MTV movie fans have spoken, and the result is Wonder Woman’s No Man’s Land being crowned the Best Fight Sequence of 2017.
The No Man’s Land scene took home the gold at the awards beating out M’baku and Tchalla’s Duel in Black Panther, Atomic Blonde’s stairwell fight, Thor and Hulk’s gladiator brawl in Thor Ragnarok, and Black Widow, Okoye, and Scarlet Witch going up against Proxima Midnight in Avengers: Infinity War.
With such a strong gauntlet against the film, the award is well deserved and has made DCEU fans around the world hopeful for whats next. Unlike its predecessor’s Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman did not release an “ultimate edition” cut as many of its scenes remained intact, yet it’s ironic the now iconic moment was once headed for the chopping block.
“It’s my favorite scene in the movie, and it’s the most important scene in the movie,” director Patty Jenkins revealed in an interview last year. “It’s also the scene that made the least sense to other people going in, which is why it’s a wonderful victory for me.”
“I think that in superhero movies, they fight other people, they fight villains,” Jenkins continued. “So when I started to really hunker in on the significance of No Man’s Land, there were a couple people who were deeply confused, wondering, like, ‘Well, what is she going to do? How many bullets can she fight?’ And I kept saying, ‘It’s not about that. This is a different scene than that. This is a scene about her becoming Wonder Woman.’”
While definitely a personal victory, Patty Jenkins has set the bar for future comic films to come as well as her own sequel to the film. The most highly acclaimed film of the DCEU it not only had an effective opening but a great build that still continues to inspire men and women all over the world today. Just the mere fact that the film continues to creep up time and time again for accolade after accolade is a testament to not only the heart but the sheer hard work and determination that was poured into it, carving its own staple in Americana.
“From the very beginning, that scene was kind of our equivalent of Christopher Reeve revealing his S for the first time and saving Lois Lane from the falling helicopter or the first time when Christian Bale is Batman and he’s moving so fast you can’t see him in Batman Begins,” cinematographer Matthew Jensen said last year. “We knew the whole movie was building up to this whole moment when she first reveals herself as Wonder Woman. We knew we had to take the approach of Hitchcock in a certain way, you’re holding back, your holding back. You are creating anticipation for that moment. And then, of course, doing the moment justice by not only revealing her in the full costume but also revealing her enormous and awesome abilities. That was a major sequence that was developed by Patty and the pre-vis artists and the stunt guys who did a lot of stunts through previsualization to show what was possible.”
How do you think Wonder Woman 1984 will follow up the iconic scene?
Wonder Woman 1984 is expected to land in theaters on November 1, 2019.
