Rated: M
Directed by: Patty Jenkins
Screenplay by: Allan Heinberg
Story: Zack Snyder, Allan Heinberg and Jason Fuchs
Produced by: Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder and Richard Suckle
Executive Producers: Stephen Jones, Geoff Johns, Jon Berg, Wesley Coller and Rebecca Steel Roven
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner, Lucy Davis, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Eugene Brave Rock and Said Taghmaoui.
With the couple ahead in line, kissing. Just a quick smooch, but often. Making that, kissy-kissy, sucky-wet sound, constantly. Perhaps out of nerves or because they’d just found each other and were terrified the other would disappear if they didn’t lock lips and suck the air out of each other’s mouths every 30 seconds…
You can probably tell I wasn’t in the mood for a romance.
And unfortunately Wonder Woman wasn’t all Amazons and action, there was romance here with love interest, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), an American World War I fighter pilot who finds himself in the Amazonian magical world of Themyscira while being chased by the Germans.
Which brings me to the classic Wonder Woman guitar rift. You’ll recognise it when you hear it and it does add to that cringe.
But that’s all I have to complain about.
Overall, Wonder Woman was a well-thought and executed film.
The story of Diana (Gal Gadot), growing up in Themyscira allowed a beautiful setting of crystal clear blue waters and souring cliffs, and women warriors fighting from pure white horses with long braids falling down their backs. This magical place allowed the story of the gods to be shown like a moving painting brought to life to then shift to WWI and all the shock and tragedy of death.
After hearing of the violence, Diana vows to fight in the war to bring peace, as she was trained to do. All very dramatic.
But the addition of humour made the film for me, particularly Charlie (Ewan Bremner), the Scottish marksman suffering from shell shock and Etta Candy (Lucy Davis) the ever reliable, can-do secretary. I was constantly tickled by Etta Candy’s humour and the writing here is to be commended. As is the story of the film.
There’s a slow build. And yes, it felt like a lengthy movie, understandably at 2 hours and 21 minutes. But the time spent on building the momentum was worth it. There’s plenty of action and funny bits so as the story developed, the further I was pulled in.
So even with a bit of cheese and romance, I found the character, Steve Trevor better than expected, and more down-to-Earth (just can’t resist a pun) then James T. Kirk played by Chris Pine in the recent Star Trek films (but hey, I liked those films too), and that comes down to the fantastic script.
There was a tug and pull of the lasso for some depth into human nature. But like the above statement, it was somewhat half-hearted. Wonder Woman is more about how Diana evolves into a superhero.
By playing with the time sequences and using clever camera work and images (like the moving painting montage), the film is given a bit of spice. It’s always good to see something different as it keeps the attention. Because wow, there have just been so many superhero movies that the trickery of the director becomes the point of difference; Patty Jenkins succeeding here with help from director of photography Matthew Jensen.
I wasn’t blown away but this is a quality film with the resurrection of a fantastic character who we’re left in no doubt will return in the very near future.