Movie Review - Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman ***½ (out of 5) (PG-13) I’m not sure what I expected from this version of the saga of our most famous female comic book superhero(ine), but this wasn’t quite it. Gal Godot stars as the Amazon princess, raised in isolation until fate brings the rest of the world to her hidden island home, compelling her to fulfill her destiny as protector of human underdogs. In this origin tale we meet her as a young girl, eager to learn fighting techniques like all the grown-ups around her in that women-only culture. She grows into a strong, determined and principled adult, mastering battle skills, but unaware of the full scope of her powers and purpose, as her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), mentions often and ominously.

As The Gods or luck would have it, her intro to the world we know, and her first encounter with a male, occurs during World War I, as heroic American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes his plane offshore, under hot pursuit by German forces. News of the massive number of casualties in the raging war is all young Diana needs to know her time has come, fully trained, or not.

She joins Steve in his return to England planning to merge his goal of stopping the creation and deployment of a super weapon with her destiny of legend - stopping Ares, the Greek god of war, who must be the one who started such horrific levels of slaughter. Kill him and the war will end. Slam bang, thank you, ma’am, for saving the rest of us from that demented deity.

The tone of the film is dark and dour, more akin to the Batman movies than the lighter Marvel fare, or Lynda Carter’s popular TV series incarnation from the 1970s. This Diana’s learning curve borders on tedium, with overdoses of exposition along the way. Gadot plays her as something of a blank slate, which one hopes is only a choice for this phase of her evolution, to be replaced by more savvy, confident versions of our heroine in the two planned sequels.

Despite the film’s length and dry spells, it certainly delivers on the action element. We get several stunning battles, and plenty of eye candy among the kick-ass Amazons, highlighted by beautifully-deployed slo-mo shots. The script dangles several worthy villains for Diana and her mortal cohorts to defeat.

Much is being made of this being the first solo feature for a female comic-book heroine, and directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. Her career behind the camera has mostly been on TV, other than the notable exception of Charlize Theron’s portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, for which Jenkins also received other awards and nominations. I have no idea how much difference gender made; nor, in fact, does anyone. But if this film rakes in the boatloads of money that is both expected and deserved, if that gives all aspiring distaff directors a better shot at the gigs they want, that would be a fine real-life benefit from Wonder Woman’s powers. (6/2/17)