I watched the Wonderwoman film last Saturday.
All in all, it was not too bad (my personal favourite superhero film of the
year still remains Logan, though I think Wonderwoman is a tad better than GOTG
2, but hey that’s just me), though as my boyfriend and I left the theatres, we
could not shake away the nagging thought – between the end of World War I till
the start of the Batman versus Superman: Dawn of Justice movie, what the heck
was Diana Prince doing? Of course we know that hopefully we will get the answers
in year end when we watch the Justice League movie (if we do not, good luck
DCEU). However the point of this post is not so much of a direct analysis of
the Wonderwoman film or the DCEU per se, but more of my own introspection
towards the “what the heck have I been doing” question, and using the
Wonderwoman movie to sort of help me find my own answers to the question.
[Spoilers ahead for the Wonderwoman film, please
stop if you do not want to spoiler yourself. You have been warned.]
When the Wonderwoman film starts, there is a
sort of internal monologue by Diana Prince when she received the preserved
photo gift from Bruce Wayne, with his invitation to share her story. There she
begins the ruminations and reflections over her past. Through the story, we see
how she has evolved, starting out bursting with zeal, idealism but severe
naiveté too. Slowly, as she begins to fully comprehend the gravity of things
around her and the corrupt nature of people as a whole, her principles and
beliefs are tested. Obviously she overcomes that in the end, to persevere and
triumph, though it is not without its heft and heartbreaking price. Then film
fast forwards back to her, now seemingly serving in some archaeological social
enterprise under Wayne Enterprises (of course with Bruce Wayne’s help), posing
as some female senior executive to camouflage her. However between that triumph
in the film’s finale and this epilogue-ish scene, why the heck is she lying low
the way she is? We have confirmed this seeing how discreetly she “moves about
the shadows” in the BvS movie, save for that one scene stealing fight.
There were some earlier times in life I had also
been bursting with a similar sort of positive vibe, akin to Diana Prince’s
headlong march into No Man’s Land in the film. I had this sense of definitive
purpose, feeling that some things just needed to be done. It was not about
myself, it was about the cause. Of course the sense of accomplishment is
nowhere as near the heights of Wonderwoman’s fantastic victory over the Germans
in No Man’s Land, but the sense of euphoria in being a contributing part of
what needed to be done was unmistakable. The joy with those who I served then,
was also alike to the tender scene of Diana Prince having that laidback
celebration with those villagers. Only that things did not continue onwards in
that positive trajectory, both for Diana Prince and for me. For Diana Prince,
none of those villagers she saved then managed to eventually survive. For
myself, some things held dear have been shattered to smithereens.
During the monologue introduction, Diana Prince
already states clearly that her tale is one that is ultimately about learning,
not so much about the victory. Learning about herself, about others, about what
she needs to do, and how she is eventually going to do it. I guess that I could
say my survival till this day is a victory of sort, but it is just as beside
the point as Diana Prince’s one.
I guess for Diana, being the immortal that she
is (daughter product of Zeus), she has learnt that since she has time on her
hands, she would rather bid her time after the incident of WWI, short-listing fellow-in-arms
carefully, such that the eventual team of the Justice League is one to be reckoned
with. [Hopefully the movie in December will turn out decent enough like this one.]
Meanwhile, the question I think I need to ask,
as a daughter and disciple of the almighty God, is how I should make good use
of the time ahead of me, as I await for the next duty assigned to be more and
more apparent. Maybe it is what is precisely not shown in the Wonderwoman film,
that I need to emulate from Diana Prince. To change from chiong-ing straight ahead into battle, to standing changing to wait for the timing to make the move instead.
