Wonder Woman

Hey, DC comic fans, we finally got one right!!!

A long time in the making, Wonder Woman takes us to the mythical island of Themyscira, home of the Amazons, a powerful race of warrior women crafted by the gods of Mount Olympus whose sole purpose is to rid the world of the God of War, Ares. After narrowly defeating Ares the first time around, the Amazons lived in secret for centuries, training night and day for the inevitable return of mankind’s greatest enemy. But when a World War I fighter pilot named Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) is shot down just inside of the magical barrier that hides the Amazonian island from the outside world, Princess Diana (Gal Gadot) takes it upon herself to bring Steve home and confront the very real threat of Ares returning to the world. Now without the help of her sisters behind her, Diana must find a way to bring Ares to his knees in order to stop the war and return the world back to its peaceful ways.

I really loved this movie. Like really, really loved it. Being a DC fanboy you’d assume that I’d automatically like this film no matter what, but with my “meh” reception to Man of Steel, my wary enjoyment of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, and my outright hatred (strong word but you get the point) of Suicide Squad, I went into Wonder Woman with my expectation bar set pretty low. Luckily, and to my utter delight and nerd-enjoyment, I can honestly and without any reservations say that Wonder Woman is a mostly excellent film and exactly what the DCEU – and fans of the character alike – needed.

On top of the fact that freaking Wonder Woman finally has her own headlining film, what I liked the most about the movie as a whole is how original everything felt while still adhering to the classic formula of the Hero’s Journey. It’s classic in a sense that this is a fish out of water story mixed with a Hero’s Journey to be sure, but the mostly great pacing and near perfect balance of humor, emotion, romance and action, made me feel like this wasn’t your typical blockbuster event, but more in line with the old classics way back from the golden age of Hollywood. There was an odd sense of completeness to this film, of care and attention that I find severely lacking in almost any new movie out nowadays that harkens back to when filmmaking was just that – filmmaking and not just another product to push in the grand scheme of things.

Director Patty Jenkins is absolutely firing on all cylinders creatively and thematically with this film, hitting her stride in each and every scene from the 300-esque slow motion action scenes to the often hilarious in between scenes that give us some great character work. Molded from the cinematic style and overall look of what Zack Snyder has developed for the DCEU, Jenkins deftly beats Snyder at his own game, giving us a gorgeous film that is only really hindered by some shoddy CGI work. Admittedly, I saw the film in 3D, so I suspect that a lot of that came from the transfer, but still.

On the acting front, I have to say that Chris Pine is absolutely amazing in the Steve Trevor role. Not only is he charismatic as fuck and has great chemistry with our lead, but he perfectly plays the role to a point where he never takes away from who Diana is as a character, and never steals her thunder even when the script tries to paint him as the “reasonable” one. It’s great to see how balanced his and Diana’s relationship plays out, how believable it all becomes, and how emotional it all gets as the climax of the film comes about. With Gal Gadot bringing a youthful wonder to the role in the first half of the film, and a sort of reluctant grimness in the latter half, she’s able to bring the necessary strength to a character that oozes beauty and power at every turn. While I do think that Gadot seemed to struggle with some of the more emotional beats, to me, she’s the only actress that could pull off this role, own it, and show us that there’s even more to this character than meets the eye. She’s a role model in every sense of the word and if I had a daughter of my own, I’d strap her to the theater seat and show her this movie knowing that the overall message here as well as the social commentary behind it all is something worth paying attention to.

As great as this film is, I do have a handful of gripes that left a mildly bad taste in my mouth stemming mostly from the third act and the less than compelling villain. Just like almost any Marvel movie, the main villain here is really just a throwaway place-holder baddie structured to give the story meaning, and while Ares isn’t the worst final level boss of all time, I didn’t really appreciate the odd reveal of who he was masquerading as for the entire film, nor the end battle scene that seemed more like an uninspired version of the rest of the action scenes put together. Mix in some weird cutaways to the other baddies of the film that really don’t add much to the plot other than showing that these guys are…well, bad, and you have only a few problems that stop this film from being even better than it already is.

Wonder Woman is an important film for more than one reason, but the fact that this is a female-centric, female directed film that soars more than it stumbles is only icing on the cake for a film that had a lot to prove and even more to lose. While the third act is a problem and the villain succumbs to “Marvel Syndrome”, Wonder Woman honors the character in all the right ways while proving once and for all that there should be no reason why anyone should judge a book – or rather character – by its cover from here on out. I’d be ashamed of this industry if the success of this film didn’t open the floodgates for more female directed films and stories, and with new creative minds hopefully populating Hollywood moving forward, I for one could not be more excited.