Wonder Woman (’17 review)

4 outta 5

Wonder Woman is a pretty exceptional superhero movie that is surprisingly, and thankfully, light on cross-universe continuity references and instead is a straightforward, throwback, standalone adventure.  This is certainly different from the last two entries in the DC Movie Universe, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad which were awash in comic book continuity and probably baffling to newcomers.   The story in Wonder Woman isn’t necessarily all that original as its very Thor with a fish out of water who has big superpowers (except this is set in WWI).  Also, intentionally or not, it seems to be cribbing from Marvel’s WWII era Captain America: The First Avenger. Still, Wonder Woman is done with style, big laughs, and mucho ass kicking of evil villains. 

On Paradise Island lives the all female Amazon Warriors led by Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) who made her own daughter out of clay, Diana (Gal Gadot).  Diana yearns to be a warrior and is trained by General Antiope (Robin Wright) although the Queen is hesitant to introduce her only child to the outside world.  One day the outside world literally comes crashing in via Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) and German forces.   After a vicious battle with the Germans, Steve tells the Amazonians he’s a spy in the Great War and Diana is convinced the conflict is the doing of Ares, the God of War.   She travels with Steve to stop a German officer, Ludendorff (Danny Huston), and his scientist nicknamed Doctor Poison (Elena Anaya) from creating a devastating chemical weapon.   Steve’s boss Sir Patrick (David Thewlis) forbids him from going to the Front Lines but Diana is obsessed with ending Ares.

Gadot is a particularly great for Wonder Woman with an exotic look and sound for the beautiful, otherworldly Amazonian Princess.  Her brief appearance in Batman V Superman was sort of a symptom of that film’s randomness but very memorable.  She carries this movie with epic Goddess power and sly humour as Diana is befuddled by the world of men. She sees them as indecisive and letting innocents die when she wants to take action.  One of the movie’s best character bits is Diana squeezing herself into uncomfortable WWI-era women’s fashions as she is annoyed she can’t defend herself in those clothes.   A fantastic punchline is when she selects a practical outfit but is still walking around with her shield and sword prominently held which is an amazingly funny contrast.

As the straight man to Diana’s eccentric forwardness, Pine has some fun, exasperated reactions.  There are few times where they rapidly talk over each other which works  even though sometimes it feels like Pine is straining a bit.   They pick up a trio to help them get behind enemy lines and there is a fun moment when one guy immediately falls in love with Diana and goes in for a hug and she offhandedly pushes him anyway.  Huston and Anaya supply the evil quotient which skews a bit too closely to Red Skull and Zola from Captain America but not as menacing. It sometimes skirts campiness; Huston dispatches a German solider who is simply filling him in on information also Doctor Poison poisons a group of German commanders as her and Ludendorff literally giggle with glee.

The world of the Amazonians is presented as a fantastical realm out of time.  A neat bit is when Hippolyta drops exposition on Diana that shown as a flowing Renaissance painting.  The Paradise Island stuff takes up a chunk and it can get a little draggy and predictable as Diana is the headstrong Princess who wants to be a warrior as her mother forbids it.  When the Germans invade, it’s a powerhouse sequence of armed men fighting against warriors.   It is a little weird that Hippolyta lets Diana go for seemingly no other reason than to get the plot moving but that’s okay.  The best action bit in the movie is an amazing moment when Wonder Woman singlehandedly stomps across the No Man’s Land and holds back an entire battalion. 

The final big climatic battle in Wonder Woman sort of shares a lot with the Doomsday-centric big climatic VFX heavy battle of Batman V Superman.  However while the Doomsday brawl was out of left field, basically the best part of that was when Wonder Woman showed up, the fight Diana has with Ares the God of War is awesome.  Thematically, it fits because this movie sort of about the horrors of war being unleashed and Diana’s apocalyptic battle with a War God is the “War is Hell” motif made literal.  There are some really cool moments as Ares is simply flicking his wrist and sending her flying as Wonder Woman is completely overpowered so the way Diana rises to the occasion works on an emotional level.  There is some pretty heavy stuff that happens in the finale that may be a tad wobbly logically but it’s dramatically impactful.

There is a lot to like in Wonder Woman even if it is a bit formulaic.  But it’s emotional and epic with heart that the brooding Batman V Superman lacked.  It took inexcusably long to get a proper Wonder Woman movie but this is worth the wait.