Warner Brothers will be focusing on an Oscar campaign for “Wonder Woman” this fall. They, of course, are the studio that produced it and own the DCU universe. I can only imagine how badly they would love to have a DCU film nominated for Best Picture, but it seems like they are going a little too far with this campaign. The consensus this past June was that “Wonder Woman” was the first “good” film from the DCU. Ok, fine, that doesn’t say much really. It seems WB might be, mightily, overreaching by pretty much implying that they believe “Wonder Woman” is Best Picture material. The backlash will no doubt happen because, well, “Wonder Woman” just isn’t that good. I can list 30 films that were released this year that were better than Patty Jenkins’ film. Hell, it’s not even close to being the best superhero movie of the year. That honor goes to James Mangold’s “Logan,” which, in fact, does deserve a Best Picture nomination.
To say that this was a very poorly thought-out PR move from WB would be an understatement. When "Wonder Woman" was released this past June, people made it out to be the second coming. Yes, it's miraculous that a comic book movie was made with a female director at the helm and an actress as its leading star and yet, its flaws are very present for all to see, including a third act that completely spins out of control with the usual CGI bang, that we've come to expect from a DCU, filled with bad shots, bad CGI and no human touch whatsoever. As for the directing, yes it was good, but not Oscar-worthy. Patty Jenkins didn't deserve to go 15 years between her last movie, "Monster," and "Wonder Woman." I want her to make more movies in the future and I am ecstatic that she is being given so much power for the just announced sequel to "Wonder Woman" set for July of 2019.
There's a very good reason why comic book films don't get Oscars. They are pulpy, silly in concept, and usually shaky in terms of quality for critics/adults, hell, even "The Dark Knight" had a somewhat infuriating last 20 or so minutes, but it's still a great, momentous movie. A woman should, of course, be nominated for Best Director but only when the picture is truly worthy of it or, more implicitly, when something artistic and truly groundbreaking as a work is accomplished. Why should we fast-track progress just because it feels good to be a part of it, that's just dishonest, pandering, and actually works against progress? All this teaches people is that quality is not important, it's who you are (or what you were born as) that matters. In fact, despite my objection at "Wonder Woman" and Jenkins being rewarded, I really hope three female directors are remembered come awards time with nominations: Kathryn Bigelow for "Detroit," Julia Ducourneau for "Raw," Dee Rees for her upcoming "Mudbound."
What do you think about Wonder Woman's Oscar chances? Give us your take in the comments section below.