I’m not a huge fan of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, but damn Zack Snyder got Wonder Woman‘s entrance right.
First introduced with a killer guitar sting during the climactic fight against Doomsday, the best bit of the scene comes when Diana confidently says she’s “killed things from other worlds before,” then leaps into action against the Kryptonian monster with a yell of aggression, slicing his Achilles tendon. She also takes a huge whack from him and skids across the floor, losing her sword before climbing to her feet with a grin like the Cheshire cat, clearly having a great time and relishing being able to go all-out on an opponent.
Snyder’s conception of Wonder Woman was obviously not just as a powerful warrior, but someone who has an innate enjoyment and love of combat. From the looks of things, he planned to carry that over into Justice League, too, only for the suits at Warner Bros. to decide (probably) that a female hero shouldn’t enjoy fighting so much and she should tone it down. As Screen Rant points out, concrete evidence of this has surfaced in a video that compares two cuts of the film, which you can see here.
The scene shows Wondy fighting Steppenwolf’s Parademons, with her impaling one of them against a wall. In the first cut, she gives a cocky look as if to say “got any more?” In the other, however, she just flies off immediately. This edit is just a second long, but it’s moments like these that go a long way towards fleshing out characters and are especially critical in an ensemble movie like Justice League where she’s competing with many other heroes.
Sure, this wouldn’t have saved the film but dammit, every little bit counts, right? I just hope that Wonder Woman 1984 features lots of the ass-kicking, battle-loving Amazon that we saw in her solo film and Batman V Superman.
