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Wonder Woman: No Ares Twist (Released)

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 (Edited)

In June, me and my friends went to go see Wonder Woman. We weren’t expecting much (because my friend who’d seen it before us said it wasn’t any good), but were blown away. Maybe it’s just that I’ve only seen it once, but it’s my favorite Superhero movie.

Except for one thing: Towards the end, Steve says that maybe all evil in the world isn’t because of one guy. Maybe you can’t just have one scapegoat, the world’s more complicated than that. Cool, maybe a little cliche at this point but who cares. I liked it. But then… turns out… nope! Turns out you can blame everything on one guy!

Hated it. Any power the movie had was instantly destroyed. It would’ve been fine if the movie had no message, but they put one in and then invalidated it. Bad.

So, me, being into fanediting, and my friends, who also didn’t like it, had wanted to make a fanedit of Wonder Woman removing that. There is no Ares in this fanedit. Steve was right.

I’m gonna want to watch the movie, or at least the ending one or two more times before being too certain about my battle plan (I have some ideas, but I may want to reevaluate after rewatching), but this is what it is right now:

-Steve’s speech
-Steve leaves
-Cut out the Ares reveal
-Steve by the airplane
-Cut out more Ares
-Move the explosion from later in the movie here
-Steve’s team freaking out (Cut out “If that’s who I think it is”)
-Steve’s battle plan
-Wonder Woman and Steve (replace it with the audible version)
-Steve runs to the plane
-Raid on the Dr. Poison’s joint
-Steve takes off
-RIP Steve );
-Probably something after that
-Victory Celebration

Nothing’s final, and that plan might not work (I’m not sure if that’s enough of an ending), and I might, instead of removing the Ares and keeping the speech, get rid of the speech and keep the Ares.

What do you all think?

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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Awesome, people love it when you put a spoiler in the title of a thread.

Dr. M

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I mean, I didn’t get into what the twist was. And it’s not even like being suspicious of Hades is super detrimental either, I feel like it’s so far from left field that they still won’t see it coming.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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I would just like to point out that the movie never said Ares was responsible for everything; in fact he himself outright said that all he did was give a bunch of people who already wanted to cause massive amounts of destruction ideas on how exactly to go about it. Ludendorff would still have been a pure evil monster even if Ares hadn’t given him and his assistant some ideas for how to kill people more efficiently.

I mean, I won’t deny that the Ares reveal does cheapen the movie’s overall impact somewhat, but I don’t think it’s quite as bad as you say it is. That said, this does at least sound interesting.

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Here’s the problem though, what the hell is Diana doing during the ending then? She’s not going to just stand around while Steve and his gang are doing all of this fighting and she’s just standing there feeling upset that Ares isn’t there.

I agree wholeheartedly about the ending being a bit cheapened by the reveal, but after seeing it again last week I can tell you that it’s going to be a real challenge making the ending work. Diana wouldn’t let Steve just sacrifice himself because she was willing to do that.

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musiced921 said:

Here’s the problem though, what the hell is Diana doing during the ending then? She’s not going to just stand around while Steve and his gang are doing all of this fighting and she’s just standing there feeling upset that Ares isn’t there.

I agree wholeheartedly about the ending being a bit cheapened by the reveal, but after seeing it again last week I can tell you that it’s going to be a real challenge making the ending work. Diana wouldn’t let Steve just sacrifice himself because she was willing to do that.

I know, that’s my biggest concern. But, I have confidence that it can work. I’ve come up with some ideas that seem to work, so I do have hope.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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 (Edited)

Starting editing tonight. This is a pretty simple edit, so I expect myself to be done in a few days, but I don’t wanna be too certain in case it’s not done by then.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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Not to nitpick too much but the character in question is in fact Ares, not Hades. Ares is one of the sons of Zeus and the god of war (Diana’s half-brother in this movie). Hades is the lord of the underworld, Zeus’ brother which would make him Diana’s uncle.

At one point Ares was even Diana’s grandfather in the comics (makes sense, right?).

adjusts nerd glasses

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Oh my god, I’m such an idiot. I knew that it was Ares, I’m so sorry I said Hades.

Is there any way to have the title changed?

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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 (Edited)

SparkySywer said:

Oh my god, I’m such an idiot. I knew that it was Ares, I’m so sorry I said Hades.

