Wonder Woman 2011 Pilot Review · 3:13pm Apr 22nd, 2020
I'll be honest. The best name I can call her is Psycho Woman. This is not Wonder Woman. There is absolutely, positively nothing wondrous about her, AT. ALL. Why? Ooooh you are about to find out why...
In 2011, DC Television came together to create a pilot, simply titled Wonder Woman; which was supposed to air on NBC, and was gonna be the launch for a new Wonder Woman series. But I think NBC made a good choice in saying no because, yeah, it was awful. The test audiences hated it, and it was cancelled right there and then. So you have to wonder how execs could have screwed up something so bad that their pilot didn't take it off the ground. ... Well we're gonna find out. This is Wonder Woman, 2011's pilot!
So the basic premise of the Wonder Woman pilot is Wonder Woman's trying to take down a bad guy named Veronica Cale... that's it. There's not really much else I can say about it.
And I'll be honest. I tried, tried, tried to find something good, anything of remote good in this pilot! I know even the worst products the media put out has at least a few redeeming qualities to remember them by, or at least were considered good! ... But if I can be honest, the only good thing I can name is Diana's kitty. She doesn't treat her pet kitty like an abusive psycho, so I will give her this, she is nice to animals, cause let me tell you if she was abusive... ohhhh you don't know how bad I would want to find this nutjob.
And that's it! That is the only thing I can name. Because everything else about this pilot is just bad, bad from start to finish! Now let me explain why.
I'm just gonna get this right off the bat. SCREW. THIS. CHARACTER. 
I thought I hated Batman and Superman in Batman V Superman, but Wonder Woman here takes it to a whole new level. Jesus, I mean--how do you screw up someone this badly? This is one of the worst adaptations of her character, and I only have bare bones knowledge about her!
This is not Wonder Woman, this is PSYCHO WOMAN, cause that's what she is. This 'Wonder Woman' is a psycho, a nutjob, a borderline sociopath. There is absolutely nothing redeemable about Wonder Woman here. This woman is a psychotic, I would not be rooting for her, I would have left the city by now, fled the country, just to get away from her! She has no compassion, no heart, no mercy, no eloquence, nothing! She's not wise, or sweet, or pure, she's insanity. Wonder Woman is a downright sadist who enjoys hurting people! She puts people in the hospital and even tortures them WHILE THEY’RE HOSPITALIZED to get information! She openly and blatantly violates the law and refuses the police to take in a criminal that she almost strangled to death! Blatant disregard for the law, and for people’s personal safety, I swear this is a dystopian future where she makes people live in fear, and she's the overlord.
Wonder Woman, back on the eloquence talk, has none. Last time I checked, isn't she supposed to be a graceful figure? Cause she has none, and during this one scene that's supposed to be talking about promotion of a children's doll; instead of talking like a rational human being, she bitches and whines like a child throwing a temper tantrum because it 'merchandises her tits'. Her words, not mine.
Oh and this bitch is also a hypocrite, did I mention that? There’s a scene where she lectures a grieving mom about how wrong it is to kill… and this is coming from the woman who has no issue and sees nothing wrong with putting people IN THE HOSPITAL. I guess it’s only wrong if people other than Wonder Woman is the one who kills?
…
Did anyone look at this script and say ‘hey, this is really kind of stupid!?’
In fact, let's look most of everything she's done, shall we? She--
-blatantly and openly breaks the law
-assaults bad guys without taking them down like a true superhero
-proves herself to be a massive hypocrite
-bitches and whines over a freaking children's doll for objectifying her (despite the fact they clearly put a fortune into production), the same woman who I'd like to point out has naked female statues outside of her conference room, seriously I don't even understand anything anymore
-openly accuses a woman of a crime she can't even prove she committed
-tortures people in the hospital, the same hospital that SHE put them in
-murders a guard
-slams an unarmed and non-superpowered woman against a freakin' wall, possibly breaking her bones or paralyzing her for life
And as for the main bad guy, Veronica Cale, I'm sorry, her so called evil plan just wasn't the most evil plan you could have put in. They do explain her plan, but it's kind of hard to be mad at her or yell at how evil she is, compared to the number of violent acts our SUPERHERO has done. And her little henchmen she sets up to defend the place of operations... you know, it's honestly really bad when you make me wanna support the BAD GUYS. As it stands, these are just muscle bound bodyguards trained to do their job, I'm gonna root for them! And they try and pull a twist at the end showing that all of Veronica's actions are very bad... but it's too little, too late, hard to justify Wonder Woman's actions when again, look back at her past choices. And she did not deserve any applause for her violent rampage. 
And maybe this is just me thinking, but I swear the writers for this pilot must have had some massive vendetta against the character or the fans, because only a few elements of her character in here and they just toss most of that aside to turn her into some dull businesswoman! Wonder Woman isn't from an island full of Amazons, she isn't a god, Themyscira is nothing more than just a business operation, her jet is not invisible, her Lasso of Truth is not magical, and Steve Trevor is just... nothing. He's in this, but he's practically nothing in the story.
