Scott’s SPOILER FREE Wonder Woman written review.
As people who know me know, I have been an outspoken critic of the DCEU for some time and have not been a fan of their writing and character development. So I went into Wonder Woman very hesitantly hoping DC has learned from past mistakes.
I can happily say this is by far, the best DC movie ever made. And yes…I am including the Nolan-verse, the Christopher Reeve films, the Burton Batman films, and even the 60’s Batman movie with Adam West! I am even including the DC animated films (which I enjoy greatly). Is the movie perfect? No. But it’s flaws are minor when compared to the overall awesomeness that this film is.
Gal Gadot completely owned her role as Diana Price (aka Wonder Woman) and brought this character to life far better than I could have ever hoped for. The film makes Wonder Woman an awesome female hero for both girls and boys to look up to.
My fear was that the writers would follow the typical Hollywood formula in writing where they try to make their women look “strong” by emasculating the men around her and making them witless idiots. But they did not do that here. Chris Pine’s character is every bit as strong and heroic as Wonder Woman within this story and they both are vital to the development of each other’s characters and in the process, their story becomes crucial to the viewers’ emotional investment in the film.
They also made an awesome #GirlPower movie without falling into the trap that the CW Supergirl series fell into where they turn their girl power message into a lecture to constantly hit men over the head with. They simply allowed Wonder Woman’s strength speak for itself without any needless monologs bashing men.
Another shoutout I have to give is the surprisingly badass role played by Robin Wright! She was amazing and as a longtime fan of hers, I was happy to see her kicking ass as she did.
As far as the fight choreography and the film as a whole goes, I was extremely happy with the first 80% of the film. It was beautifully shot and the battles were intense and well done. Unfortunately, the final “big fight” moves away from the style of the rest of the film and becomes an over-the-top CGI fest that I hated from the other DCEU films. It just lost its connection to reality that all of the other battles had and thus lost some of the “danger” in my mind. Thankfully, the investment in time DC put into developing Gal Gadot’s relationship with Chris Pine pays off and is strong enough to offset the sterilized feel of the CGI.
My only fear is, based on the Justice League trailer before the movie, DC is going back to the awful CGI overload and away from the elements that made Wonder Woman great. I hope that’s not the case.
As I mentioned in my video review, this is the first DC movie in a long time where I plan on seeing it multiple times in the theater and also plan on buying it on Blu-ray.
I am giving this an A- and HIGHLY recommend seeing it.