Review of Wonder Woman (2017) by Kevin P — 05 Jun 2018

Strengths: The DC film Universe has struggled on the big screen since it debuted, but Wonder Woman was easily their best effort. Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman/Diana Prince) is charismatic and stellar as the lead. She balances the tough with the sympathetic incredibly well. There's also a wild charm to every scene where we see Diana's fascination with a world she knows nothing about. Patty Jenkins was a quality choice for director. Her work came across as confident despite having such a big budget blockbuster to helm for the first time. The action scenes came across well and the side characters were balanced enough to each be well rounded. Chris Pine (Steve Trevor) was a good secondary lead, while Robin Wright (Antiope) was great in her short screen time. Going with an origin story in the past for Wonder Woman worked, because it provided the character with plenty of opportunities to showcase her vulnerability. She's unsure of the world around her, the full extent of her power, and her exact origin. Heroes need that to be fully developed.

Weaknesses: While the idea of an origin story set in the past was a strong one, I wasn't big on how they went that route. Having Diana get a photo, then remember the movie, then put the photo away at the end felt kind of cheap. Also, though Pine is fine in the film, his chemistry with Gadot never worked for me in a romantic sense. Their scenes together when it wasn't related to romance were top notch. I do wish that the villains were more developed. Danny Huston (General Erich Ludendorff) was kind of just there throughout the movie. While Daniel Thewlis (Sir Patrick Morgan/Ares) was better, he didn't get enough screen time, especially as the villain, for it to fully work as well as it could have.

Overall: It's not without its issues, but Wonder Woman continued the trend of winners for superhero movies in 2017. It marked the first great DC Universe film and turned Gal Gadot into a major star. Her performance and the work by director Patty Jenkins helped make this a rousing success.