Wonder Woman — Review

Will Daniel
Panel & Frame
5 min readJun 4, 2017

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Have you heard the news? The DC Cinematic Universe (so far that’s ‘Man of Steel,’ ‘Batman v Superman,’ and ‘Suicide Squad’) now includes a movie that doesn’t suck! Oh boy! It’s also the most satisfying blockbuster this summer movie season’s had yet. To be clear on how low that bar is, that’s coming from a guy who sorta liked the mixed bags that were ‘Guardians 2’ and ‘Alien: Covenant,’ and thought that ‘King Arthur,’ ‘Pirates 5’ and ‘Baywatch’ were some bullshit. And now that your expectations of my opinions are sure to be frustratingly unclear, let’s dive in…

Directed by Patty Jenkins (whose last theatrical feature was 2003’s ‘Monster’), ‘Wonder Woman’ opens in modern-day France where Diana (they don’t actually call her “Wonder Woman,” cause I guess that, like saying “Superman” in this wannabe gritty universe, would sound silly) gets an old photograph in the mail from Bruce Wayne. It’s the same WWI picture we saw of her in ‘Batman v Superman’ (or hopefully you didn’t), but since this one’s the original print it sends her straight to Flashback City. I guess it’s a good thing that didn’t happen when she saw the copy in ‘BvS,’ cause then that movie would have been twice as long (albeit a lot better as well).

So then we’re back on Paradise Island (she says the actual name a few times, but I forgot it, so I’m going with the appropriate nickname Chris Pine’s character gives it) watching Diana grow up and learn how to fight. It’s a beautiful location populated by beautiful women (including Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen — how refreshing to not need a wise old dude to guide our hero for once), but none more so than Israeli combat trainer-turned-model-turned-actress (there’s a resume you don’t see often) Gal Gadot. I guess I could mention she also kicks ass. And since the editing is actually decent, we can tell that a lot of that is actually her.

On this island we also get the mythology backstory (told by Nielsen’s matriarch queen) of the gods that created them tastefully delivered via a nifty computer animated sequence. From that we learn that this island has existed for thousands of years protected by a force-field from the evolving outside world, and later we pick up that there’s important details about who/what Diana is being kept from her.

Enter man in the form of Chris Pine as American spy Steve Trevor fleeing the Germans after having his cover blown towards the end of World War I. So much for that force field. Steve crashes his plane in the ocean, and Diana saves him from drowning just before the Germans on his tale arrive and storm the beach. We get our first big battle sequence there: a real spectacle, with Amazons swinging on ropes in slow-motion while shooting arrows (Robin Wright we learn can do this cool trick where she shoots three guys at the same time — can you do that yet, Legolas?). Diana learns of the war going on, and sets sail with Steve to protect the innocent.

After some Clark Kent-style fish-out-of-water bumbling about London, we assemble our rag-tag team of soldiers to carry out the secret mission of destroying a chemical weapon evil Germans (Danny Huston and Elena Anaya) plan to unleash on the allies. The good guys’ team is filled out by Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewan Bremner (Spud, to you ‘Trainspotting’ fans) and Eugene Brave Rock, who prove themselves a likable enough group.

But when Diana itches to save civilians and can’t wait to jump into the action, she strays from the mission, emerging alone dramatically from the trenches and leading the charge through no-man’s land against the Germans. This scene may be the most exciting in the film, an effective blend of cool superhero moves and old-fashioned war action. And though we never really doubt that Diana can defeat any of these standard military foes and survive to fight again in this fall’s ‘Justice League,’ there still remains enough suspense as we actually do care about the regular humans in her company, whom of course are far more vulnerable (and also less necessary additions to future franchise installments).

Alas, as movies of this kind often do, ‘Wonder Woman’ struggles when it must present Diana with a singular opponent worthy of her strength. Don’t worry, I won’t reveal who that is, but I will tell you this movie devolves into the kind of dreadful, loud and overly-computerized sequence in its finale that seem to be the staple of the new DC universe. This part of the movie lasts for maybe ten minutes, though it felt closer to thirty, and left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth after a movie I’d previously been very enthusiastic about, knocking this film down a bit from the top tier of current superhero flicks.

Gal Gadot’s innocence and idealism play well off Chris Pine’s world-weary cynicism and wit, and like the first ‘Captain America’ film, as well as the best of the ‘Superman’ and ‘Spider-Man’ films, it’s nice to to get an action-blockbuster where the romance doesn’t feel thrown-in but actually functions as an essential part of the story. The movie also answers the questions I had about why Wonder Woman doesn’t age and whatever happened to that sweet golden sword of hers (though I’m guessing all the real comic book people already knew that stuff).

Patty Jenkins has cited Richard Donner’s first 1978 Superman film (still a personal favorite of the genre) as a big influence, and it’s easy to see that not only in sequences like a alley-way hold-up bullet-catching incident, but also simply in playing a silly comic book mythology relatively straight as a fun (oh yes, DC can do that now) adventure movie with only the smallest traces of irony. And in an age of wise-cracking iron men, it can be a nice change of pace to enter into a fantasy where every punch mustn’t be accentuated by a punch-line.

So despite those unfortunate exhausting final minutes of mayhem, I’m still happy to report that ‘Wonder Woman’ at long last delivers a strong female superhero lead worth rooting for in a movie that’s a real kick and so far the best action movie this year that you could take a kid to. I just hope all those poor little boys don’t have a hard time relating to a girl who fights. (Don’t worry, I’m just fucking with you…)

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Will Daniel
Panel & Frame

New Yorker/Masshole/Practically an LA native by now who really likes movies-n-stuff. Guess that means he’ll be writing a fair amount about them here. Ah shit.