So, I figured I'd look at the news which has no doubt set geeks angrily ranting and try to provide my take on this subject. The short version, for those who don't want a long winded article: I don't like it much, but I'm going to wait until I have context on the character's backstory in the film before I get angry.
The long version, for those who do want my usual brand of long winded rambling? Read on...
Wonder Woman has been one of the few DC superheroes who has never quite made the transfer over to film. While attempts have been made to bring Wonder Woman to the big screen, the first film with a theatrical release to feature the character is actually The Lego Movie: while a Wonder Woman series did come out and ran from 1975 to 1979, all other projects have either been TV movies or animated projects, so there's understandably a lot of pressure to get Wonder Woman right because, well, this is likely to be the first time that your average everyday person who isn't necessarily knowledgeable of comics is going to have seen the character in action. Part of this is arguably the challenge of finding an actor (I know most people use the word "actress" to describe female actors, but I'm sticking with actor for this article because there's actually been steps in the acting industry to use the word "actor" as a gender neutral term) capable of both capturing Wonder Woman as a character properly and having the right physique to portray her without the inevitable fanboy rage due to her not having the right sized...um, "assets".
Honestly, I can understand the fanboys getting angered about the former not being done right, but the latter seems like it sends completely the wrong message about comic book fans when you think about it. To a non-comic book fan, such rage over an actor not having the appropriately sized "assets" to portray a character is actually kind of daft when you realise that a lot of the female superheroes have figures that are actually kind of unfeasible to have in real life. I doubt I need to go into a whole of biology details involving the female figure, but I'll give the basics for those who are REALLY curious. I will stress, this is all second hand knowledge (I'm a guy, I can't exactly mention this from personal experience!) and is strictly based from what I've heard from online sources (I don't have a girlfriend with large breasts to ask to confirm these details...heck, I don't even have a girlfriend or a large breasted female friend who I can ask about this without accidentally coming across as a pervert!), so these details are not necessarily going to be 100% accurate, nor do they represent what every woman in the world will say.
Breasts (let's keep things simple and only talk about natural breasts: if we factor in implants, we're going to be here all day and I'm already writing this when I should be considering going to bed!) are made up of breast tissue, which we all have (which, yes, does mean that you can be a man and still get breast cancer, although it's a very rare thing), and fat (among other things: I'm not going to be a science teacher and go into all of the exact things that make up breasts, as I'm sure most of you probably are too busy spacing out over the fact that I've mentioned breasts five times in a paragraph so far to pay much more attention), which is partially why women with very large breasts usually tend to not have especially thin figures (there are other factors involved, of course). However, muscle is not made up from fat: indeed, when you exercise your muscles, you'll usually find that you burn up fat and carbohydrate reserves to give energy to your muscles. So, women who are physically fit tend to not have especially large breasts. Wonder Woman is noted for being physically fit (let's ignore the super strength for a second), but has fairly large breasts, as do a large number of female superheroes. Since Wonder Woman comes from an island which obviously does not have breast implants, the only way you could feasibly represent Wonder Woman accurately on screen would be to get an actor with large natural breasts who is physically fit enough to portray her...and that's before we get to the more important things like acting ability! That's not an especially large talent pool...no offence intended to actors with large breasts who might be reading this, but most physically fit actors with large natural breasts usually tend to be found in the porn industry, which isn't exactly an industry known for having especially talented actors from the viewpoint of being a dramatic actor (and you'd not believe how many pitfalls I had to dodge just writing that one sentence!). Since I think most people would prefer an actor who can actually act over a porn star who clearly can't in a big budget movie, that means that the most important point for a lot of people will be acting ability, not necessarily the size of her breasts and her figure!
...Most of you are probably still shocked that I've said "breasts" so many times in a single paragraph, aren't you?
Anyway, moving on from that and ignoring the casting choice before this page potentially becomes a place where people start listing porn stars who are better dramatic actors than Gal Gadot (...No, I don't want a list. Not even if it's just of their dramatic performances and doesn't involve their porn work at all!), the thing that had a lot of people worried is that Wonder Woman's costume wouldn't be represented properly. And, sure enough, when the photo came out of Wonder Woman's costume, all hell broke loss among A LOT of fans of the character (although, to be fair, there are more than enough reasons to want to avoid Batman VS Superman: Dawn Of Justice as it is).
And I'm not gonna lie: from my limited knowledge of the character, I can see why they are complaining. My first thoughts were not "Wonder Woman", but "Xena Warrior Princess". I also can't help thinking that her boots look like those of Sif from the Thor films, for some reason. Also, I can't help thinking that Gal Gadot (I'll not comment on her acting ability, as I've not seen her in any films before now, although what I've heard doesn't point towards her being a great actor...although it's not impossible she was always working with a bad script, so I'm withholding judgement for now in case she turns out an amazing performance!) looks a bit too thin to strike me as an intimidating figure. I don't intend this to come across as insulting to Gadot if she ever reads this, but I just don't feel she looks like the strong figure I'd expect Wonder Woman to be. In this photo, she doesn't look like an intimidating character who strikes me as a very confident figure to me: my honest thoughts are that she is trying to look intimidating and not pulling it off very well.
So, this means I feel this costume is a horrible representation of Wonder Woman, right? Nope! All it does is mean that I have different expectations of what to expect from the film. This might require some time, so let me try to break down my thoughts for you guys in as fair a way as I can.
