Wonder Woman (2017)

(SPOILER WARNING!!)

I will openly admit, I was not looking forward to this movie. Thus far, I have hated the current DCEU films, as they felt like an open mockery of classic DC characters. Granted, Suicide Squad was entertaining, but only in an ironic way, not because it was legitimately good.

Furthermore, although I grew up with DC characters as opposed to Marvel (even if their films are infinitely superior), I was never overly familiar with Wonder Woman, just that she was one of the core trinity of the Justice League (alongside Batman and Superman).

Oddly enough, however, I walked out of the newest film with the same reaction as the Power Rangers reboot; in that, I surprisingly liked it!

The story? Princess Diana (Gal Gadot) is a warrior in training growing up on the island of Themyscira, an island solely populated by women. That is until one day, when a fighter plane crashes and she saves the pilot, Captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pines). He tells the Amazons that he is a soldier for the First World War and it's imperative that he gets information about a chemical weapon to the British military. Although they refuse to help him, Diana decides to go with him and fight in the war, believing that the Germans are under the influence of Ares, the God of War. All the while, said chemical weapon is being developed by Isabel Maru, a.k.a Dr Poison (Elena Ayana), and overseen by Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston).

The set-up is relatively simple, but it's definitely welcomed after the convoluted nature of Batman v Superman (which I refer to as Crazy Steve v Bearded Idiot) and the explosion of exposition from the first 20 minutes of Suicide Squad. It gives the audience enough of a backstory to understand what's going on, while also allowing enough time for the characters to start flourishing. This is something that none of the other films in the DCEU has been able to do thus far, which is a massive sigh of relief for me.

Another mark of improvement for this film is in the acting department. Gal Godot, for the first time since her casting, really sold me on her portrayal as Wonder Woman. She does show that her character is initially naive, with her beliefs that defeating Ares will suddenly stop the war, but it never goes too far with her being an utter idiot. There is the right balance of the kind and compassionate being who believes in humanity, and the warrior badass who is capable of holding her own. It never goes too far with either side, thus making her more, for lack of a better word, human. In fact, the acting all around is pretty solid. Chris Pines fits in snugly into his role as Wonder Woman's companion, Danny Huston is entertainingly over the top as Ludendorff, and even some of the minor roles such as Ayana as Dr Poison is surprisingly believable.

The action scenes, while still containing a lot of unnecessary slow motion, are also very well structured, fitting in seamlessly with the time period and working within the framework of the scenario. It's not just simply "have a fight wherever possible",a s was the case with the previous films; the fight scenes in the movie are mainly in battle grounds, namely the scene showcased in the trailer of Wonder Woman running through No Man's Land and giving the soldiers a chance to charge across the field without getting shot at.

The only legitimate criticism I can give to this movie is that, like the previous films, the main villain, Ares, is weak, underdeveloped and somewhat incompetent. This is where I will go into spoiler territory, so you have been warned.

For much of the film, Wonder Woman is under the impression that Ludendorff is the human form of Ares, manipulating the Germans to keep fighting in spite of the main generals wanting to sign the armistice that would end the conflict. However, as soon as she kills Ludendorff, it's revealed that Sir Morgan (David Thewlis), a man who has supported Steve and Diana to go to Germany, was the actual embodiment of Ares this entire time, manipulating both sides.

My problem with this? It comes right the Hell out of nowhere! There is literally NO build up to Morgan being Ares, nor does it make any sense. When we first meet Morgan, he's trying to convince the British generals that they must sign the armistice that will ultimately end the war. He claims to Diana that he's the God of Truth, but his method of manipulation involves altering the truth to his benefit and giving people the incentive to keep fighting. So why would his human disguise be trying to get this treaty signed if he actually wants the war to continue?

It also doesn't help that, until the last 15 minutes or so, Ares hasn't been seen in this movie outside of a mural showing him being defeated by Zeus. And yes, Diana is certain that Ludendorff is Ares, but we as the audience knew that couldn't be the truth because Ludendorff in this film was based on the real life German general Ludendorff, who died in 1937. It really is weak how they handled Ares, especially during the final fight where he is defeated with such relative ease and the only reason he stood toe to toe with Diana is that he just used the stuff around him as weapons.

Outside of that, however, the rest of the film is a legitimate solid effort, something that I was not expecting to say. I walked in to this film expecting it to suck, but I walked out of it pleasantly surprised. If Justice League is this good (which I highly doubt, given that we still don't have solo Cyborg, Aquaman and Flash movies yet), then this poorly started cinematic universe might actually have a chance of competing with Marvel (although, ironically, both cinematic universes suffer from weak villains. Weird).

Overall Rating: 8/10 (Great).

Until next time, this is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.