Rent Wonder Woman (2017)

Girlfight! - Wonder Woman review by Count Otto Black

This movie has been praised to the skies, but does it live up to the hype? I had my doubts whether it would. Some of the reasons it's hailed as a masterpiece are so strange they're almost desperate. The first movie about a female superhero directed by a woman? So what! I can only think of three others directed by anybody, and one of them's "Catwoman"! Well, the good news is it's not bad. The bad news is it only looks like a masterpiece in comparison with the sheer dismalness of everything else the DC Cinematic Universe has coiled out. And I think that has less to do with director Patty Jenkins being a woman than the slightly more specific fact that she isn't Zack Snyder, though unfortunately he is the writer and producer; and if you compare this movie with Ms. Jenkins' only other cinematic feature, "Monster" way back in 2003, it becomes apparent that she isn't yet a big enough name to control a Hollywood blockbuster without The System at least partly controlling her.

The plot is simplistic even for a film about a scantily-clad escapee from Greek mythology who can fly and throw tanks at people by magic. It's the kind of movie where the main character thinks she can literally solve all the world's problems by finding one specific bad guy and kicking his ass, and her Great Big Profound Learning Experience consists of eventually discovering it isn't that simple. This is explicitly spelled out several times, and just for good measure we're also told that love is better than hate and war is a bad thing. Essentially this is Tony Stark's character development arc, which wasn't particularly profound in the first place, dumbed down.

There are huge lifts from several other Marvel movies, especially the first Captain America film, as if they were trying to fix a broken formula by copying a similar one that works. Which of course they were, and to be fair, it's a big improvement on Zack Snyder's grimy nihilism. But original it ain't! One lengthy sequence is so blatantly stolen from a certain very successful franchise that I kept expecting the baddie to say "Luke, I am your father". I think they even pinched a bit from "Krull"! As for the acting, I got the feeling some of the supporting cast were chosen mainly to make Gal Gadot look like a better actress than she really is. One man's performance would win the Jar Jar Binks Award for Services to Ethnic Stereotyping if there was such a thing, but he's white so you can't accuse this film of racism. Unless you're Scottish. And the less said about Etta Candy, the better... I know she was in the comics back in the day, but what seemed hilarious in 1941 isn't necessarily quite so funny nowadays. If this movie was truly faithful to the spirit of forties humour, the Scottish guy would have been black.

Yes, it's fun, WW is a far more appealing superhero than some (good luck trying to sell us Aquaman, and does anybody really give a hoot about Cyborg?), and the action, when they get around to it, is well-handled, although the movie suffers from that problem so common in this type of film: underwhelming villains who don't put up much of a fight until the very end, then somehow a monster appears and buildings explode. But Zack Snyder's on a relatively short leash so that part doesn't go on and on and on until you never want to see a robot smashing anything ever again. And although the magical island of Themyscira is gorgeous to look at, most of the action happens elsewhere, and the "real" world, which consists mainly of an oddly unconvincing 1918 London and First World War battlefields they show have us very carefully if they want to keep that 12 certificate, suffers by comparison. To be brutally honest, for a DC film this is very good indeed, but if it was Marvel it would be so-so. By the way, there's no teaser at the end of the credits, so don't bother sitting through them unless you really like credits and/or horrible pop songs.

Definitely a relief... thanks! - Wonder Woman review by PIljamFlix

After all the poor decisions and mixed baggage of the current DC fayre it's a massive relief to finally leave the cinema with a general upbeat and positive disposition. Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins gave shown what can be done - and I hope DC learns from it.

Tosh - Wonder Woman review by BM

Its certainly true, Gal Gadot is perfectly cast and delivers a jolly performance. But really, it's all tosh. I know it doesn't have to make sense, or be accurate in any historical sense, etc etc. But don't you think we deserve a bit more than flash, bang wallop world saved again, I appreciate the target audience is the 8 to 15 year olds, but come on a bit more meat, a touch of real drama, a sharper pencil in the editors fingers and much better film could have been made, don't you think?