BurtonReviews Wonder Woman: Gal Power

(Image sourced from https://teaser-trailer.com/movie/wonder-woman/)

The DCEU (DC Extended Universe (because Cinematic Universe was taken I guess)) has had a rocky road since its inception with no movie yet released: Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman, Suicide Squad; being awarded a freshly picked tomato or positive review from the vast majority of critics. While this site has enjoyed to loved the current crop DC’s cinematic offerings, BurtonReviews has felt very alone in its wide eyed opinions on the movies listed above. But while Batman Vs Superman was mercilessly beaten by the internet, there were two factors that were always praised for actually being pretty freakin cool. And one of them was for the DCEU’s interpretation of the badass woman from paradise – Wonder Woman. So it would only make sense that putting such a well-received character into their own standalone adventure would be welcomed by an overwhelmingly positive response…right? RIGHT? Come on. Please. The DCEU really needs a win here.

(Video Sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ-tHfROu0Y)

The story of Wonder Woman shows us the origins of the badass, shield and sword wielding goddess that kind of randomly just popped up in the BVS finale just to show off how cool she was really. Oh and save the world I guess. But here we get to see her humble origins as the princess of a mythical island of warrior women, a kind of no stinky boys treehouse, which has been hidden to the world by the daddy of all Greek gods Zeus. Well that is until a German warship following an escaping spy happen to stumble onto the hidden paradise of Themyscira. Wonder Woman, or Diana, saves the spy and learns of the terrible war raging across the rest of the world, the war to end all wars, or as we know it now, World War 1. Compelled by her innate goodness and an immeasurable amount of courage, Diana leaves her paradise of a home to help the world of man and stop the war by killing Ares, the god of war; who she believes is corrupting man’s heart and manipulating them into such a savage and bloody period of time of human history. It’s a one woman against the world story. Well one woman with super human strength, indestructible gauntlets, a helpful shield and god-killing sword, against the world. Think we’re in safe hands.

Continuing on from BVS, Gal Gadot is still incredible as the titular Wonder Woman. While in BVS she effortlessly played a much colder and more reluctant ambassador of hope and badassery, here Gadot gets to explore a younger, more naïve Diana, one who is full of bristling with hope for a world ruled by peace and love and just so happens to be a superpowerd tank of a woman. Gadot not only makes the age down of her immortal character by just over a century believable, but she also perfectly embodies the uncorrupted, perfect vision of what we should all strive to be like. Never does she give a line that could have been cheesy in a cringe worthy or eye rolling manner. And when Diana sees the horrors of the world, and even worse war, for the first time ever you really feel not only her despair, but also her overwhelming need to help and those in need. A factor that right now, makes her the most heroic titan of the DCEU to date.

However while it is great to see Gadot again take up the tiara of Wonder Woman, there was a lingering question that  seemed to take the steam out of this movies impact and importance. Did this movie actually need to be done? We’ve already met the character, we already know how badass she is, and we are definitely going to see her again progressing through modern times and becoming less cold, and more like the hope filled heroic Wonder Woman we all know and love from the comics. So did we need to see an origin story of her in a completely different time period with events can pretty much guess how they are going to play out, and with characters that we pretty much know how they are going to end up. While the film is a great time and is definitely nothing less than really enjoyable, this is a reality that took away from how momentous it should be seeing Wonder Woman suit up for the first time.

(Image sourced from http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/wonder-woman/feature/a780712/wonder-woman-movie-2017-cast-trailer-costume-plot-release-date-and-everything-you-need-to-know/)

However, saying all of that, I am happy that we got this story for one important and charming reason – Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, the before mentioned running spy saved by Diana and the one to introduce her to the world of man and war. Chris Pine was the perfect choice for this role, and with his performances in last year’s Star Trek Beyond and Hell or High water becoming an actor to watch out for, his comedic and completely understandable reactions to an island full of warrior women that was created and protected by the Greek god Zeus not only give the over the top comicbookey story a much needed note of levity, but also make Steve the most relatable character in the cast. From this instant story connection with the character, the romance of the movie becomes not only believable but also engaging, and the final moments of the movie a lot more emotional and heart wrenching. All of this is in no small part because of Pine’s unrelenting charisma that in many scenes was able to steal the show from the flipping and kicking super powered Amazonian.

