Wonder Woman : The Hard Truths Edit v5.04
Dawn of Justice Part 3

Bad Movies Made Less Bad Presents:
Mankind is... questionable.

Major Changes:

• Avoid the strange paradoxical elements from the final Act (i.e. soldiers hugging after the defeat of Ares.)
• Make the end of WW less optimistic, more in line with MoS and BvS that these heroes are awesome but mankind is questionable.
• Distance this version of Wonder Woman’s origin story from writer Azzarello's New 52 retcon where Wonder Woman is the child of Zeus and Hephaestus, restoring Wonder Woman's made-from-clay origin in the end.
• Make Diana seem less naïve about some basic things like marriage and hand-holding.
• Diminish the role of Dr. Poison to simply a lackey of the General, so her Act 3 disappearance less important (Dr. Poison falls into the easy trope that suggests disability — and in this case, specifically facial disfigurement — means that a character is evil. We never find out Dr. Poison’s backstory and whether her facial scarring caused her to become a villain or happened after she already was one, but the message is the same- we should be afraid of people whose faces and bodies are different from our own.)
• Remove much of the exposition and the Dr. Poison confrontation from the final battle.

Editing Intent:

At my first viewing I loved this movie, so I didn’t change much... just that ending. But considering how much I altered DoJ Pts 1&2, I really tried to address as many criticisms as possible as I do with all of my edits. I fell down a rabbit hole of research, however, and found many valid criticisms with the movie. The following are the results of the fixes I thought were possible to make.

This will close out my Dawn of Justice Edits. All are done with an extreme amount of love for the classic characters, and hopefully within canon of ZSJL release. They all try to unify the cinematic universe and remove scenes that show our heroes out of character, all cringe-worthy moments, and plot holes that can be addressed. I really love the DC characters and the DoJ trilogy has been my passion project.

Cut List:

• Intro credits remove DC Heroes intro. Ratpac logo starts, then copper WB and DC logos from trailer added at half speed.

• Movie begins with Diana as a child. (the intention being that starting the movie from the POV of a child allows for a greater suspension of belief.)

• Trimmed history of the gods to remove mention of Amazon’s creation to bring love to humans (only to try to distance this edit from writer Azzarello's disrespectful New 52 retcon where Wonder Woman is the child of Zeus and Hephaestus, and the Amazons aren’t powerful immortals but actually have sex with sailors to keep their ranks and sell the male children to Hephaestus for weapons. Azzarello’s run only lasted for three years, with the character only regaining the respect she deserves thanks to the team of writer Greg Rucka and artists Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp, who returned Wonder Woman to the made-from-clay origin and the Amazons to the complex sisterhood that has charmed audiences for generations.)

• Removed mention of Zeus helping to defend the Amazons in flashback to make Ares simply destroy the gods inevitably.

• Trimmed Diana bracelet scene to remove one apology

• Remove Steve saying the lasso of truth is hot

• Removed Steve calling Dr. Poison ‘psychotic”

• Moved and trimmed Dr. Poison and General Ludendorff destroying the gas mask to Steve’s flashback.

• Removed shot of Steve removing Dr. Poison’s book, cuts straight to Dr. Poison noticing its gone

• Trimmed Steve and Diana infirmary scene to remove doc remarking “strange” at Diana’s healing, and removed Diana glancing below the belt and a naked Steve to seem less distracted, and removed her asking “what is a watch” and Steve’s reference back to it.

• Trimmed Diana and Hippolyta discussion at the beach

• Trimmed Steve and Diana boat discussion to remover her not knowing about marriage

• Trimmed Dr. Poison line “its going to be terrible”

• Removed Steve and Diana hand holding dialogue

• Adjusted Diana translating Dr. Poison’s journal to have her say “It’s a formula… hydrogen-based gas…” (to remove her calling it a new kind of gas, and remarking how it differs from mustard gas)

• Removed Dr. Poison tossing gas mask and watching the officers die

• Removed Dr. Poison and General Ludendorff laughing about giving a mask to the dying officers

• Removed Diana remarking how close Steve is when dancing

• Trimmed Diana getting dress for gala to remove the woman weirdly walking into the woods

• Trimmed Steve flirting with Dr. Poison to remove him asking about her project, and Dr. Poison laughing at him. Now he just gets distracted and loses his chance.

• Trimmed Sir Patrick saying “I am not what you thought I was”

• Removed Sir Patrick telling Diana “only a god can kill another god” and that she is the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta. Now she is simply “the god killer” as foretold.

• Removed shots of Dr. Poison at military base

• Trimmed Sir Patrick exposition to remove his flashback that shows his godly form with the mustache and is line “I am not the God of War, I am the God of Truth. Mankind stole this world from us, they ruined it day by day. And I, the only one wise enough to see it, was left too weak to stop them.” “All I do is orchestrate an armistice that I know they cannot keep in the hopes that they will destroy themselves. But is was never enough, until you.”

• Removed shot of both Ares and Diana floating

• Diana's flashback where she can hear Steve is put into chronological order

• Removed confrontation with Dr. Poison and Diana defeating German soldiers hand-to-hand in a rage.

• Moved the guys destroying the munitions building to just before Steve dies, so that’s what he is looking back at from the pilots chair.

• Trimmed Diana and Ares final fight dialogue a bit to make Ares defeat seem inevitable.

• The defeat of Aries doesn’t result in soldiers putting their weapons down and everyone being friends. Instead it simply cuts to the end of the war, more vague on why.

• Present day intro scenes moved to end, intro monologue shortened and used as end monologue.

• Added logo close.