the Wonder Woman review

To think about what Wonder Woman needed to achieve, to contemplate the uphill task ahead of the director and the team behind her… It seemed like it was doomed from the start. The fourth film in a DC comic universe that so far produced missed opportunities and outright painful to watch crap-fests. The first major superhero movie to feature a female lead front and centre. Which itself is ridiculous especially since the genre boom started around 2000 with X-Men. 17 years of men saving the day. This woman never had a chance. 

Except, as per my usual blog format, I’m talking rubbish and arguing with my own introduction. This film didn’t have to do anything except produce a good time for its audience. Introduce the characters, make you like the characters. That’s it. DC for me has failed in comparison to Marvel so far because Marvel have characters. They have personalities on screen who have wit and charm, who have feelings and flaws and are written like they’re actually fricking people. Apologies for that DC rant but it leads to this. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is superb. She is a naïve and innocent, yet she can kick your arse. If she needs to. When she fights it’s because her character needs to, because it’s the right thing to do. Gadot expresses a need to selflessly help people throughout the film. She is upset when people are struggling, she is bemused when the men around aren’t helping those who need it and then she has the sternest, screen stealing confidence in her face when she knows shit needs done and she’s going to do it. I’d fully trust in her to kick the bejeebers out of both Bats and Supes. 

Her feminity is important here too but being a man I fear I’m going to mess this paragraph up and join the ranks of man-splainers on twitter... There’s jokes about dresses and fashion and as I write this I already regret it. What I’m trying to say is that they joke around with what a lady of that time should have worn, and later how she should have acted. It’s all tongue in cheek but handled deftly as our hero does what she wants, and that thankfully is being a kick-ass woman. Her beauty is mentioned plenty but never exploited. She doesn’t use her looks to get her ahead and the despite being scantily clad she is never portrayed as sexy. She is definitely fancied by every man that meets her here but they follow her because she comes across as genuinely the nicest person you’ll ever meet yet also one who’ll fight to the death for you. 

She’s not the only person in the film of course. Chris Pine is also likeable and a great foil for her. He’s her guide to this new world she finds herself in and also a man of grey when WW has only believed in black and white. Her belief is that all mankind is good unless led astray by the Gods, Pine is there as a flawed man to show we’re not that simple. Other people in the film… Meh. The baddies are just background fodder but aren’t they always in intro films? It’s not they’re story, they’re just plot devices to get our hero in to the fray. 

So at this stage it’s pretty clear I like this film. I relay did. Even though the film nearly ruined it all for me with the finale…. The final fight is a cheesy, boring shit-show of CGI gimpery, clichéd lines about love and easily the worst villain since Doomsday. I liked one little part of it when a fuck-ton of Nazis got wiped out, but the rest of it was nearly Fantastic Four finale bad. Ok, that might be a bit harsh. It was really disappointing after the film had got so much right. Still, the foundations are there for a franchise and hopefully they can get clever with the next films ending spectacle. 

All in all… Yeah I liked that. I look forward to seeing more of Wonder Woman, I just hope she can make Justice League watchable. What I’m really confident in saying though… She’ll be the best thing in it.