Amazon delivers.
The world’s most popular female superhero has finally made it to the big screen for her first solo movie, but the Wonder Woman film has a Herculean task ahead of it to be considered a success. It not only has to do right by a feminist icon but it also has to be a superhero movie good enough to break the DC Extended Universe stink streak. Watching that drama unfold was almost as exciting as the movie itself: could it overcome an uneven lead performance, some poorly rendered special effects, and a frustratingly mishandled end fight? It does, and Wonder Woman proves to be an emotionally resonate film that won me over with its refreshing take on the superhero formula that featured something we haven’t seen in the DCEU yet: a true, bona fide hero.
Despite being every bit a superhero origin movie, Wonder Woman’s tale is so different from the street vigilantes and super soldiers we’re used to seeing that it never feels like retreading old ground. Even Thor traveling from his space palace to a small town in the middle of nowhere feels completely different from Diana (Gal Gadot) leaving her gorgeous island paradise to enter a world consumed by hardship and death.
The philosophy of its story is also refreshingly different from its DC peers; where Superman’s Man of Steel posits the question “What if DC’s superheroes existed in the real world?”, Wonder Woman sets aside trying to explain how gods like Zeus and Ares could be real and instead wholeheartedly embraces the mythology. Signature items like her lasso, tiara, and bracelets organically present themselves as the story unfolds. Wonder Woman’s origin has been retold again and again in the comics in an effort to better explain the more ridiculous parts, but the movie confidently marches forward without stopping for too much exposition. Thank Hera for that.
The origin story is told as a flashback, starting with young Diana and the women who raised her. Mother/Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) and General Antiope (Robin Wright) both care about Diana and want to raise her right, but they disagree on how to best protect her given that their culture revolves around training to become so fit and combat proficient that they put the guys from 300 to shame. These scenes play an important role in establishing Diana as someone who doesn’t take no for an answer in her quest to become a strong fighter, not to mention how she became such a whiz with a sword, shield, and lasso.
Trouble in paradise comes with the arrival of American spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) on the island. The ensuing battle with his pursuers has some thrilling stunts as the Amazons charge on horses and vault around like deadly Olympians, but there’s a lack of focus and scope to the action that makes it somewhat hard to follow. That said, the emotional chords of the scene are struck loud and clear, convincingly lighting a fire in Diana that gives her character a mission for the rest of the film.
This is emblematic of the big moments throughout the rest of the movie. While the technical aspects aren’t always there and the action isn’t as sharp as it should be -- most glaringly in the third act fight that looks like a video game boss battle from 2005 -- Gadot’s performance as an unflinching but compassionate hero makes it all work.
Wonder Woman’s best moments come less from the saw-it-coming plot twists and effects-heavy fights and more from Diana seeing the outside world mired in World War I, expressing her disgust at its injustices, and setting out to right them. Her black-and-white concept of good and evil makes her incredibly naive about the moral gray areas Steve and the rest of society swim in every day. It’s that clashing of worldviews and overcoming that ugly disillusionment that creates the compelling emotional core of the movie and shows how Wonder Woman came to be the warrior for peace we know from the comics.
The film’s best scene comes when she decides to climb out of the trenches, dressed in full superhero costume, and walk headlong into German gunfire. That moment forms the crux of the movie, in which she chooses to ignore her doubters and instead use her actions to do the talking. It’s a galvanizing point and the film’s most exciting stretch as she fights not for the sake of a cool action scene but for the values and ideals that pump through her veins.
And goodness, are her action scenes are a breath of fresh air for the superhero genre. She leaps high into the air and hits like a truck, and while she is super tough, she doesn’t have Superman-level invulnerability, so she’s constantly switching between attacking with her sword and lasso and defending with her shield and bracelets. Though not as technically masterful as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice -- the level of visual craft is practically the only thing you can’t diss about that movie -- Wonder Woman gets by on its style.
Conversations will doubtlessly rage on about whether this is a feminist movie that captures what Wonder Woman means to so many people around the world, but at the end of the day, she has ambitions, she has flaws, she loves, she rages, she feels joy, she feels sadness, she fights her own battles, she talks to other female characters about something other than men, and no one tells her what to do. Feminism asks for equality of the sexes, and in that regard, Wonder Woman gets an equal if not better shake at being portrayed as a three-dimensional character than most superheroes.
Even so, given that this film features the inherently absurd mix of World War I-era soldiers and a nationless society of immortal women, keeping it from careening into full-on self-parody required convincing performances from the supporting cast. Pine delivers one, thanks to his charm balanced with the weariness of a man who has seen too much war. His reactions to the oddities of Themiscarya and Diana’s childlike purity are the right mix of astonishment, curiosity, and confusion, often earning laughs. Likewise, his trio of uniquely talented fighters bring a depth and humanity to the grim war scenes. Lucy Davis’s Etta Candy is also a delight as Steve’s quippy secretary, although she has frustratingly little screen time.
On the Themiscarya side of things, Wright’s Antiope does a lot with her few scenes, conveying that she is the most fearsome lady in the land whose heart can nevertheless be warmed by the rambunctious Diana. As Queen Hippolyta, Nielsen’s balance of strength and empathy play well against Diana’s brash nature, although it’s their scenes full of heated dialogue that show how Gadot isn’t as experienced a performer as her more seasoned castmates. Gadot’s strongest moments aren’t during dramatic debates or when selling awkward humor as Diana but when expressing compassion and charging boldly into battle as Wonder Woman.
As far as the villains go, they have sparse screen time and do little more than incite conflict for Diana and company to deal with. While they’re nothing to write home about, they do their job well enough. Really, the true antagonist of the film is war, its many horrors, and how it corrupts. That the film aims to make a poignant statement about the universal evil of humankind, rather than just have the super person punch the thing, is another example of how Wonder Woman excels as a better kind of superhero movie.
This is also a good time to point out how the WWI era is a surprisingly perfect fit for Wonder Woman. Women’s rights were undergoing a sea change because of the war. And Wonder Woman walking through a battlefield covered in clouds of poisonous gas, unharmed herself yet in mourning the fallen, is an incredible piece of imagery.
The Verdict
Wonder Woman is leaps and bounds above the other three entries in the DCEU. With a dramatic setting, a few entertaining action scenes, and a strong supporting cast all working together to tell an inspirational Hero’s Journey, it more than offsets some occasionally uneven acting on Gadot’s part and some shaky technical aspects. The messy third act fight, however, is something that has plagued other superhero movies and is something even Wonder Woman cannot overcome. Overall, Wonder Woman is a win because it successfully tells the story of a woman taking on a war-torn world with the power of love. What’s more heroic than that?
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