Wonder Woman Review
PG13: Sequences of Violence and Action, and Some Suggestive Content
Warner Bros. Pictures, RatPac Entertainment, DC
2 Hrs and 21 Minutes
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner, Lucy Davis, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Said Taghmaoui, Eugene Braverock
REVIEW: Ever since Batman V. Superman, The DC Extended Universe has been a pain in my ass. In 2016, the studio produced two cinematic pieces of garbage that both ended up on my Worst of List. Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad. Both films made both exhausted and furious. In all honesty, it made dread watching the upcoming films in their lineup especially Wonder Woman. After watching this, let me be the first to tell you that this movie is the testament of the term, “It takes a woman to do a man’s job.”
In the early 20th century, the Amazon Princess Diana, who is living on the island of Themyscira, meets American military pilot Steve Trevor when he washes ashore. After learning from him about the ongoing events of World War I, she leaves her home for London to bring an early end to the war.
THE GOOD: Say what you want about Gal Gadot being a good actress, but she carries this movie with her two hands. Gadot does a phenomenal job capturing both Diana and Wonder Woman by giving her with heart and emotion with no hesitations of having her kick ass. She is a perfect role model as it depicts why many girls look up to her.
We see the entire film told from her point of view and it presents a meaningful story. The movie doesn’t rush through her origin to set up a series of upcoming film for it has build up and atmosphere. The best thing about this standalone origin movie is that it is an independent origin movie with a story. It's thoroughly faithful to the lore of Wonder Woman as it tells this fish out of water stories where Diana attempts to find her purpose in the world while learning about the one beyond her home. We see her progressively become the symbol of hope who fights for all. She doesn’t only fight to save her boo thang while causing massive collateral damage to the city. She fights for what she believes is right no matter what anybody says to her.
Wonder Woman is the first DC movie where you see both a three-dimensional lead and a lead who becomes the definition of a superhero. What Patty Jenkins excels at in this film is depicting who Diana is as she slowly progresses to becoming Wonder Woman. This movie is about a woman finding her worth as she learns about the world bigger than her. When you think about it, all of these traits sound similar to what Superman is but this film is everything Man of Steel should’ve been.
Wonder Woman may be a DC character, but has the personality of a Disney princess. This lady has the strength and mind of Mulan but the heart and kindness of Rapunzel. When she leaves her home, she starts learning everything about the world like a newborn baby. For a woman who was born on Earth, the most powerful moments of the film is how much Diana learns about it for the first time in ways far more effective than Kal-El in Man of Steel. She has a childlike innocence of the world that's beyond Themyscira. Because of her innocence, you become attached to her as an actual character with dimensions opposed to everyone else the DCEU introduced. She speaks her mind at a time women weren’t respected enough to be heard and those moments when she does are very powerful. As the film progresses you see Diana grow in both character and strength. She begins to understand her abilities more and becomes rightfully fascinated with them.
Jenkins and Gadot thoroughly took their time to get to know this character beyond the pages we read. They bravely dug deep to give Diana the depth that has been lacking in the other films DC has produced. They knew it was a lot of pressure to make Wonder Woman’s first big screen standalone feature something special and they all put in their A game. With this being the fourth film in the DCEU, Diana is the first full-fledged character the universe has to offer.
One of the other things that make this stand out more than the previous DCEU installments is that THERE IS COLOR. The movie isn’t always dark and gritty for the cinematography is bright and shiny. Somewhere through the film, caught myself saying, “Holy Shit, this movie is colorful, A DC MOVIE IS COLORFUL?! Thank you, Wonder Woman.” When it begins, we the film displays an artistic style with its exposition where we learn about the birth of the Amazon Warriors as its presented with a motion fresco painting that is visually creative and beautiful. When we are on Themyscira, with the Amazon Warriors the cinematography is clear, bright and most of all beautiful. You feel like you’re transported to another world.
