Raised on the mystical island of Themyscira, Diana (Gal Gadot) lives among the Amazons, who were created by Zeus to combat Ares, the god of war. Under the watchful eye of her mother Hippolyta (Connie Nielson), Diana is trained as a warrior by her aunt Antiope (Robin Wright). When American spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes on the island, he informs the Amazons of a war spanning across the entire world. Diana returns with Steve to London, convinced that Ares is behind the war, and embarks on a quest across the Western Front to destroy him.
Wonder Woman was essentially DC's last chance for a good movie. After the failure of Man of Steel and the complete trainwrecks - in all aspects except box office - of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, DC needed a hit. Considering that this film is the first time Wonder Woman has had a solo outing on the big screen, and that so many female-lead superhero films have been nigh-unwatchable in the past, this film has had a lot of pressure on it since day one. And in the end, it did exactly what it needed to do; told a perfectly serviceable superhero story.
The biggest surprise of the film is Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot. Off the back of a terrible introduction in Batman v Superman, Gadot brings a whole other side of Diana to life in this film. She's lively, dynamic, and manages to maintain a level of naivety that never slips over that thin line into apparent stupidity. But when she steps up in battle, she brings a real air of strength and power with her. As a hero, Wonder Woman is certainly one of the most unique in recent memory, and it's because the story utilises her perfectly for both fish out of water comedy and high-octane actions scenes.
The film starts off on a very strong note, despite an awkward performance from a child actor as young Diana. Themyscira is a colourful, vibrant, beautiful world, and the Amazon culture is fascinating and engrossing. I would have been perfectly happy to spend a whole movie seeing the warrior culture operate, but it's also a lot of fun to throw Diana into such a chaotic time in the rest of the world. World War 1 is a great setting for Diana's introduction to humanity, to challenge her belief in humanity's inherent goodness and to complicate her worldview. Although, it does create a few parallels between this film and Captain America: The First Avenger that were hard to ignore - both strengths and faults. Of all the recent DC films, this is the one that tried its hardest to be a Marvel film, if "being a Marvel film" means following the traditional superhero movie formula.
Where Wonder Woman falters, it falters because it follows that formula so closely. In terms of a story, this film is really nothing special. However, individual scenes - especially action sequences - are so well-executed that it feels fresher than it probably is. The sequences do dip into slow-motion a bit too often - which gave me flashes of Zack Snyder PTSD - but it's mostly used to highlight some incredible stuntwork. The film even manages to make Wonder Woman's ridiculous theme song feel uplifting. Although, the visual effects are noticeably terrible in this film, especially some of the green-screens. A considerable portion of the action appears to be practical, but when the bad CGI appears, it stands out. The villains are also terrible, with General Ludendorff (Danny Huston) and Dr. Poison (Elena Anaya) portrayed as so laughably cheesy that they actually giggle to each other after poisoning a room full of people.
What really prevented this film from rising above average is its terrible ending. As the film was unfolding, it was about what I expected, but the final act is just garbage. What makes it worse is that it actually had a really good ending. In her apparent victory, Diana is shown that her view of the world is wrong, that things are far more complex than she thought, and that things aren't as simple as they may initially seem. Maybe ending a war isn't as simple as just killing one guy. And then, five minutes later, they completely undo all that by having Diana face off against a generic, CGI villain, and the war appears to end as a result of her victory. So that potentially mature, clever, and unique ending was completely undercut by an unexciting, momentum-killing battle. That, along with a final shot that was very poorly executed, just left a bad taste in my mouth when I left the theatre.
It's a real shame, because up until that point, the film was pretty great. The relationship between Diana and Steve Trevor was great, the performances from the other characters - with the exception of the Native American character - are very charismatic, and there's no convoluted or unclear aspects to the story. Wonder Woman manages to portray to horrific aspects of World War 1 within the confines of its PG-13 rating, and handles issues such as PTSD very tactfully. The big, rousing, heroic scenes where Wonder Woman is unleashed are great, and those scenes contained the first time that I felt an actual emotion in a DC film. When Wonder Woman is good, it excels at being entertaining, but it never quite manages to rise above the average expectations of a superhero film.
In the end, Wonder Woman didn't rock my world. It's a very competent movie. It's watchable, it's enjoyable, and it's nowhere as near as bad as its DCEU counterparts. Most aspects of the film come with a small contradiction; the action is good but the effects are terrible, the locations are great but the cinematography is subpar, and the story is good but the ending is terrible. But in the end, average is what I hoped for, and average is what I got. It's even nice to have a memorable superhero theme song again, because we haven't really had one since The Dark Knight. I'm glad that the idea of seeing Wonder Woman in another movie excites me, and that some life and personality has finally been injected into the DC films. But the real hero of this film is director Patty Jenkins, who I hope uses this film as a jumping-off point to a long and successful career.
Comments
Post a Comment