Wonder Woman

It is one of the most dispiriting things ever to go into a movie expecting to really like it because everyone has said that it’s ‘actually really good’, and end up not liking it as you hoped. Sadly, this was the case with Wonder Woman and I. Friends, reviews, and general opinion convinced me that it was really good and so I went into the cinema expecting to love it and really wanting to love it. However, about midway through, I realised that everyone had been comparing it to Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad: two films where Warner Bros. not only dropped the ball, but let it fall down a crevice in the earth’s crust straight through to its core. Yes, compared to those monstrosities Wonder Woman was an infinite step up, but it’s not an amazing movie. 

Beginning on an island paradise the film sets up a little history of Diana (Gal Gadot), a clay child brought to life by Zeus and given special powers. Flash-forward through a montage of Amazonian training sequences and we arrive at a plane crash that brings American spy Steve (Chris Pine) to the shores of the island. After a battle with a fleet of German soldiers that follow him to the paradise coast, Steve is taken prisoner by the tribe of women warriors. After informing them of WWI that’s happening on the other side of their island’s cloaking shield, Steve is freed by Diana and she travels with him to England on her own mission to find and kill the God of War whom she believes has corrupted the hearts of men and is responsible for the war. 

A large portion of this movie is your typical, slightly funny story of a native woman suddenly amongst industrial civilisation ala Pocahontas or Tarzan. One thing I did appreciate was that they didn’t ditz Diana up in any way. It would have been very easy to have the lead character also be the comic relief like Giselle in Enchanted, but aside from one or two moments of funny culture clash, Diana remains the strong and socially intelligent woman that the fans know and love. 

The world war setting and the romantic story with Steve just reminds you that Warner Bros are taking a fair few leaves out of Marvel’s book, indeed I don’t feel as though the love story (aside from the clichéd and obvious message about love at the end) really added much to the film at all. 

The battles and action sequences are all pretty badass though the constant use of slow motion in mid-leap gets tedious quite quickly and where the film did fall down a bit was with its big climactic battle between Diana and Ares. After all the great fight scenes that had come before, this was just anticlimactic and kind of boring. 

The performances are all fine and everyone gets the job done. Gal Gadot is a wonderful casting choice for Wonder Woman: strong and beautiful, she can be both dramatic and funny and she does bring a lot to the character. Her and the achievements in costume design were the best parts of this movie. 

At the end of the day, my disappointment in Wonder Woman was brought on by my wanting to really love it because of what everyone else was saying about it and realising relatively quickly that everyone has been comparing it to the last two monumental Warner Bros flops, which were beyond terrible. As movies go, Wonder Woman is a good, but not an amazing film. The abandonment of the Nolan filter definitely did it a world of good, but there is still a lot in it that just reminds you that Marvel movies are out there and they are done better. 

Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Said Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremmer, Eugene Brave Rock, Elena Anaya, and Lucy Davis 

Year: 2017 

Rating: M