Steve Trevor is pretty much Chris Pine being Chris Pine in the same vein Will Smith was just Will Smith as Deadshot. This man is pretty much Captain Kirk without a USS Enterprise Ship. He’s cynical, charming, charismatic, and one of the best parts of the movie. Whenever Trevor is onscreen with Diana, you feel the chemistry between them as they have not only humorous scenes but meaningful conversations that are in some cases pretty chilling. Besides what other films would you see Chris Pine do a German accent? For God’s sakes, he has a sequence where he’s riding a motorcycle into battle. THAT WAS THE CENTERPIECE OF STAR TREK BEYOND. Granted it's not as impressive as that scene in Star Trek Beyond, but he’s on one nonetheless.
The movie has a rather balanced tone. The tone is similar to a Marvel film where a lot of elements are played for laughs especially when it revolves around Steve & Diana interacting for the first time. The thing that works about it is that it rightfully knows when to stop and tell a story and knows when to stop getting too serious and take a laugh. We are introduced to other characters like Etta Candy who you see in the trailers and have who has a good, fair share of jokes, but who you don’t see in the trailers are Trevor’s comrades who steal the show now and then especially Ewen Brenner.
What I do like about the action sequences are how choreographed they are. It does have the same action you would expect in a DC movie where it looks like a video game, but the slow motion makes it work at times. For a non-Zack Snyder film, Patty Jenkins mimics a lot of his action style from his former work such as 300 and Legend of the Guardians. The action scenes feel like they were taken from the Batman Arkham games where you have Diana using either her fists or weapons in quick cuts only have the final blow done in slow mo. Just like in the Batman games, the action does get old very fast, but it always manages to be entertaining. It uses the slow motion action excessively, but it's effective when it's necessary.
With all this said, the film, of course, has a lot of significant shortcomings.
THE BAD: Remember how I said the movie has a tone similar to a Marvel movie? Well it also has the weak antagonist of one as well. The film builds up three major villains from Dr. Poison to General Ludendorff and of course Ares. It takes its time to build up a message saying that sometimes people are bad and war is rooted from bad people who just wants to watch the world burn (I was not expecting to make a Dark Knight reference, but here you go). It's a moral that was tremendously thought out in How to Train Your Dragon 2 in ways you don’t see films express it. Instead of having that message being thought out in here, you hear the studio heads go, “Uh this is a summer blockbuster, we need that awesome climax scene. Brains aren’t welcome here.” You just hear the gears drastically shift like:
Right when it felt like an all around great superhero flick, the film stops to finally show us Ares in a pretentious twist that makes you groan as it leads into an obligatory climactic showdown. The movie honestly would’ve worked without Ares. Ludendorff and Poison were good enough as they were. They’re both frail antagonists even down to their stereotypical German voices, but the message about the flaws in humanity would’ve been more efficient.
For this being a film not written by David S. Goyer, you have lines that are hit or miss. The movie is written by Allan Heinberg who worked on Wonder Woman comics and episodes of Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, Scandal, The O.C, and the recently canceled series The Catch and you feel the best of both worlds with the script. When it's focused on Diana, the writing for her works. When it's focused on anyone else especially on our villains, the writing is soap opera type telegraphed. You even get people referring to the opposing enemy as “the bad guys.” You do get those jokes that’ll make you cringe such as some that involve men genitals.
It may have taken four years, but I feel like DC has finally done it. DC has, at last, made a good movie. Though this is flawed in more ways I cannot explain, this is the DC superhero film works. This film is the hero the audience needs and deserve. It does have predictable story elements that you can see play out, but it felt refreshing and earned when it does.
LAST STATEMENT: With a fully dimensional superhero character that both fans and moviegoers can come to enjoy and excellent performances between Chris Pine and Gal Gadot, Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman is the refreshing film the DCEU desperately needed even though the third act hits a sour note.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 73%
Super Scene: Diana takes the front
