Wonder Woman

With Man of Steel and Batman v Superman being huge disappointments, I went into WW with quite a bit of reservation. I hoped it would be better than those 2, but was not expecting it to be all that great either.

Fast forward 2 hrs, and I'm walking out of the theater feeling completely fulfilled and a bit teary eyed at the ending.

Wonder Woman does something that the previous 2 movies failed to do: it makes you care about the characters it builds them up, and walks you through there personalities and shows you their growth on screen. Wonder Woman actually makes the super hero movie secondary to the character driven story.

It also understands that dark and brooding does not always work with these characters. The movie is really colorful, and fun during many scenes and only gets dreary and washed out in the war scenes. There's good lighting and you can see very well what his happening unlike BvS.

It has really well choreographed fight scenes all around that are not edited to oblivion and back. They have flow, continuity and let you understand where the characters involved are in relation to the other characters they are fighting.

For most of the movie CGI is kept to a minimum and done so well you can hardly tell its CGI. Its only the last 3rd of the movie that gets CGI heavy, and most of it still really good. There are a few scenes where you can tell Gal Gadot went out for coffee and its just her CGI double doing the impressive feats, but overall its Gal doing many physical stunts and fights

Gal Gadot takes what she gave us in Batman V Superman, and cranks it up to 11. She owns the role as both the naive Diana, and the powerful fighter Wonder Woman is.

She has really good chemistry with Chris Pine, and gets you to feel what she's feeling with her eyes and subtle facial expressions which director Patty Jenkins frames really well in well designed close ups.

The music score is expertly designed for both the super heavy action scenes and the more slow paced story development scenes. In the intense battle scenes the music pounds and makes you feel like you are right there. In the more slow paced and sensitive scenes it mellows down and really sets the mood for the scene.

Wonder Woman also manages to create something no other female super hero movie has been able to do. It creates a strong, fully defined female lead without having the make characters be useless or insulting. It creates a well developed character that does not depend on the shortcoming of the other characters to look stronger. She is in her own right stronger, and all her own.

Chris Pine also works really well opposite Gal providing a strong male lead that works around the already strong female lead. He's not weak and useless, he's not threatened by her strength, he does not have to be saved. It makes the relationship between them really believable and fun to watch.

The weakest part of the movie is unfortunately the villains. Though really they aren't bad, they really aren't Doomsday bad from BvS, but aren't quite up to par with the rest of the movie.

Ares is a bit of a let down honestly, and the plot twist feels a bit tacked on.

In the final fight it falls apart slightly with the CGI and how it was all laid out. It feels like there was a scene cut out, but all in all its a fairly decent final act with a lot of action

All in all Wonder Woman shows what a good director, a good script, and some really good actors can do for a superhero movie. Gal Gadot does for Wonder Woman what Robert Downey Jr. did for Tony Stark, and owns the role. You can tell she is really into the character and her development. I cannot think of anybody else that would be able to take on the role of Wonder Woman after seeing Gal Gadot's take.

I can only hope this movie lets WB understand what a good movie can be like and move away from the dark and dreary Man of Steel and BvS design. This movie is serious, heartfelt and full action but knows really well when to insert moments of levity and humor.

One of the best if not the best super hero movies of the decade so far.

4.5 out of 5 lassos of truth.

 

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