There are times in film history where we encounter a character done so well that we would rather see their story than the one in the film they come from. Such is the case of characters like Loki from the cinematic Marvel universe (how did he go from falling through space at the end of Thor to leading an evil alien army in The Avengers?) or the T-Rex from The Good Dinosaur who supposedly drowned a crocodile in his own blood (which sounds way cooler than anything in The Good Dinosaur), who often become bright spots of already bright or even bad films. Wonder Woman took the bright spot of what was otherwise a slow, uneventful film (The less we talk about that, the better), not only in her theater appearance and personality as the sword-swinging wrecker of Doomsday's s**t, but in the casting of the actress herself.
It figures that you need someone hardcore to play someone hardcore. It's what makes actors like Samuel L. Jackson or Dwayne Johnson perfect for the roles that they are given. Gal Gadot joins this collection as a woman with a very impressive history- one perfect to play Wonder Woman herself. This former instructor from the Israeli Defense Force kicks butt both in real life and on the big screen as the modern Wonder Woman.
From the ancient Paradise Island of the Amazons comes Diana, their princess and mightiest warrior, who's life of peace comes to an end once a crashed pilot and later a platoon of soldiers find their way through the magical barrier to the island. It turns out that the ancient legends of war god Ares may be true, as the people in the outside world seem to be caught in a massive, neverending war- a world war, if you will. Diana sees this as Ares's doing, and seeks to leave with the pilot (Steve Trevor, who you may know as Captain Kirk) in order to find and slay him in order to bring peace to the world. She suspects the current leader of the German forces, General Ludendorff,
But it turns out there's more than one problem happening in the world: Steve has information that must get to the British generals before they can head out to the war. It turns out that Ludendorff has a deadly ally in Dr. Maru (known as Dr. Poison to the allies), a chemist who is in the process of developing a powerful weaponized gas that could spell doom for the allied forces. Diana and Steve form a ragtag group of allies to help them (actor Sameer, sniper Charley, explosives expert The Chief
and secretary Etta Candy), and head out to stop the production of Maru's gas as well as kill who Diana believes is Ares, which (in her eyes) will immediately end all wars. But is it really the fault of a god that hasn't been seen in centuries? And more importantly, how will Diana deal with society?
It's interesting to see the conflicting ideals in this film: an Amazon's pride and duty to defend all mixed with the belief that not all can be saved during war, and that casualties are common. Still, Diana fights through the battlefields of World War 1 armed with a sword and shield on her quest, plowing through the German soldiers.
Wonder Woman finally breaks the trend of DC films being awful lately: it's not perfect, sure, but it's still a strong film. Gal Gadot brings dignity and power to the role, the action is great, and the serious moments about war are very poetically done. Perhaps with Wonder Woman and the upcoming Justice League not being directed by Zack Snyder, DC may hit form again.
8/10
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