Wonder Woman (2017 Film) Review
Wonder Woman stars Chris Pine, Lucy Davis, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, and of course, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman herself.
I suggest checking out the Kids-In-Mind article for this film. In it, we see Chris Pine semi-naked and there are a few sexual innuendos along with that too. I believe parents should know about that before taking young children to see this film.
On all accounts, this is one of the best superhero films of all time. I believe that Wonder Woman is better than half of the MCU films and is up there with Batman Begins, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians Vol. 2, The Incredibles, and X-Men: Days of Future Past as some of my favorite superhero films to date. That's due to the director, Patty Jenkins, and this individual's performance...
Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
Christopher Reeve, Hugh Jackman, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Christian Bale all have their own iconic superhero roles as Superman, Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, and Batman respectively. Gal Gadot definitely joins that list among those actors as she owns the role of Wonder Woman. After seeing this film, it's clear that there couldn't have been a better actor for the role. If you thought she was good with her few scenes in Batman v Superman, you ain't nothing yet.
Gal Gadot's performance is outstanding. She does a wonderful job portraying the naiveness of the character as well as the passionate and spirited part of the character. I found her to be always engaging and very likeable. Except for when she was stubborn and she was one or two times. The best thing about the character was that she was so kind and nice. It amplified my enjoyment of Gal Gadot's acting. Nowadays, the hero would brooding or secretive when it came to emotions so it was nice to see a hero that was kind and happy. I don't think we've really seen that since Christopher Reeve was Superman. Speaking of Christopher Reeve's Superman, the film has a few homages to that original film. Director Patty Jenkins has stated that film was one of her inspirations when doing Wonder Woman and she does one or two nods to that. It's a nice tip of the hat to that older film.
Though there aren't many action scenes, her power sets were incredible. Speaking of incredible, during her action scenes, she was smashing through things and lifting things up like an actual Hulk. Part of me wanted to cut to the soldier's faces as they react to their oponent smashing things up like that. That would've been hilarious to see, but I think that would've been out of tone.
While I'm mentioning her bursting through things like a Hulk, I was worried that I had already seen everything that Wonder Woman could do in terms of power set. Much to my delight, I learned constantly throughout that that was not the case. There were a lot of new things that she did that surprised me every time. I was confused about one thing though. Can Wonder Woman fly? It looked like she could jump long distances but not actually fly. Though at the very end, she seemed to fly because she was high in the sky for quite a while. I guess we'll have to see when she's in Justice League this November.
Despite this film being Wonder Woman's movie, I felt that the male coleads weren't underdeveloped or overshadowed in any way. All of them had their own personalities/backstories. No stone went unturned when it came to developing those characters.
Chris Pine was a fantastic choice for this character. I enjoy the actor from his portrayals as Captain James T. Kirk in the recent Star Trek films and I believe that I spotted some similarities between that character and the character he plays here, Steve Trevor.
I ended up being surprised on how the character was treated. Usually, the assistant to the hero would be a simple love interest and not have anything else to offer. That was not the case here. This may be called Wonder Woman, but Steve Trevor was as crucial to the story as Wonder Woman herself. Maybe I'm reaching, but I do believe that this character was important to the story. The character was essential because he has a lot of impact on how Diana would view the world.
He did help a lot in the action sequences and I was surprised how skilled the character was at shooting. There were scenes where he'd shoot someone without even looking at his victim. It was nice that even though Diana was leading through the fight, Steve did contribute any way he could.
As for the romance, I actually liked it. To be honest, it didn't seem like there was any romance between the two at first. However, as the movie progressed and as the characters got to know each other, it became more apparent. The thing that surprised me about the romance was that it didn't get in the way of the film. For me, in any other comic book film, the romance would either take time away from the story or it'd be so obvious and forced, but with this, it blended in nicely with the story. Maybe that's because of the two performances or just how well the pacing flowed. It could be both. Here's an interesting link that further explains the uniqueness of Steve Trevor's role in this film.
This was the one area where I think the movie didn't do so well. I thought the villains were pretty medium. The DCEU hasn't had a lot of good villains yet. I enjoyed General Zod and Lex Luthor, but one of the two didn't make it till the credits, and Enchantress was as bad as the worst villains that the MCU has come up with.
Erich Ludendorff and Doctor Poison weren't particular good villains either. Probably because they didn't have very good scenes. Both of them did some menacing things, but that was taken away by some of the goofy lines they had and the fact that they didn't do much.
The acting from both of them wasn't good. It didn't help that Elena Anaya had to act with a prosthetic that made her hard to understand, but with her character, she didn't have much to offer, outside of the doomsday weapon. There was nothing else that the character did to make her a prominent in the story.
The same thing with Danny Huston's character. He just served one purpose and then his character is forgotten. That's all he had to offer. I enjoyed the other surprise villain that was revealed, but when it came to these two, I didn't enjoy them. I also thought that the "surprise" was pretty obvious though. Let me know how long it took you to figure out.
