Wonder Woman - The Film The Character Deserved

Certificate – 12A

Director – Patty Jenkins

Starring – Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, David Thewlis, Ewen Bremner, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Said Taghmaoui, Eugene Brave Rock, Lucy Davis.

Running Time – 141 minutes (2 hours 21 minutes)

★★★★½

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For many, many reasons Wonder Woman had a lot riding on it and with complete utter joy. All I can say is thank you Patty Jenkins for giving us a truly brilliant film.

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana (Gadot), princess of the Amazons, raised on a sheltered island paradise and trained to be an unconquerable warrior. But when an American pilot (Pine) crashes off their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside men in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers….and her true destroy.

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The best way to describe Gadot’s performance is she is Wonder Woman. Her performance is understated, pure, power and charismatic. Meanwhile, her face acting is some of the best in Hollywood, she really expresses empathy wonderfully and her chemistry with Pine especially when it comes to their comedic timing.

Speaking of Pine, he’s the film's secret weapon as Steve Trevor. He’s the human eyes we see Diana and gives one of his best performances ever (up there with Hell or High Water) with brilliant comic timing. Pine’s humour is needed during an awful time in the world and in one scene is very James Bond-esque.

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I liked all of Diana’s gang and their chemistry together works really well. Elsewhere, the Amazons were awesome and badass I want to be one, especially if it means being Robin Wright.

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This one of the many great things Jenkins did brilliantly; she gave every character some personality and depth from Lucy Davis’ Etta Candy to Connie Nielson as Queen Hippolyta. We had some time to connect to each character and I would've been happy to spend some more time with Diana's gang. Plus, I may have fallen in love with Nielson a little bit.

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If this film’s heartbeat was split into three parts – third Gadot, third Pine – the final third part would have to be Jenkins. It’s her love for Wonder Woman (and Richard Donner ‘s Superman) that makes this film so special and the way she handle’s action is, much like her fellow Amazons, badass.

The depiction of Themyscira is just utterly beautiful and blues of the sea and sky really pop and Jenkins shows why it’s called Paradise Island.

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Another superb element of the movie is Rupert Greyson-Williams score and it’s as incredible as the film, it has a perfect balance of strength and hope. It reminds me a lot of Hans Zimmer’s Man of Steel score.

Furthermore, Greyson-Williams did the smart thing by not overdoing the Wonder Woman theme and when it kicks in, it comes in the most perfect way in one of the most emotional and awesome action sequences I’ve ever seen.

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I only have two nit-picky issues, first is Huston and Anaya villains as they did come across as cheesy and while it did work in most scenes, the slow-mo was sometimes overused.

Verdict

This will go down as one of the great superhero films (alongside Logan and The Dark Knight). Emotional, delicate, awesome and badass, ladies and gentleman I give you Wonder Woman.