Ever since the word that a Wonder Woman reboot might become reality, this subject has been a honey to flies of criticism and anticipation. David E. Kelley’s reboot did not end up getting picked up by NBC, but was it really not “wonder”-ful enough to make it onto the fall schedule?

After the fan backlash over the early pics of the Wonder Woman costume worn by Adrianne Palicki, comic book fans have been cautiously skeptical about this reboot effort. So why did it fail to get picked up? One reviewer with iFanboy posted his two cents on the pilot and while it sounded encouraging that edits and stylistic changes were made to seemingly make the show more marketable rather than full of camp and CW moments (not knocking the CW, you know #TVD is like crack to me, but Wonder Woman isn’t the place for that) the bottom line sounded like it just didn’t have that impact that a pilot needed to spark interest in a whole season.

The pilot introduced you to Wonder Woman with an action sequence with the Amazon princess chasing down baddies and laid the groundwork to the people to both sides of her life – business and superhero. Apparently they removed flashbacks of her time on Paradise Island and falling for Steve Trevor as well as nixing the quirky pack of backup tech support “misfits” to her crime-fighting.

Other things thankfully culled from the early script to pilot includes this list of seriously bad gimmicks:

The Gimmicks – There were a lot of gimmicks in the script that are missing from the pilot:

• The script indicated that the pilot would run commercial-free (I bet the ad sales department had a good laugh over that one), but in the pilot there are standard commercial breaks.
• The script was littered with on-the-nose musical cues for pop songs like “Single Ladies” which are nowhere to be found in the pilot. Along with the missing pop songs, many of the groan-inducing pop culture references are gone, including a running gag about a lawsuit with Katy Perry who had dressed up as Wonder Woman in one of her videos.
• The script also indicated that there will be bleeped out cursing in the series which no longer occurs, though in a meeting about a ridiculously endowed Wonder Woman doll Diana does say the word “tits” twice and “ass” once.
• In the opening scene of the script as Wonder Woman is chasing a criminal down Hollywood Boulevard, she runs into (sometimes literally) people dressed as Buzz Lightyear, SpongeBob SquarePants, Iron Man, and, of course, Wonder Woman. None of this occurs in the pilot.

Apparently, Adrianne Palicki can actually pull of the role of Wonder Woman/ Diana Themyscria/Diana Prince. The reviewer cites that she has “a little bit of an angry edge to her when she’s Wonder Woman that adds just a dash of exciting unpredictability.”

The action scenes sound like they have a anything-but-dainty fighting technique for this modern Wonder Woman with choking baddies with her lasso and taking out Veronica Cale’s “’roided out super-soldier army.”

Back to the subject of her iconic costume. Turns out that they put her back into the traditional Wonder Woman (no pants) outfit when she takes on Cale. Wha? I suppose a variety of outfits is good for any woman but does this work for Wonder Woman?

Playing opposite her, Cary Elwes as Henry Demeter, CEO of Themyscira Industries, and Justin Bruening (Knight Rider) as Steve Trevor didn’t seem to jive either. The reviewer cited that Elwes overacted and Bruening was “a bit of a mannequin.”

All things culled, the pilot was still not compelling enough to trigger a whole season’s worth of episodes. This Wonder Woman was indeed different than the comics, but that was the intent. It seems like they started with a not-so-serious treatment of a modern Wonder Woman and tried to make her relatable in the pilot, but didn’t quite hit the mark for such a cost-heavy show to produce.

Still we will probably not be able to see this lackluster product at all in the end. It’s an unfinished pilot and is doubtful that we’ll see it on iTunes any day soon. What would you have done to make a Wonder Woman reboot a reality?

[Source] iFanboy