‘Wonder Woman’ (2017) ****/*****
All the world’s waiting for you, and the power you possess
I’ve been a pretty big naysayer when it comes to Warner Bros.’ attempts at turning the DC stable of comic book superheroes into a series of viable film franchises. They hit a home run years ago by handing the Batman character over to Christopher Nolan, but since then they’ve been wasting everyone’s time by churning out poorly-written, poorly-made, unpleasant movies that look more like body spray ads than they do any kind of classic comic adventure come to life. Man of Steel was a loud mess, Batman v Superman was a nihilist disaster, and Suicide Squad didn’t even feel like they’d gotten more than a rough cut together before they put it out in theaters. Wonder Woman’s ads have looked different though. They’ve promised us something that actually looks like a real movie, and more than that, something that stars a figure who actually resembles the classic character who people have loved for decades — which should be the whole point of these superhero franchises getting made, don’t you think? Well, the good news is that Wonder Woman is indeed a real movie, and its main character does indeed resemble that classic tough gal who everyone has loved for decades, so it can be considered a huge step forward for Warners’ DC movie universe.
For the uninitiated, Wonder Woman is Princess Diana of Themyscira (Gal Gadot), a girl who was carved out of clay by the Amazon Queen, Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), and then given life by Zeus. She’s super strong, super fast, a super good fighter, and she’s the spearhead of the Amazons’ mission to bail out humanity whenever their violent nature inevitably gets them into world-ending trouble. She’s a real wonder — get it? Wonder Woman is her origin story. We watch her get raised up by Hippolyta, trained up by her badass aunt Antiope (Robin Wright), and we watch as the Amazons’ hidden island paradise Themyscira is defiled by an Allied pilot named Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashing a plane just off its coast. We then marvel as Steve draws Diana into the conflict of World War I, which she’s convinced has been started by Ares, the God of War. Yeah, the real mythical figure Ares. This is a superhero movie, after all. Or, at least, it’s one part superhero movie, one part classic adventure tale, with a dash of war movie horrors thrown in to add some gravity to the whole situation. Overall, it’s a recipe for cinematic good times.
They wouldn’t have been able to make a Wonder Woman movie work if they cast the wrong person as Diana, who needs to be a powerful, striking figure, but that’s not an issue here whatsoever, because it’s hard to imagine anyone finding an actress more powerful, striking, and absolutely, stunningly feminine than Gal Gadot. They found such a perfect actress to play Wonder Woman that her name is Gal. That’s ridiculous. Gadot not only looks the part, she’s also able to meet the physical requirements of a battle-hardened warrior, she’s able to project the compassionate heart of a hero, and she always feels natural whenever she’s asked to emote. She’s great. Her supporting cast is pretty great too. Pine is charismatic and bold as Trevor, without ever stealing the spotlight from the title character, Wright is grizzled as hell and creates a number of memorable moments with only a small amount of screen time. The villains are strong too. Danny Huston snarls as a contemptible sadist who works high up in the Kaiser’s German army, and Elena Anaya brings a sad desperation to a villainous German scientist not so affectionately known as Dr. Poison.
The film itself is capably and unobtrusively directed by Patty Jenkins, who is new to this blockbuster stuff, but whose work has undoubtedly earned herself plenty more jobs making big studio movies, if she wants them. Visually the film doesn’t quite blow your hair back, but it looks polished and professional enough, and Diana is given plenty of big John Wayne moments where the music swells and she strikes an iconic silhouette against a dramatic backdrop before beating up a bunch of bad guys, assuring a whole new generation of young girls will grow up pretending to be her. As far as I’m concerned, that means the director did her job. The action is also very serviceable. Not only are the early sequences where Diana goes up against the might of the German army exciting and different, but even when we get into more traditional, loud, chaotic superhero stuff in the third act, you can still follow along with everything that’s happening without getting lost in a sea of digital nonsense. Too many of these DC movies have fallen into Transformers territory, where the big finale looks like the viewer has been caught in the middle of a tornado in a junk yard. If it’s not too late, can we get Jenkins signed on to make Justice League 2 as well as Wonder Woman 2? And, heck, throw her on whatever their future plans for Superman are as well.
The reason the work she’s done here is so promising is that it’s the first thing Warner Bros. has done with its stable of DC characters that shows they’re capable of making the sort of joyous, inspiring popcorn movies that will keep fans of Golden Age superheroes eagerly coming back for sequel after sequel. The movie’s not perfect — there’s some clunky dialogue here and there, there are a few scenes that go on too long, and they’re not able to break up all of the piles and piles of exposition that make up the first act — but it understands that the fundamental reason people love these superhero stories isn’t all of the flying around, the feats of strength, and the lasers shooting out of people’s hands — the reason they love them is that they love the characters. Jenkins and Gadot gave us a heroine that’s as strong as the Wonder Woman we know, that’s as smart as the Wonder Woman we know, and that’s as charming and personable as the character on the page who everyone has spent their whole lives with. They gave you someone to root for. The other DC movies up to this point have featured unlikable morons who don’t feel like the Batman and Superman we love at all — jerks who are more concerned with gazing at their navels and brooding about their petty problems than they are with risking everything to fight evil. Wonder Woman features a person who we’d like to hang out with as well as a hero who we’d like to stand up and cheer for. That makes the overdone superhero finale where two unstoppable juggernauts beat on each other’s faces while everything around them explodes much more palatable.
Wonder Woman accomplishes a lot in its run time. It makes a star of Gal Gadot. It introduces us to a character who can easily support a big movie franchise. It melds the globe-hopping adventure of old time serials with the conventions of modern superhero filmmaking, which finally results in a product that feels something like the classic DC comics published from the 1940s on. I could watch a ton more throwback movies about Wonder Woman and her saucy secretary sidekick (the charming Lucy Davis) fighting bad guys throughout the twentieth century. That said, one thing it didn’t accomplish is getting me excited to watch a Wonder Woman in modern times fighting off an alien invasion alongside a thrown together group of grim heroes in a movie that looks, at least aesthetically, a lot like Man of Steel and Batman v Superman (sorry, Justice League trailers). For our sake and Warners’ both, let’s hope that the approach they took making Wonder Woman wasn’t an aberration, but is instead a rebooting and a rethinking of how they view comic book movies going forward. Watching DC Comics characters come alive on the screen should feel like sipping on a Coca-Cola Classic, and up until this point it’s felt more like chugging a Monster energy drink.
