Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman (2017)

Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Elena Anaya, and Connie Nielsen

Directed by Patty Jenkins

Written by Allan Heinberg
***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  The origin story of the titular super hero, we follow a young Diana who as a child admires the warrior women with whom she lives on the island of Themyscira.  Trained by her aunt (Robin Wright) in the ways of the Amazonian females, a grown Diana (Gal Gadot) rescues American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) after his plane crashes in the waters off of her island home.  He tells Diana that World War II is ongoing and Diana leaves Themyscira in hopes of finding Ares, the God of War, who ages ago caused chaos amongst the gods.  It's decidedly more complicated than that...but long story short, Diana wants to seek revenge on damage Ares caused the Amazonian women years ago.

• While Wonder Woman is the best DC comics film so far, it really didn't need to be all that good in order to achieve that title.
• Much was made about how this was the first female-fronted superhero film and while that's an admirable feat, in my opinion the film was overpraised simply because of that.  At its heart, Wonder Woman is an origin story and most superhero origin stories lack excitement overall and that's the case here.
• Gal Gadot is fine as Diana, but she lacks a bit of nuance.  I think in subsequent films (see Justice League which will be reviewed soon), her character grows in appeal, but here she's a bit too stalwart which at times is a bit off-putting.
• Although directed by someone other than Zack Snyder whose stamp has been on nearly every DC movie thus far, this film still carries his aesthetic at times.  Most of the opening act taking place on the Amazonian island looks so fake and computer-generated that it's tough to really buy into what we're seeing.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-