"Trust a woman to accomplish what a man cannot" - seems to be the undercurrent theme of the latest DCEU - Warner Bros. produced superhero extravaganza "Wonder Woman".
After the mixed reviews of Man of Steel and universally panned misfire Batman V Superman, DCEU is back with another summer superhero"ine" release this time. The legendary character of Wonder Woman is brought to life on celluloid as another setup movie for "Justice League" releasing later this year. And boy, what a step up this movie is for the DCEU movies! They finally have a comicbook film that is as good as Marvel's 2008 Iron Man in terms of quality and setting up a new hero"ine" for the future.
I had a blast watching the beautiful Gal Gadot play a badass and throw punches, kicks and Godly aggression during World War 1 timeline. She made me believe that this is the kind of film 2013's Man of Steel should have been. The titular character's story begins in the present day where she receives a message from Bruce Wayne that compels her to take a trip down nostalgia lane and she begins narrating her journey as a child on the fantastical and mythical island of Thymiscira inhabited only by the fairer sex and protected and nurtured by the power of their father, the Greek God Zeus who has kept them hidden from all mankind.
The first act is quite powerful and engaging. The screenplay sets up the characters and motivations quite well and the mythological backstory of how everything that is happening in present times in the movie is connected to an ongoing war among Gods and men. Zeus's son Ares "The God of War" rebels against his father for creating mankind on earth. His only aim is to corrupt and destroy his father's treasured creations in order to establish his reign in the universe. This may seem quite cliche given the fact that we know a superhero film is incomplete these days without "the whole world in danger" theme. Director Patty Jenkins does an excellent job of not falling into the modern film making trap of cutting and editing way too fast and way too much. The dialogues play out organically which helps establish the characters. However there are a few scenes in the third act that do overstay their welcome and some editing would have helped.
One of the main gripes I have is that "Wonder Woman" does suffer from Marvel's poor villain syndrome. The bad guy character is not given much to play with here. And the writing is such an archetype and cliche that even when the film reveals its big plot twist towards the end it seems hollow and forced.
The strongest highlight here is Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and Chris Pine's (Steve Trevor) hilarious and at times cute romantic chemistry, which is electric as they are able to play off each other's strengths and weaknesses. The story does make maximum use of its cinematic liberties considering it is a comic movie and delivers the VFX and sound fury once the action begins to ramp up in the second and third act.
A good experience in 3D and special mention to that goosebump inducing background music. Definitely worth a watch as a ramp up piece for the Justic League movie coming in November this year.
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