Directed by: Patty Jenkins
Written by: Allan Heinberg, Zack Snyder, Jason Fuchs
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya
The Josh Chop: I never watched the original TV show “Wonder Woman.” Honestly I’m not that interested. The clips I’ve seen appear corny and hokey. I was only slightly hesitant wanting to review this film, because I didn’t want to be disappointed afterward like other DC films. I never followed the Wonder Woman character, but she’s always intrigued me. From what I’ve learned about her doing research about her character before I saw the film I was really pumped to see this film. All I’ve gotta say is: get ready to see the best super hero film you’ve seen in a long time!
Diana is being raised by her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Nielsen) on Thymyscira. The island stands alone in a vast sea, but the surroundings are beautiful. Inhabitants of the island are the Amazons. Beautiful but tough women built to fight and defend the island. Diana is the only child on the island, so of course, everyone knows her. On top of that, she is the princess that her mother sculpted out of clay, yep clay. Hippolyta keeps Diana pretty sheltered as she’s raised. Of course, like any princess stuck on an island, she longs for more. She looks up to the other Amazons and the brave warriors they are.
Eventually Antiope (Wright) the Amazon’s war general, sees the great potential in Diana and secretly trains her to be a warrior. Soon Hippolyta discovers this and is not happy at all, but she decides that Diana should go all in and train ten times harder than any other Amazon. The training montages are great and show a diverse fighting skill that the Amazon’s practice and they are freakin’ bad ass!
As Diana (Gadot) grows older, her skills become better than that of her trainers and she surprises everyone with some skills that no other Amazon can do. Suddenly an airplane enters Thymyscira’s protected space only to crash land in the ocean not far off shore. Diana quickly jumps to action to save the pilot. Steve Trevor (Pine), a spy working undercover behind German lines, is pulled from the wreckage and carried to shore.
It’s discovered that Steve has stolen secret documents from the enemy’s powerful leaders: General Ludendorff (Huston) and his scary chemist, Dr. Maru (Anaya) aptly named “Doctor Poison.” Getting this intel to the British will help end the war for good, if Steve can only get it in the right hands. Soon the enemy that was chasing Steve emerges through the veil hiding Thymyscira and all hell breaks loose. The Amazon’s will protect their lands from men at any cost.
I would describe the fight scenes in the film to that of watching 300 for the first time (minus the gore and blood). If you thought the Spartans were bad ass, you haven’t seen the Amazons of Thymyscira fight! The choreography was intense and brilliant and very eye pleasing. It will be one of the most loved parts of the film to see a woman kicking ass better than even Batman could ever do.
Soon Steve and Diana are off to deliver the stolen documents to British commanders to help end the war. Diana is adamant that the god of war, Aries is behind the hatred that causes war and vows to destroy him and stop the war. But is it Aries or the nature of men that causes war? You decide.
Wonder Woman does not lag, and the story moves forward at a pretty brisk pace. At the end of the film I started thinking of everything that happened and am amazed they did it in two hours! The fight scenes are incredible and there is humor throughout. Between humor of the character in “the real world” and the sexual tension between Diana and Steve, this film has quite a few funny bits. I was expecting a corny hardy har har humor to it much like the Marvel films have done, but that is barely a problem for this DC film.
Diana (who is never referred to as Wonder Woman) is perfectly cast in my opinion. Gal Gadot is gorgeous and both men and women will swoon by her on screen presence. The film delivers twists that you wouldn’t expect, and what you see isn’t entirely what you think you’ll see. All in all, I really feel like DC knocked this one out the park, and I really can’t wait to see Wonder Woman in action again!