One of the things that I try to do when it comes to adaptions or reboots of stuff is that I try to look at the adaption as it stands on its own. See, the way I view it is that just because something has been replaced by a new version of it or has been adapted into a new media doesn't make the original is automatically invalid: it still exists and can be enjoyed, so decrying something as "now being shit" strikes me as a serious overreaction, as there's no reason why you can't simply keep enjoying what you liked about it and just politely go "I don't like [x] much of the franchise, but [y] is really good!" when someone brings up that which you hate the most. So, when fans start screaming "BETRAYAL! THIS WILL SUCK!" for a costume being completely different from the well established costume, my thoughts are "Wait until the film comes out: there might be a valid reason in the costume to be different in the film." For this one, the brown costume (I'm assuming this is the final costume: this is the only photo of the costume I've been able to see which I trust to be accurate) could well be explained in the story that Wonder Woman hasn't actually left Themyscira yet, so she will naturally not have taken up her famous colours because, well, they don't mean anything to her yet. To compare to the Robocop reboot for a second, I wasn't aware of Robocop beyond the fact that he had silver armour and could have been fairly summed up as a robotic version of Judge Dredd, so I was able to look at the Robocop film and his black armour and go "This is actually interesting!" While I will admit that there are more logic issues with Robocop in the reboot having black armour over the fan preferred silver at first when you remember that he actually starts out with the silver armour, I was willing to give it a chance rather than write it off just because it wasn't accurate to the original design. Was it worth it for me? Well...I liked the film, but I can understand why others wouldn't, so I'll leave it at that for now. However, I feel the fact that the film actually ended with Robocop back in the silver armour means that there was a valid story arc throughout the film and that, by finishing by putting him in the armour he was known for, the filmmakers had left behind the seeds to make the new Robocop into the Robocop everyone knows and loves, so I'm keeping my hopes up in case a sequel comes out for it. For this case, I do know more about Wonder Woman, so I can tell this costume isn't QUITE right, but I'm still going to let my issue with the costume slide because, if it turns out in the film that Wonder Woman hasn't left Themyscira and, as such, isn't the Wonder Woman we know and love yet, then I'll feel that's a fair enough reason for her not to be wearing the colours of her well known costume (again, assuming that this is a picture of the actual costume as will be seen in the movie).
So my expectation when going into the film isn't "I'm going to see Wonder Woman as she should be", but "I'm going to see the woman who will become the Wonder Woman we know and love at least a film or two down the line." If you will, I'm giving the film a chance to show that it isn't going to try to claim all of the heroes were always around and just weren't noticed by Superman and actually give the characters meaningful introductions that show these characters starting out on the paths to become the heroes we know and love. If you will, I'm expecting this film to focus on Batman (who hasn't been introduced in this incarnation, so I am almost expecting some exposition: remember, it's a new Batman, not the one from Nolan's film trilogy, so they can't justify just going "It's Batman, you know who it is!" this time!) and Superman (who has been introduced in Man Of Steel) while also giving these other heroes minor roles to show them starting to find their feet to become the heroes we know and love, possibly even mentoring some of them to learn some of the rules of what it means to be a hero. If they do that (keep the focus on Superman trying to defeat Batman and have the other characters be genuinely introduced in the film as new heroes who haven't any real idea of what it means to be a hero rather than already established heroes trying to share the spotlight), I can maybe see this film working, as it can use this film to set the characters up, the second one (since I know DC is determined to rush out a Justice League film without taking the time to set up the characters first) to have these new heroes learn from Superman and Batman the important things to remember when being heroes and learn how to function as a team (think of it like them tutoring these other heroes of the importance of being a hero while facing off against a threat that is so dangerous that them not learning it could destroy the whole world) and then follow that up with individual films for ALL of the new heroes as they try to find a way to become more well rounded as they learn what they can do on their own when they don't have the other heroes to back them up (and ones for Batman and Superman as well). This option has the potential to even allow hints towards the other films for those heroes, as they could contact the other heroes in an attempt to get help only to be informed that the other heroes are busy dealing with serious issues of their own, as well as allow an excellent way to set up a second Justice League film by having the characters meet back up to discuss what happened and learn that all of the attacks were connected through things they find and bring back with them to show everyone else. Maybe I'm proving that I'm no better than the people who are making the films, but I can't help thinking that this way of doing things MIGHT be able to springboard the DC universe properly, as it gives a lot of options to do stuff while also setting up the flagship heroes in ...but, at the moment, I don't know what they're doing, and that leaves me concerned that no proper thought has gone into this course of action.
Since most of you probably are bored of reading me ramble, let me conclude here. While I have a HORRIBLE feeling that this film is going to be a train wreck, my biggest concerns are not involving Wonder Woman's costume: if that has a valid explanation in the story for looking different from the already established costume (which also has the counter point that, well, "already established" costume could cover a HUGE number of costumes by the character: her iconic costume itself has come and gone multiple times in comic history, so what might be an iconic costume for a comic book fan might not be the iconic costume of your everyday joe who only knows Wonder Woman in passing!), then that's fine, but that won't mean anything if the film is a bad film, at the end of the day. That's the hurdle this film has to cross first, and I have a horrible feeling that the huge amount of stuff that's been announced for it is pointing towards a film that is going to be far more crowded than it needs to be and laden with enough exposition to fill an entire novel. But, until I actually see the film for myself or have some word of mouth regarding the finished film from trusted sources (AKA my friends and family), I will let this film carry on doing what it doing and will keep my pitchfork and torch stored and locked away safely. I might sharpen the pitchfork and have my batteries on standby for if things get much worse, but I do not intend to write this movie off completely just yet.
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