Wonder woman, directed by Patty Jenkins is the fourth movie in the DC extended universe, a universe which means a lot to a lot of people and which doesn't mean so much for the critics yet. This movie had to be many things for a wide variety of people, it had to be kick-ass female superhero origin story for girls and women, it had to be a good comic book movie with lots of easter eggs for fans, it had to be a decent movie for the critics, and it had to be a very bad movie so that the DCEU could be wrapped up for some hardcore Marvel fans. It managed to do every single of those except the last part, DCEU is far from finished my dear friends.
We were already introduced to Wonder Woman, Diana Prince in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice. She was a major reason for Doomsday's defeat and looks like she's going to start the justice league along with Bruce Wayne. Batman v Superman got mixed reviews but one thing that people mutually liked was Diana's introduction in the battlefield.
The movie is essentially an origin story for Diana Prince, and it starts off with little Diana who shows a lot of interest in fighting even when she was a kid. Diana is from an island called as Themiscyra, a place filled with Amazonian women who just fight and train, getting prepared for future threats. Diana is raised by the queen of the Amazons, Queen Hippolyta who's very concerned about little Diana's safety. Diana is particularly fond of her aunt Antiope, her aunt and the general of the Amazons who cuts her some slack, trains her to defend herself and teaches her some martial arts.
Things change when Steve Trevor, a British intelligence agent accidentally lands on the bay of the island and is later rescued by Diana. This is where the movie picks up some pace, Diana a girl who knows nothing of the outside world all of a sudden comes to know about a war that is taking place. She feels that her talents should be put to use and that mankind must be saved. Hippolyta warns her that the world doesn't deserve Diana and that she must not leave. After some protest, Diana finally leaves Themiscyra along with Steve for the war. She's eager to save mankind but at the same time, she's a fish out of wter. According to Diana, only two types of people exist in the world, good and bad so the fact that even the people she fights for could be a mixture of both is very hard for her to digest.
Steve Trevor is played by Chris Pine and DC could not have found a better person to cast as Steve. He quickly understands Diana's attitude and is very patient with her, at the same time lets her go outside and kick some ass. For a PG-13 movie there are some pretty interesting jokes here which fell into place perfectly. The chemistry between Chris and Diana is so magnetic and natural, and you'll just keep wanting more of it. My only regret is that I saw so little of them.
Let's talk about Gal, she was cast as wonder woman sometime around 2013 and there weren't a lot of fans supporting the casting choice. Gal Gadot has served the Israeli army and she's a model, basically a mixture of both beauty and beast. A large portion of the movie was shot while she was pregnant and her commitment to the role is applaudable. A lot of people complained about her accent and her skinny body and Gal has proved the haters wrong. I wouldn't say that Gal is the perfect casting choice for wonder woman but the way she has adapted to tricky conditions is something which has definitely earned my respect for her. I loved her performance in Batman v Superman and there are some scenes where she has acted so well in wonder woman, so there are absolutely no issues when it comes to accent or acting, personally, I find her accent to be unique and attractive. Overall, a great casting choice and an extraordinary performance from Gal, I can't wait to see more of her in justice league.
The other notable members of the cast include Connie Nielsen as wonder woman's mother and Queen Hippolyta and Robin Wright as Antiope. I loved Robin Wright as Hippolyta, all I know about her is that she says 'run Forrest run' who knew she herself could run like a beast and take down dozens of men like a boss. I was astounded with her performance and all the other girls have worked real hard for this, looking ripped and all. But Robin Wright in particular, 51 years old and still managing to give us such an outstanding performance, proving that age is just a number.
Patty Jenkins has directed this movie and it's nice to see a female director getting a big budget film and doing a remarkable job with the resources she has. She's a big fan of the Christopher Reeve Superman series and there are some scenes which are very reminiscent of the 1978 Superman movie. The studio executives are very pleased with the response and it's only a matter of time until she signs up for part 2.
This movie has a 93% score on rotten tomatoes and has been doing a great job at the box office. The movie is being loved by both fans and critics and a huge hit at the box office. Personally, I really liked this film, the story was very coherent Gal was beautiful and did a great job with the action scenes, Chris Pine's dialogue delivery was remarkable and there were a lot of jokes to keep us engaged. There is still some epicness missing somewhere. We get to experience another huge finale just like the other DC movies but towards the end, but I was left with wanting more. I would have loved to see more of Diana and Steve together, I would have loved to see more world war fight scenes and once again, just like many other superhero films, there's a villain problem. It was announced long back that David Thewlis will be playing Ares the god of war but there were too many supernatural elements in it. I feel like they could have taken a little more time explaining them and the villain turned out to be pretty stereotypical. Like Man of Steel, this does feel like an Elseworld story, leaving behind some loose ends. So personally, I won't rate this better than Batman v Superman or man of steel. Perhaps the reason I feel this way is because I am a huge fan of the dark knight and the man of steel. Wonder woman is definitely an amazing film, but not something which even comes close to the likes of the dark knight, so all those claiming that it's better than dark knight, or any of the Nolan trilogy films for that matter, please stop.
I wanted a tease to the justice league, I wanted to see some more Easter eggs, since they are introducing mystical stuff, they could have maybe teased us some Doctor Fate or the possibility of a Shazam existing in the same universe. I know that things get messy if you start introducing more characters and that you should stick to the plot but this is a comic book movie and a tease wouldn't have done much harm.
Before winding up, I'd like to just make a statement. I never really bothered about the rotten tomatoes ratings for Batman v Superman and man of steel, I still think both those movies are epic in their own way so the fact that this movie got a 93% doesn't really mean a lot for me. DCEU never needed saving from the fans, it was never a sinking ship, the fans wouldn't let that happen. Maybe it mattered to WB but I'm not a WB executive so I don't really care about the scores. It's good to see such high ratings but I believe that our individual opinions matter more than the opinion of a critic. I'm reviewing this nearly two weeks since its release, so I went in seeing all those ratings expecting a lot more than what I got to see.
A lot of work goes into making a movie, if you're interested you should go see it and a bad rating shouldn't stop you from seeing something you were excited for or a trailer that got you hyped. This would do justice to both the filmmakers and ourselves.Wonder woman is a great addition to the DCEU, it has certainly earned her a lot of fans, people are going to celebrate this year's Halloween with a blast and I'm happy that there is a new era of female superhero fans that this movie is going to give rise to in turn widening the possibility of future female led superhero films. A fantastic job by Patty Jenkins, Gal proved the haters wrong and Chris Pine was 'above average'
Verdict:
Fan in me: 8/10
Fan in me: 8/10
Critic in me: 7.8/10
One thing which can be fixed in the upcoming DC movies is putting some more jokes here and there, I loved the jokes in this one. It didn't feel like they were trying to copy Marvel and the future DC films should make a note of them. Wonder woman talking about the reproductive system was wonderful. I would love to see some come from Batman and Superman too. This universe has given insane powers to all the heroes in terms of speed, strength and agility, it just makes us more excited to imagine what would happen if they come together and what kind of a threat they must be facing.
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