergate

In the past few weeks, I’ve seen a few posts on Facebook about how Warner Bros. are purposely sabotaging Wonder Woman by not promoting it.  The theory is that if Wonder Woman bombs, it will prove that women don’t belong in superhero movies. 

I have a few thoughts on this.  First off, I’ve seen ads for Wonder Woman on TV.  It also seems like every tenth YouTube video I watch starts with a Wonder Woman ad.  I live in the middle of nowhere, so I don’t know about the claim that there are no billboards for it.  I also don’t know how the marketing budget compares to other superhero movies, but the WW Truthers seems to be implying that Warner Bros. are doing absolutely nothing to promote the movie, which is false.

Secondly, are there misogynists in Hollywood?  Yes.  But do you know what there are more of in Hollywood?  Greedy assholes.  You’re telling me that if given the choice of having a big movie and making millions of dollars or “keeping women in their place,” they’ll choose the latter? 

Thirdly, they need a good movie.  Man of Steel, dud.  Batman v Superman, dud.  Suicide Squad, dud.  If they finally have a good movie that does well, it will be good for them, good for the DCEU, and mean that Marvel isn’t the only game in town.  And if they have a good movie with a female protagonist, they can rub that in Marvel’s face.

So why Wondergate?  Probably some people – who don’t have anything better to do – are trying to lay the groundwork for a Ghostbusters Defense.  Ghostbusters (2016) was not a good movie.  Not because there were women in it, but because it was poorly written.  Millions of dollars wasted when they missed the cheapest correction: starting with a good script.  Of course, that nuanced opinion doesn’t fly on the internet, so people hated Ghostbusters (2016) because it had women.  Therefore – by internet logic – if Wonder Woman does bad it won’t be because of any faults in the movie itself, but misogyny. 

I almost wonder if there is some Machiavellian plan going on here.  If we just sort of promote it, then there’ll be this Ghostbusters Effect and everyone will be talking about it and it will be promoted for free.

From what little I’ve seen of early reviews, Wonder Woman might actually be good.  I’m not planning on seeing it opening weekend because of work schedules and whatnot, and I admit I’m a little gun-shy of DC thanks to Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad, but I will watch it.  The trailers at least make it look like an action movie, unlike the trailer for Ghostbusters (2016) which was just … painful.