The only people I feel any sympathy for are literally all of the civilians, Wonder Woman's office workers, and this one senator that she talks to later in the pilot. And show... if you are trying to make some sort of defense for vigilantism or for anything Wonder Woman has done... you fail. HARD. They try and make certain characters come off as jerks or scummy, but you know what? They come off as the only sane people, even Dr. Phil makes valid points on this crazy. And if you're going to use Wonder Woman as a figure for vigilantism, at least try to make the bad guys actually wrong! As it stands, just like with Linkara, I'm rooting for the villain!
Now okay, last thing I wanna talk about is the special effects, cause, well, I can't speak too highly on that. This pilot isn't finished, and there were some sequences for special effects to be added in later; and a very obvious flying from stunt-wire moment during the final fight. I guess I can't say anything that bad, I'm sure they could have looked... decent. But as it stands, it's still not good.
And actually; wait a minute, I almost forgot something. Earlier in the movie we see Wonder Woman has three identities; one where she's Psycho Woman (jeez how many times have I said 'psycho', a bit too much honestly), one where she's head of a business, and another where she's gloomy and depressed, sitting in an apartment. Okay, possible schizophrenic implications aside... she has a side that's a full vigilante and another running a business? ... That's Bruce Wayne!
Oh my god, this show is just blatantly trying to make Wonder Woman into a Batman archetype! And it shows!
I... can't even think of anything else.
Do you understand why this pilot sucks? Actually, you know what, Linkara, Film Brain, and Nash summed up this movie a lot better. Here's a direct quote from their review.
Linkara: I'll start from the comic book fan's perspective, this was heartbreaking. Where Justice League of America made it's characters into jokes, this thing turned Wonder Woman into a complete monster! She flaunts the law, she threatens, extorts, tortures and outright kills. When Alan Moore did this with superheroes, it was commentary on the media. When this show does it, it's because it can't think of anything better to do!
Film Brain: From a film perspective, it's rubbish. Adrianne Palicki is meant to convey an every-woman, but instead she gives us a psychopathic nightmare of a protagonist that no one but the most twisted of audience members can relate to. The villain is hardly villainous, or even much beyond distasteful, and the pacing is about as even as a movie executive's balance sheet.
Nash: And just from a human perspective, this show tries to push the idea that breaking the law and violating basic human rights is perfectly justifiable if you're the good guy, without giving us much grounds to believe Wonder Woman is a good guy. It's so blatantly trying to push this message that I call it clumsy, except that would mean they were trying to hide it.
That's all you need. And I don't think there is anything else I can add to their argument, they explained everything wrong. So please, do yourselves a favor, do not try and watch this. It's about as infuriating as bad adaptions can come. I have nothing against the actors or actresses working here, they were just doing their job, I only wish that they had better material. And hey, Adrianne Palicki got a better acting role in John Wick, so we can give her that.
Wonder Woman 2011 gets a 1 out of 10, if your pilot is so bad that it gets unaired and canned before audiences can even see it... that's bad.
Thanks for reading it, I know it's all over the place, but hey, so is this pilot. But you know what, I think it's time I find something positive to review for a bit. I've been finding a lot of crap recently, I could use something positive to talk about. ... Maybe something that brings me joy would be nice.
Have a great day everyone!
Ooooooh yes, this... I hesitate to even call it an abomination. This... this thing.
5247883
On the bright side:
1. It was killed before it made it to air.
2. The on screen note of "Pants to be Darkened" gave Linkara and us a running gag for oh crap moments.
Good on you for quoting Linkara, Nash and Film Brain. They reviewed so I wouldn't have to sit through the whole thing!
...I seriously do wonder if this was just made so the people could continue to hold onto the rights a while longer. An "ash can copy" as they say. Because that's the only logical reason I can think of for this - thing.
5247920
Fair enough, but why anyone thought this a good idea is beyond me.
I shouldn't drop the Fem-Bomb, I know, but it's for a good cause.
People have probably made some sort of insinuations about how the studio was too eager to please the 'feminazis' by showing a one-woman-murder-rampage...but actually it looks more likely that someone on the studio really didn't want her to be a good girl-power figure and tried to make this an anti-feminist rhetoric by showcasing arguably the most iconic superheroine as a rampaging, self-interested street-tyrant with no control over her emotions.
As if to say 'This is why you leave the men to jump about rooftops in colourful underwear.' (Which is a weird sentence)
I have a similar theory about the Jem movie.
Either way, it fails to be feminist and it fails to be anti-feminist because this Wonder Woman is only looking out for Wonder Woman, specifically Wonder-Woman in-name-only.
And I am happy that, even though pro-women films do get mishandled a lot nowadays, it's not as bad as it used to be in most areas.
5248002 Me neither, its a piece of crap.
5248026
I think Purple Patch has it. It was meant to be a 'girl power' sort of thing, but it really botches the message in making Wonder Woman in name only look like a psychopath.
5248029
To be honest though, I don't think it has anything good to say about either gender.
5248035
Not really, no.
Are you planning to review the REAL Wonder Woman movie anytime soon?
5248043
I could. :3
5248081
I highly recommend it.
Didn't knew this was a thing. But well, as Shadow pointed, it ended up kicking the bucket before it could go any further.
I do have to say a positive thing. I like her outfit. Her Injustice incarnation has that outfit and she's a legit hero (of course, I'm talking about Main Universe Wonder Woman. Injustice involved two worlds.).
Wow, wow, wow. I found out something in TV Tropes.
If that was the plan, then the execution... Well, you reviewed it, Four.