Wonder Woman review
Finally, a good one.
I was just about ready to write the whole DC Cinematic Universe. Everything about Man of Steel, Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad either doesn’t work for me, feels terribly mishandled, or is just straight out irredeemably bad. I’ll go on record that I’ve genuinely wanted to love every single DC movie that’s come out so far. I love Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, but they’ve lacked a legitimate cinematic counterpoint, and DC should be the natural fit. But it’s never been able to build anything substantial. Each DC movie always seems to have a lot of interesting ideas and questions tacked onto an unfinished foundation, and each time it’s resulted in a horrible mess.
Call it a miracle then that Wonder Woman seems to have finally taken a few of the right lessons from Marvel to produce a movie with a clear narrative. The most striking and noticeable thing about Wonder Woman is how focused it is. It seems like DC have recognized that the major strength of the early Phase One Marvel movies was that they were always very character-centric origin stories; and they’ve very clearly followed suit. This is a Wonder Woman movie about Wonder Woman first and foremost. There’s no larger DC world building being shoved into the plot like Dawn of Justice; everything that enters the story of Wonder Woman feels like a natural and necessary addition to further the plot and themes at play. Also like the early Marvel movies, it centers around likable characters and actors who stand out as refreshing compared to the typical doom-and-gloom we’ve been fed from DC previously.
Gal Gadot is a revelation here; easily confirming her brief appearances in Dawn of Justice as more than just a fluke. She’s the real deal, just about the best thing the whole DC Cinematic universe has going for it so far. The rest of the cast is excellent too; particularly Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor who ends up almost stealing the show from Gadot in terms of charisma and humanity. What’s even better about Wonder Woman is that with this new solid narrative foundation it’s built for itself, the artistic stylings that never worked in the previous DC movies actually manage to work here. Wonder Woman is a very good looking film with some truly breathtaking visuals. The action-scenes feel like a lot of Zack Snyder’s typical DC fare, but they work a lot better with meaningful context behind it. It’s not quite Kong: Skull Island, but it’s close.
But what elevates Wonder Woman ahead of another suitably decent Super-hero origin story movie into probably the best of its kind since the first Iron Man is that the story and themes surrounding it are refreshingly original. Admittedly, concept-wise Wonder Woman feels like Captain America: The First Avenger mashed with the first Thor; but the similarities are only surface level. Not to spoil anything heavily, but Wonder Woman feels more like a coming of age movie than any other Super-hero movie before it. It’s a story I feel will especially resonate harder with younger viewers, male and female alike. It’s all about maturation and learning the world isn’t as it appears; and it actually manages to feel a thousand times more nuanced and important than Man of Steel or Dawn of Justice could ever hope to be.
It’s sadly not a perfect movie. As light as this may be on heavy plot-details and universe building compared to the rest of the DC cinematic universe, the first third of the movie can’t help but fumble a bit. It’s a bit too much exposition and it’s edited just a little too fast for it to hold any significant weight compared to the rest of the movie. Also I probably could’ve done with a different ending. It’s not too much of a stretch from the rest of the movie that it ruins the experience for me, but I think it would’ve been a bit braver to go with something far less bombastic. I get that every DC movie is probably just going to have to end with a CGI heavy slugfest, but it’s still kind of nagging.
Still, when Wonder Woman’s firing on all cylinders, it’s every bit as good as you could’ve hoped. I really hope after we’ve had a year of Logan and Guardians Vol. 2 (heck even Lego Batman if we’re being honest) that this doesn’t get lost up in the crowd, because it really is a rock solid movie. Thankfully I’ve seen this movie’s box-office numbers, and that doesn’t seem to be the case. In conclusion: congratulations to Patty Jenkins on nailing this the first try, definitely worth seeing in theaters, and if we can just get passed this Justice League shaped hump on the horizon there may be some hope for the DC Cinematic Universe yet.
The Media Fire gives this movie an 8.5/10
