I swear I'll eventually review something that isn't a DC movie, see, the first review I did was Batman v. Superman, which I felt compelled to do because it made me angry, so basically, I mostly do reviews to vent when I'm pissed off at something. with the exception of The Killing Joke, which I thought was all right, but I still wanted to get some frustration out from that god-awful first act, so you'd probably be forgiven for thinking I'm an unpleasable twat who doesn't like anything. Not necessarily true, but I don't feel motivated to write about good stuff, (unless I'm ranking things in listicle form, like I did with the MCU that one time) but this here is an exception, because with the amount I've been ragging on the Warner Bros DC Comics movies, it feels like I'd be remissed if I didn't at least make it known what I thought of Wonder Woman.
I've wanted the DC Comics films to be good for what seems like forever now, Fairly or unfairly DC and Marvel movies are, and will continue to be seen by the general superhero film fandom as direct competitors to each other. To that end Marvel seems to manage a consistent level of quality, with the occasional spike, but not many serious lows to speak of (maybe one or two, depending on how you feel about the Iron Man sequels, 2 was kinda bad.)
Now, in terms of DC movies, I didn't hate Man of Steel, but it wasn't particularly good, and the two follow-ups were a crime against filmmaking, and an incomprehensible mess respectively. (Let's be fair, Suicide Squad never stood a chance with all the studio interference. Even so it managed to not be boring at the very least.)
It looks a lot like I'm taking sides and fanboying here, but I'm not, fun to watch though the occasional one-sided beat-down is, a prolonged one is just depressing, especially since DC have a lot of properties I really like the idea of.
So, while I was waiting on the review scores for Wonder Woman (it's fine if you don't care about those, and I don't always agree with them myself but I mostly tend to find that if the majority of critics say something is shit, it normally is.) I was understandably waiting with baited breath as it were, and then it emerges in the high 90s, to eventually settle on 93% approval by critics and fans alike at time of writing on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yep, I was very happy to hear that Wonder Woman had apparently broken the combo of god-awful comic book movies from Warner Brothers and might be the turning point for their entire franchise (I devoutly hope this proves to be the case.)
But enough about my caring far too much about the quality of a product that was bound to do well regardless of how good or bad it was, on with the actual review.
So, short, and spoiler-free version, yeah, it's good. Not just good for a DCEU movie, but a genuinely good film in its own right that easily stands with the upper eschelon of the Superhero genre, it's not Avengers, or Logan good, but it's solidly Captain America: The First Avenger or X-Men: First Class good. (if you need more clarification there, First Avenger is in the top 5 of my MCU ranking post, and, I haven't written it yet, but First Class is currently planned to be in the top 3 of my upcoming X-Men ranking post.)
Now for the more in-depth review, there will probably be spoilers at some point after this, so if you haven't seen it yet, close this page and see it, it's worth doing. If you've seen it already, or don't care about spoilers, by all means read on.
Okay so to start off, the film makes excellent use of a cast of great actors (and Chris Pine) I wasn't sure about Gal Gadot for the part of Wonder Woman when I first heard about it, but she is a legitimate discovery and possibly the best casting choice of the DCEU so far. (I'll need to see Batfleck in a better film before I can make an unbiased appraisal of that) the direction of Patty Jenkins deserves its fair share of the credit for that, Any director who can, among many other things, get a memorable performance from Chris Pine and work this well with child actors, is something special.
The child actors to which I refer are the two who played the little girl version of Diana/Wonder Woman herself, now, anyone who knows me knows I'm not a big fan of kids (smug little bastards is what they are) so it's especially noteworthy that this one managed to put an honest-to-God smile on my face. Little-Diana running away from her handler to go and watch the Amazonian warriors training and imitate them like she thinks it's the coolest thing ever is just friggin' adorable. she looked really into it and her delivery of dialogue sounded surprisingly natural for a child actor.
This film hits the ground running straight away with its presentation, the soundtrack, in general, elevates most everything (though it has to be said the placement of Hans Zimmer's Wonder Woman theme song in certain scenes is occasionally a bit jarring) and the visuals are striking in a way not usually seen in DCEU movies, in particular the aesthetic of Themyscira radiates a very Greek version of Idealism, everything there is bright, colourful and basically the perfect locale for a summer home. Which provides a stark contrast for the (much more in-keeping with DCEU aesthetics) grey and murky look of 1918 London later in the film, A contrast so powerful Diana even feels the need to comment on it, and manages to do so without it feeling forced.
I'm trying to avoid comparing this to the other DCEU movies, mostly because there is no comparison to be made, but it's difficult not to when you know it's attached to them, also Superhero films have reached a certain point in film appraisal, I think, that the only meaningful way to offer a frame of reference for quality to the casual observer is to compare them to other examples of the genre. So if I end up bashing the other DC films in comparison to this one, that's not intentional, but it may well happen.
With that said, the dialogue, for once in this franchise, feels like it was written by someone over twelve years old who has held a conversation at least once in their life, so it's already the best yet, and then it goes beyond that and actually becomes good. The characters all came across as relatable and in their own way likeable (at least the ones that were supposed to, even Chris Pine) the WWI era attitude towards women is obviously present, but mercifully kept to a reasonable level so as not to overpower the tone of the film, which, despite the often grim visuals and themes, is decidedly upbeat and optimistic for the most part,
The overall reduction in grimdark, in case you're not getting this, is a welcome breath of fresh air for me. my overall opinion of the DCEU so far in brief is that the movies tend to be oppressively dark, exhaustingly long, and nowhere near sophisticated enough to excuse either. All of this would be okay if it weren't for how unfalteringly seriously they tend to take themselves. This is not to say Wonder Woman doesn't take itself seriously, but there are plenty of laughs to be had, the script is tight, clever, and caters to its target audience without at any point crossing over into pandering territory.
In summary, Wonder Woman is not the film the DCEU deserves, but by god, it was the one it needed. Definitely go and see this one
