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Plot Summary: Before she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true destiny.

Director: Patty Jenkins

Writers: Allan Heinberg

Runtime: 2h 21min

Main Cast:

• Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman
• Robin Wright as General Antiope
• David Thewlis as Sir Patrick
• Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta
• Chris Pine as Steve Trevor
• Elena Anaya as Maru / Doctor Poison

Review: by Erika T

To be honest I wasn’t really sold on Gal Gadot as the initial choice for this role and I still wasn’t convinced in Batman v. Superman.  I wasn’t getting a sense of an interesting personality from her and the action scenes were more of a CGI fest than the hand-to-hand fight choreography I’ve grown to love with films like Captain America.  I liked Gadot in Fast and the Furious, but I wanted to see what an actual martial arts actor could bring to the table for Wonder Woman. That’s why I was more on the Gina Carano hype train when she was getting buzz for this role. But even with my reservations, I was willing to give the standalone film a shot because this is where they have to flesh out the character. 

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This is an origins story of how Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) came to be, from her beginnings as Diana, Amazonian princess, to fierce warrior. Diana meets American spy, Steven Trevor (played by Chris Pine), who opens her eyes to the war that’s befallen the outside world. Diana believes she can help and finally leaves her home for the first time; it’s in the real world where she awakens her full powers and discovers her true destiny.

What I liked:  

We were treated to a Justice League trailer.

I have to say that all in all the film is entertaining. I wasn’t super overwhelmed by the trailers (though they looked solid), but the film even exceeded those expectations. Overall this is definitely a better film than Batman v. Superman. Quite honestly, it is the best DCEU film around save for The Dark Knight, though it’s still not at that level for me even slightly.  However, it is a refreshing entry in the comic book cinematic universe. And let’s be real, DC was due for a good one that didn’t have Christian Bale attached to it.

Chris Pine is one of my favorite actors so I’m glad to see him have a chance to shine in this genre. Steve and Diana play off each other pretty well and I enjoyed their interactions.  He was the source of much of the comic relief throughout the film and I really liked his character.  I thought the supporting cast was great and for the most part I liked what each of the characters had to offer.  

What I didn’t like:

It started out a little weaker for me in the start, though it gets better.  

While Gal portrayed a better Diana here than in BvS, her range still comes off as limited. Based on her past performances in other roles she brought no surprises to the character for me.  And honestly, I thought the one that stood out the most was Pine and that’s purely based on his acting skills. While the characters manage chemistry between one another pretty well, the difference in acting ability was very apparent to me.  I think the fish out of water schtick helped the situation somewhat in this regard. It endeared me to Diana the most.  

The story wasn’t that great. I didn’t find the script particularly thought provoking or edgy. The film kept my attention but I would have preferred more action to the fairly generic storyline we had. And if not then a more gripping story would have been even better.  The villains were unfortunately one-dimensional and I could spot who would be the villains from a mile away, so that made things a little too predictable for my tastes.  

The action scenes were good, but my personal preference is not really the 300-style slow motion stuff. But that doesn’t mean others won’t really enjoy it. It was pretty good if you like that kind of style.  

Images Courtesy of IMDB