Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Movie Review

The origin of Wonder Woman goes back to one man named William Moulton Marston. He was a professor and an inventor. He came up with the first functional lie detector machine. But using his pen name of Charles Moulton, he created the Amazon warrior who was the female superhero that the comic books where waiting for. Only Professor Marston was quite a bit more Hugh Hefner than he was Stan Lee…

“Professor Marston and the Wonder Women” takes a look at the unusual mindset of Professor Bill Marston (Luke Evans) and his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall). Marston was a respected psychology professor however his wife was not allowed to earn a PhD. She was limited by her gender, but not by her abilities. Marston and Elizabeth had very open ideas of sexuality. They both wanted to have a young female student as an assistant. They select Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote) to help them in their studies.

However, their studies get off-track into three-way love triangle relationships. The university fires Professor Marston and they all are out in the cold. Bill and Elizabeth drag Olive into the whole thing. They have no real future without any income from the university. Bill starts writing textbooks and Elizabeth and Olive take menial jobs. They have a lot of sexual attraction between them, and much of it is on the kinky side.

Bill Marston has some unusual ideas for the early 1940’s, and most of them include sex. He is a fan of dominance and submission, and his life’s goal is to see it promoted and accepted in society. So his brainstorm is a new comic book character that will be a strong woman – a Wonder Woman.  Of course, her comic book world will be filled with subtle propaganda, such as the ‘Lasso of Truth’, and frequently being tied up and bound by ropes or chains.

Marston gets a comic book publisher named Max Gaines (Oliver Platt) to back him. Soon Wonder Woman is everywhere. Her story lines always involve somebody getting tied up or restrained. Mostly because Marston is one big kinky guy. He and Elizabeth, along with Olive are now living the sweet life. That is until the Decency Society starts a campaign to get rid of Wonder Woman…

The movie “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women” might also have a different title: “Fifty Shades of Marston”. The type of open marriage and three-way affections that this group had were not in the norm during the 40’s. They lived a life on the edge, but Marston was able to turn his SMBD thoughts into comic book gold. It was a way to promote their lifestyle in a hidden agenda.

Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote play it all as high drama, and yet it could have had a lighter touch. They are not performing Shakespeare in the park, but they are more inclined for doing threesomes in the dark.  The subject material is fascinating, and the final result makes you want to reconsider why Wonder Woman has become so popular.

It all makes you ‘Wonder’ what she was dong in that invisible plane…