Speaking of an island filled with warrior women, another thing this movie does great is introduce us to Wonder Woman’s sun soaked home of Themyscira. Somehow this movie slips in this land of gods and immortal women in such a cohesive way that it doesn’t rock the DCEU boat. After seeing this movie I can totally believe that the gritty and down to earth world of the Batfleck can totally exist on the same planet as the heightened world of Wonder Woman that is normally seen in legends.

And said legends of this land being a paradise are no exaggeration. Themyscira looks beautiful, from the gorgeous and always perfectly sunny location they found to become this home of hope and peace, to the strangely accurate and cool Roman-esque armour the Amazonian women wore to train and to fight for their home, Themyscira feels like a living and breathing world unto its own and seamlessly fits into the DCEU mythos, even if it was done so a little bit too expositionally.

(Image sourced from http://www.abandomoviez.net/noticia.php?film=26134)

And the awesome imagery seen on Themyscira in the first act of the movie does not stop there. Patty Jenkins not only continues to uphold the grainy and palpable house style of the DCEU movies that was created and perfected from Man of steel through to BVS, but she also finds ways to make World War 1, a period of history that has been depicted on film many times before, look fresh and hauntingly beautiful. Seeing Wonder Woman walk through the trenches, every inch of the screen oozed how dire and desperate the situation was out there. When Wonder Woman finally suits up and enters no man’s land, her bright costume juxtaposing against the bleak and war torn land she is wading through brings not only a sense sadness from how a once beautiful land has been destroyed so much, but also hope through Wonder Woman, that this beauty can be saved, nurtured and allowed to breathe again.

And this great imagery continues into how the close quarter fights of Wonder Woman were shot. While there aren’t a lot of these scenes, only really two that really showed how effective at taking a man down in a second an Amazonian woman can be; when it was time for Wonder Woman to flex her muscles, it was an intense burst of uncontainable fury. Her unique set of weapons not really seen in the superhero genre gave her combat a unique twist to not make her fights just more run of the mill action set pieces, and the way Jenkins incorporated slow motion to really emphasise the power that is bustling inside of this woman just waiting to explode out, was just damn freakin cool.

(Image sourced from http://www.hdwallpapers.in/wonder_woman_4k_8k-wallpapers.html)

 

However while the hand to hand/weapon to weapon fights seen at the beginning and middle of this movie were enthralling showcases of Themyscira beat downs, the climactic battle of Wonder Woman leaves a lot to be desired. Not only does it devolve Wonder Woman’s before intricate fighting style into the typical strong punches that fling the fighters from left to right over and over again making it an uninteresting battle that frankly was overshadowed by the much more simple and emotionally engrossing B plot of the action scene; but it also highlights a problem with the whole movie. The fight between Ares and Wonder Woman at the end of the movie is so bland because we don’t know the boundaries of either opponent’s powers.  How strong is Wonder Woman? Can she fly? What do those gauntlets actually do? None of these questions are smartly answered throughout the film through subtle dialogue or show not tell moments, so in the end fight you are just left seeing two mounds of indecipherable power bashed together until I guess one won because they were stronger? Or were they smarter and worked around the power? Or was this just an excuse for the baffling amount of destruction that the DCEU movies like to throw into their final acts? I guess we’ll never know.

Another question this movie doesn’t quite seem to answer is one that was prominently posed in BVS. Why did Wonder Woman turn her back on the world of man for so long? Without spoiling anything, by the end of the film, Diana doesn’t really have a reason to be so cold and distant with the rest of humanity, in-fact she has more of a reason to stay and become the symbol of hope and peace she is so perfect at being, but that clearly didn’t happen. While my nerdy head cannon has already filled in the gaping hole left by DCEU, it really shouldn’t have to as it was basically this movie’s job to fill in the blanks and the whole reason it was made. At least that’s what I thought.

Overall Wonder Woman isn’t a mind-blowing, runaway success that everyone should run out and see, but it is a solidly good and entertaining super hero film that looks incredible, has a charismatic and almost perfectly casted set of characters, and shines alight on a whole new and interesting female lead corner of the DCEU.

Wonder Woman = 7/10

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