The way that Themyscira, Wonder Woman's home, is described in the film is a sort of heaven on Earth kind of place. I completely agree. That place was beautiful. The ocean surrounding it was amazing and the buildings were expertly crafted. They must have some talented builders on that island. I agree with Diana's mother, who would want to leave that place? Speaking of leaving, why doesn't Diana come back? Why does she have to stay in our world? If there's something that's keeping her from coming back, they didn't cover that in the film.
As for the Amazons themselves, of course we didn't get to know any of them, minus Diana's mother. She was the typical overprotective parent that we've seen hundreds of times in other films. She didn't do anything else but play that part.
When watching the film for the first time, my dad pointed out to me that Robin Wright, a.k.a Buttercup from the Princess Bride, plays the General, Antiope, in the film and to me, she looked like she's fought many R.O.U.S's. It's no surprise that the fighting skills that were on display by her and her comrades were mighty impressive considering those are the people who trained Diana.
Gal Gadot's performance is outstanding. She does a wonderful job portraying the naiveness of the character as well as the passionate and spirited part of the character. I found her to be always engaging and very likeable. Except for when she was stubborn and she was one or two times. The best thing about the character was that she was so kind and nice. It amplified my enjoyment of Gal Gadot's acting. Nowadays, the hero would brooding or secretive when it came to emotions so it was nice to see a hero that was kind and happy. I don't think we've really seen that since Christopher Reeve was Superman. Speaking of Christopher Reeve's Superman, the film has a few homages to that original film. Director Patty Jenkins has stated that film was one of her inspirations when doing Wonder Woman and she does one or two nods to that. It's a nice tip of the hat to that older film.
Though there aren't many action scenes, her power sets were incredible. Speaking of incredible, during her action scenes, she was smashing through things and lifting things up like an actual Hulk. Part of me wanted to cut to the soldier's faces as they react to their oponent smashing things up like that. That would've been hilarious to see, but I think that would've been out of tone.
While I'm mentioning her bursting through things like a Hulk, I was worried that I had already seen everything that Wonder Woman could do in terms of power set. Much to my delight, I learned constantly throughout that that was not the case. There were a lot of new things that she did that surprised me every time. I was confused about one thing though. Can Wonder Woman fly? It looked like she could jump long distances but not actually fly. Though at the very end, she seemed to fly because she was high in the sky for quite a while. I guess we'll have to see when she's in Justice League this November.
Steve Trevor
Despite this film being Wonder Woman's movie, I felt that the male coleads weren't underdeveloped or overshadowed in any way. All of them had their own personalities/backstories. No stone went unturned when it came to developing those characters.
Chris Pine was a fantastic choice for this character. I enjoy the actor from his portrayals as Captain James T. Kirk in the recent Star Trek films and I believe that I spotted some similarities between that character and the character he plays here, Steve Trevor.
I ended up being surprised on how the character was treated. Usually, the assistant to the hero would be a simple love interest and not have anything else to offer. That was not the case here. This may be called Wonder Woman, but Steve Trevor was as crucial to the story as Wonder Woman herself. Maybe I'm reaching, but I do believe that this character was important to the story. The character was essential because he has a lot of impact on how Diana would view the world.
He did help a lot in the action sequences and I was surprised how skilled the character was at shooting. There were scenes where he'd shoot someone without even looking at his victim. It was nice that even though Diana was leading through the fight, Steve did contribute any way he could.
As for the romance, I actually liked it. To be honest, it didn't seem like there was any romance between the two at first. However, as the movie progressed and as the characters got to know each other, it became more apparent. The thing that surprised me about the romance was that it didn't get in the way of the film. For me, in any other comic book film, the romance would either take time away from the story or it'd be so obvious and forced, but with this, it blended in nicely with the story. Maybe that's because of the two performances or just how well the pacing flowed. It could be both. Here's an interesting link that further explains the uniqueness of Steve Trevor's role in this film.
General Erich Ludendorff and Doctor Poison
This was the one area where I think the movie didn't do so well. I thought the villains were pretty medium. The DCEU hasn't had a lot of good villains yet. I enjoyed General Zod and Lex Luthor, but one of the two didn't make it till the credits, and Enchantress was as bad as the worst villains that the MCU has come up with.Erich Ludendorff and Doctor Poison weren't particular good villains either. Probably because they didn't have very good scenes. Both of them did some menacing things, but that was taken away by some of the goofy lines they had and the fact that they didn't do much.
The acting from both of them wasn't good. It didn't help that Elena Anaya had to act with a prosthetic that made her hard to understand, but with her character, she didn't have much to offer, outside of the doomsday weapon. There was nothing else that the character did to make her a prominent in the story.
The same thing with Danny Huston's character. He just served one purpose and then his character is forgotten. That's all he had to offer. I enjoyed the other surprise villain that was revealed, but when it came to these two, I didn't enjoy them. I also thought that the "surprise" was pretty obvious though. Let me know how long it took you to figure out.
