Directed by: Patty Jenkins
Written by: Allan Heinberg Zack Snyder, Jason Fuchs
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright
IMDb Link
The DCEU has been rough; Man of Steel (2013) wasn't anything special, Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) was a monumental waste of potential, and the less said about Suicide Squad (2016) the better. The quality of these films did not bode well for what else there was to come, and I must say I had little hope for this year's Wonder Woman and Justice League. That's why it's such a pleasant surprise to say that Wonder Woman is a very good movie, one that kept me interested for its entirety and one that I may even go out and see again.
Diana is a princess and warrior of the Amazons, living on an island that's obscured and safe from the rest of the world. However, when a man crash lands on her island, talking of a war to end all wars, she feels compelled to leave her home and save humanity.
First and foremost, Wonder Woman herself: Gadot portrays her excellently. She breathes such life in to the character, conveying her strength and stubbornness as much as her innocence and naivety. It helps that she's also well-written character with defined traits and a believable motivation that gets challenged and changes her over the course of the movie. Diana is a fish out of water, a being that represents all that is good and brave, learning about a world at its worst, and Gadot offers every conflicting emotion that you'd expect her to feel. The character is faced with ideas and issues that are at odds with her worldview, and it's great to see her visibly deal with her inner turmoil regarding war and the nature of humanity. A particularly compelling scene, at least for me personally, involves Diana witnessing people running from their home village, horses being abused to move faster, injured men being carried out, the horrors of innocents embroiled in war. You can see in her eyes and hear in her voice the way she slowly breaks down, as the men she is with try to keep her focused on the bigger picture, to remember the goal of their mission is to stop the war in order to prevent more atrocities like this from happening. You know from the development of her character that she won't go on until the injustice in front of her is put an end to, she can't be cold to the world she's only just learning about, she can't forget the innocents surrounding her, and she sidesteps her mission to deal with the problem at hand. It's the sort of characterisation you want in a good movie, and it feels odd to write that, but necessary given the lack of it given in previous DCEU films. I really want to emphasise that Wonder Woman is a very good movie, and does a great job of building its titular character.
With characterisation in mind, I also want to talk about Chris Pine's Steve Trevor. A spy for British Intelligence, Steve is no stranger to the grey areas of life. He's the perfect counter-point to Diana; world-weary and burdened by war, with right and wrong not really playing in to how he acts. It makes their pairing very interesting, as he tries to navigate her through his world. As she learns about the world from him, he re-captures some of his innocence and sense of right through witnessing her actions. The two are written well together, and its made all the more worthwhile by the great chemistry between Pine and Gadot. They are the glue of the movie, and it's clear that the filmmakers understood this, as they spend most of the film together. This also allows for their relationship as characters to develop rapidly while remaining believable. It's worth seeing this movie for these two characters alone. It's hard to pick a favourite of their scenes together; their comedic moments are charming, their tender scenes ring true, perhaps their serious scenes aren't as compelling, but that seems to be down to dialogue rather than chemistry.
Considering dialogue, I want to spend some time looking at the movies flaws before I finish. While the film is very good, it's not perfect. The pacing is rushed in the first act, leaving some moments of bizarre editing and dialogue. Diana's origin is delivered in a clunky manner, because the story demanded that they be unknown to her, which means that we're first offered her fake origins through awkward dialogue, only to be told, as an audience, that it's fake shortly afterwards. This is then nullified by the reveal to Diana that she isn't normal, which seems like it should be a big moment, but is offered no emotion and passed over quickly. Likewise, before leaving her home island it is revealed that if she does, she can never return. Once again, this seems like it should be a big moment, one that would be conflicting to her character, but Gadot offers no emotion her, and the film treats that revelation like nothing. I can understand not wanting to spend too much time on it, as Diana is a driven woman and we know that she's going to go, but this reveal and her departure are literally one after the other, as if leaving her home forever is something that means absolutely nothing to her. It's this rushed editing that really took me out of the film in its early stages. Thankfully Gadot and Pine together were compelling enough to pull me back in.
I also think I should consider the action in this action-heavy film. Some of it is high-quality, some of it is unexpectedly poor given the film's production value. The build up of these scenes are effective, such as Diana stepping up and over the trenches, which is easily one of the most badass moments in film this year so far, but the action swings between rapidly edited, sometimes unwatchable fist fights mixed with shootouts and heavily stylised, well choreographed fist fights mixed with shootouts. When the camera gives the characters a real space to move in, we see good choreography and style, and a real showing of Diana's training as she stays consious of her surroundings, often doing two things with one action, such as picking up her shield as she rolls to kick an enemy. However, even these scenes fall plague to an over-reliance on CGI that makes the whole thing look undeniably fake at points. It's a mixed bag as far as the action is concerned, but given the cleverness of the choreography I'm mostly forgiving of the sometimes surprisingly poor effects.
The Verdict: Wonder Woman is charming and compelling in all the right ways. Gadot and Pine play wonderfully (yes, I know) off each other and make their every scene together work, with a combination of a clear understanding of their characters and sheer chemistry. The more serious scenes that deal with the film's heavier themes and issues don't always work as well, as both the dialogue and the action is a little hit-or-miss, but there's still plenty of enjoyment to be had here with a surprising amount of consideration of the war the film portrays. I definitely recommend seeing Wonder Woman if you get the chance; it's easily one of the better blockbusters this year so far.
Rating: 7.5/10
Published June 1st, 2017
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