Is there any way to have the title changed?

Go to your opening post. When you go to edit it, you’ll find a space at the top with the thread title inside. Go right in there, make your changes, and save your edit.

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Finished. PM me for a link.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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 (Edited)

Nice plot change! I look forward to see it your way.

I figured the first fanedit would be to remove the castle scene. Too much focus on the male hero, the gala is too implausible so close to the front lines and to the armistice, it shaves 10+ minutes off an overly long movie.

My estimate for cuts would be:
1:22:29-1:24:09 cut phone conversation of the gala
1:24:14-1:24:20 cut reference to gala
1:25:22-1:25:40 cut reference to gala
1:29:28-1:30:17 cut reference to gala
1:31:02-1:41:03 cut gala

I haven’t figured a solution for two issues:

  • we jump from morning to evening without feeling any passage of time. Perhaps there is a way to make the ride in the woods seem longer?
  • Trevor’s german uniform is visible, but he no longer has reason to wear it.

I don’t have the expertise to make this edit look smooth. If anyone likes the idea, please run with it and improve on it!

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SparkySywer, I enjoyed watching your edit. You make me think I was looking in the wrong direction: reducing Ludendorff without reducing Ares probably won’t make the finale more satisfying. In the hope of getting ideas from more editors, I took the liberty of linking this page on Fanedit (forums.fanedit.org/showthread.php?tid=15280&page=8). I hope that’s okay!

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Yeah, that’s fine. What do you mean about reducing Ludendorff?

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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I originally thought to edit Ludendorff into merely a supporting villain, with Ares as the clear lead villain (instead of two lead villains). But Ares is so weak, that Ludendorff offers the more interesting villain of the two.

Dr Poison had the potential to be the most interesting, but the footage is insufficient to really pull that off.

Perhaps the solution is to edit out the Ares scenes without his armor/helmet. Then dub the remaining scenes in ancient Greek (Because why wouldn’t Ares speak in his native tongue?). That might work if enough shots with helmet can be re-used for the climax of the battle, once Ares has lost his helmet.

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While I like the idea behind this edit, the execution didn’t work for me. Several edits were choppy and obvious, and certain things made no sense. The explosion at the top of the tower happens out of nowhere now, with no explanation for what it is or why it happened. Also, the shot in which Steve runs to Diana as she is lying on the ground is confusing, as we don’t know how she got there. Diana also seems almost completely passive in the final sequence of events, which doesn’t seem quite right. Unfortunately, it needs much more experimentation and fine-tuning before it could work.

On another subject, the version of “Wonder Woman” that I’d most like to see is as follows:

It would be a “Golden Age Edition”, set entirely during WWI, with no modern-day sequences and no events that wouldn’t happen in a truly standalone version separate from a larger universe. Most notably, Steve wouldn’t die. Steve’s death is actually my biggest pet peeve with the movie - killing him off in an origin story is, in my eyes, like killing off Lois Lane in the first Superman movie (without having Superman go back in time and save her, that is). I’d like to see the early scene of Steve stealing a plane and bombing the gas factory tinted and darkened (to turn it into a day-for-night sequence) and edited into the final scene. My idea is that when he asks if the gas is flammable, he then steals the plane and bombs either the factory or the large plane stocked with gas, then flies away from the explosion.

The scene in which Steve and Diana stay the night together in a house would be removed. It felt very out of place to me.

If possible, it would be implied that the version of Greek mythology that the Amazons believe is, at best, spotty, and that the “gods” may not be what they seem. All references to Zeus being the creator of humans would preferably be removed. If at all possible, Ares would be cut out of the movie. If that wouldn’t be possible, then his scene would be fine-tuned to remove some of the worst lines and trim a bit of the CGI excess. It would also have to be re-edited so that Diana’s reaction to Steve’s death is no longer included. Preferably, it would be turned into less of a physical battle, and more of a temptation/resistance battle of wills.

The overuse of slow-motion would be remedied by speeding up certain shots to regular speed. The movie would be color-graded to remove the blue tint and give it an overall more colorful look (preferably something reminiscent of three-strip Technicolor). Also, this is the least essential change, but it would also possibly be re-scored with some more classic and less Zimmerish.