The Amazons
The way that Themyscira, Wonder Woman's home, is described in the film is a sort of heaven on Earth kind of place. I completely agree. That place was beautiful. The ocean surrounding it was amazing and the buildings were expertly crafted. They must have some talented builders on that island. I agree with Diana's mother, who would want to leave that place? Speaking of leaving, why doesn't Diana come back? Why does she have to stay in our world? If there's something that's keeping her from coming back, they didn't cover that in the film.
As for the Amazons themselves, of course we didn't get to know any of them, minus Diana's mother. She was the typical overprotective parent that we've seen hundreds of times in other films. She didn't do anything else but play that part.When watching the film for the first time, my dad pointed out to me that Robin Wright, a.k.a Buttercup from the Princess Bride, plays the General, Antiope, in the film and to me, she looked like she's fought many R.O.U.S's. It's no surprise that the fighting skills that were on display by her and her comrades were mighty impressive considering those are the people who trained Diana.
Action, Effects, and Music
Now you guys may think that a superhero movie would be the perfect time to have loads of action sequences stuffed in as possible, right? Wrong.
While watching the film, I was wondering where all the action sequences went. This film does not have a lot of action scenes in it. There are about one or two in the film and that's about it. I wasn't disappointed, were you? I believe that because there weren't a lot of action scenes, that meant that the story was more than capable of carrying the audience's attention. I wasn't a fan of the third act. It was a little too CGI heavy for my taste, and I found it too reminiscent of the Batman v Superman final action sequence.
The effects were fine in the beginning of the film. It helped improve the spectacle of it, which to be fair, did its job. When it came to the third act finale, the CGI was way overdone. You could tell that it was CGI. It wasn't like the first two halves where it was seamless between the two and it wasn't clear what was real and what was fake. There was also that one part in the beginning of the film where it was clear that the actor was on wires in front of a green screen. Other than those issues, the CGI was beautiful.
Every superhero has its own great theme and Wonder Woman certainly has hers. When she was introduced in Batman v Superman, so was her theme and since then, it has joined my book as one of the best theme songs for a hero. With her film, not only is her theme present throughout many scenes of the film, but a very smooth, yet archaic, score composed by Rupert Greyson-Williams. This guy has done a few lesser-known scores for some animated films as well as a few Adam Sandler features here and there. He was also responsible for composing The Legend of Tarzan's score from last year and I think that he'll get a big boost from his work on Wonder Woman. The soundtrack hits all the right beats. It's heroic and adventurous, dramatic and deep, it's very much everything you want from a great superhero score.
While watching the film, I was wondering where all the action sequences went. This film does not have a lot of action scenes in it. There are about one or two in the film and that's about it. I wasn't disappointed, were you? I believe that because there weren't a lot of action scenes, that meant that the story was more than capable of carrying the audience's attention. I wasn't a fan of the third act. It was a little too CGI heavy for my taste, and I found it too reminiscent of the Batman v Superman final action sequence.
The effects were fine in the beginning of the film. It helped improve the spectacle of it, which to be fair, did its job. When it came to the third act finale, the CGI was way overdone. You could tell that it was CGI. It wasn't like the first two halves where it was seamless between the two and it wasn't clear what was real and what was fake. There was also that one part in the beginning of the film where it was clear that the actor was on wires in front of a green screen. Other than those issues, the CGI was beautiful.Every superhero has its own great theme and Wonder Woman certainly has hers. When she was introduced in Batman v Superman, so was her theme and since then, it has joined my book as one of the best theme songs for a hero. With her film, not only is her theme present throughout many scenes of the film, but a very smooth, yet archaic, score composed by Rupert Greyson-Williams. This guy has done a few lesser-known scores for some animated films as well as a few Adam Sandler features here and there. He was also responsible for composing The Legend of Tarzan's score from last year and I think that he'll get a big boost from his work on Wonder Woman. The soundtrack hits all the right beats. It's heroic and adventurous, dramatic and deep, it's very much everything you want from a great superhero score.Grade: A-
So you should definitely go see Wonder Woman. It's worth every penny that you spend on it. If you haven't seen the previous DCEU entries, that's okay. The film is very set apart from those other three films. If you go see this without seeing those other films, you won't feel like you're missing out on anything. That being said, it does benefit you if you see her scenes in Batman v Superman. That would actually be better to do either before or after seeing this film. Congratulations to Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot for doing a wonderful job and good luck to Justice League.
Should you see this in 3D? I saw this two times in the theater. Once in IMAX 3D and another in 2D. The film does benefit from the IMAX part, but the 3D part, not so much. It was good, but not necessary to the viewing experience. You could see this in 2D and still have a spectacular viewing experience. I did when I saw it a second time in 2D. This wasn't like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 where it was necessary to see it in 3D.
So that's my review of Wonder Woman. If you've seen it, tell me what you thought of it. Let me know what you thought of my review and what you would grade the film. Share this with your friends. Thanks for reading, I'm the Film Fanatic, bye-bye.
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