- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- Superman received his first full-length theatrical film in 1951, Batman had his in 1966, and Wonder Woman finally gets hers over 50 years later in 2017. Given its tremendous box office returns, one hopes somewhat naively that director Patty Jenkins' film represents the beginning of a trend for better representation of women both in front of and behind the camera. In fact, Wonder Woman is probably best viewed as a trendsetter, a promise of things to come, or a beacon of future hopes because, frankly, the film itself is not that great. It may very well be DC's best live-action superhero movie since The Dark Knight, but that's a pretty low hurdle to clear.
- Wonder Woman's story begins on the island of Themyscira, where, as the film's magically animated introduction informs us, the mighty Amazons train to battle the evil forces of Ares, who seeks to spread war throughout the world. Hippoylta (Connie Nielsen), leader of the Amazons, wants to shield her daughter Diana (played briefly by Lilly Aspel and Emily Carey before maturing into Gal Gadot) from the dangers of battle, but Hippolyta's sister Antiope (Robin Wright) secretly trains Diana in the hopes that she will be prepared to face the terrors that will inevitably reach their shores. In fact, that is exactly what happens in 1918 when pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes a plane near Themyscira, inadvertently revealing the island's location to a pursuing fleet of German ships. Diana saves Steve with relatively little effort, but the tragic cost of repelling the invaders convinces Diana that she needs to stop Ares by heading to the front.
- But before that happens, the film permits itself a few memorable moments of levity when Diana and Steve detour through London. Accompanied by the redoubtable Etta Candy (Lucy Davis), who has one of my favorite silly names from the Golden Age of comics, Diana confronts both the horrors of women's fashion and the joys of ice cream with the wide-eyed wonder of a child. Both the filmmakers and Gadot capture Diana's combination of innocence and dedication to truth especially well, two traits that ultimately convince her to march into Germany with only the backing of the sly Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis) and a motley crew of combat specialists (Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremner, and Eugene Brave Rock). Unfortunately, the film becomes rather less interesting once Diana and her team hit the trenches. Gunfire and explosions abound, Diana faces off against an adversary or two (Elena Anaya, Danny Huston), and finally Ares shows himself. I don't know exactly how long I thought it would take to defeat the God of War, but this slugfest lasted much longer than that.
- Wonder Woman is probably never better than in its first five minutes, when young Lilly Aspel pantomimes punches and kicks in emulation of her Amazon sisters, much as one imagines young audience members doing upon seeing Wonder Woman on the big screen. That and the London scenes are really the only moments of brightness and hope in what is otherwise a fairly dreary film dominated by DC's house style that looks, sounds, and feels like everyone is being smothered under a lead blanket in slow motion. Personally, I'd much rather watch the vastly superior Captain America: The First Avenger, which handled period piece action, diverse teamups, washed-out color palettes, and gee-shucks optimism much better than this film. Hopefully Marvel will finally realize that women can generate just as much revenue as men and make a great Captain Marvel or She-Hulk movie. In the meantime, Wonder Woman has truly proven herself Batman and Superman's equal in that her live-action film can't hold a candle to her animated appearances.
