Why You Should Watch: Wonder Woman

Because Wonder Woman is the best. The End.

One of the best moments of the depressingly-confusing Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice was the debut appearance of Wonder Woman, complete with her own theme music. It made everyone around the world (including me!) anticipate the arrival of Wonder Woman’s solo movie with more excitement than trepidation. So, now that it’s 2017 and Wonder Woman has finally made her live-action solo debut, how did it go?

Honestly, Wonder Woman is a pretty straight-forward superhero origin film; there’s the period setting, the flashbacks, the breakout superhero moment, and the huge climatic fight. If you need a comparison, Captain America: The First Avenger is a pretty good benchmark, except Wonder Woman is better. Of course, framing the whole movie as a flashback felt stereotypical, but it was ridiculously well-executed, so I’ll ignore it.

Opening Scene Wonder

Even the first part, which was a classic coming-of-age warrior training sequence on Themyscira followed by a classic fight on a beach, was impressive, and managed to create emotional resonance for both us and the characters in the movie. It says a lot about movie-casting when you feel disoriented watching the entire first half of a movie just because there are no men around. It’s so unusual that you spend the whole time just staring slack-jawed at all the Amazonian warriors kicking-ass, wondering which one you admire the most (it’s either Robin Wright or Connie Nielson. I want to learn martial arts after watching them.)

But let’s talk about Gal Gadot, since she’s THE Wonder Woman, after all. It’s odd because her default facial expression is one of intense concentration, which doesn’t give you much insight into her emotions, but lends itself well to the level of intensity needed for The Wonder Woman. She does do well switching from Diana Prince mode to full Wonder Woman mode, and you wouldn’t think to laugh at her during some of the more cliché moments (unlike the “MARTHAAAA” moment in BvS:DOJ).

When Wonder Woman’s amaze-balls moment happened while she was (literally) in the trenches (one of my favourite superhero moments of all time, by the way), I almost screamed at the screen.

Patty Jenkins did a wonderful (pun intended) job directing the film, from her strategic usage of Wonder Woman’s theme song, to the smart focus on the main conflict (i.e. Wonder Woman vs. Ares) instead of focusing on the ‘Love Interest’ angle. The movie runs 141 minutes, but it never feels like it’s dragging on.

This was originally published at Why You Should Watch This.