The people at the helm of the
DCEU can finally take a collective sigh of relief, because finally they will be
able to salvage some of that competitive dignity that they lost with Man of
Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. And after 2 pathetic attempts at making films on female superheroes, with Catwoman (2005) <ugh> and Supergirl (1984), they finally gave us Wonder
Woman, AND AM I GLAD! And should YOU be! And that's a lot of ands. And I should stop. And you should read on ... and so.
However, not getting carried
away, there are both pros and cons of the movie: PROS in terms of the story’s
consistency, comic timing, acting and background score; and CONS in terms of
what is the bane of every DC movie till date. Rest assured the PROS outweigh
the CONS.
It is quite a task to take one of
the hottest comic book superheroines and render them on screen in such spectacular
fashion, because it’s easy to hire an attractive actress to fit into the
stereotypically tight clothes of a typical comic book superhero, but it’s
absolutely another task to make her look so convincing in the role, it’s as if
she was born into it.
Words fall short in praise of Gal
Gadot, or as I call her, “DC’s gift to the cinematic world.” Gal Gadot flirts very gracefully with the line that defines Wonder Woman as a pin-up girl on one side and as a symbol of female empowerment on the other. This is
not the first role the Israeli girl is known for though , who you may remember behind the
driving wheel in the multi-million dollar Fast & Furious franchise, in a
comparatively lesser significant role. She perfectly fits the bill as the
curious young Amazon demigoddess trying to come to terms with the reality of
her birth and the extent of her powers. Superman and Batman have us used to a particular dark, grim brand of
superheroes. Gal Gadot as Diana restores an inherently childish and grounded
element of humanity into the DCEU that was much, much required after their last 2
offerings (not saying that those were bad films, those were some
pretty good, mildly underappreciated (okay, quite underappreciated) films)
which had been trying to establish themselves in the shade of the massively successful
and ingeniously rooted Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The movie explores the origin
story of Diana, the Princess of a race of Greek women warriors that live on the
island of Themyscira, who are hidden from and exist for the destruction of
Ares, the Greek god of war. When fate lands American spy Steve Trevor (played
by Chris Pine) on the beaches of Themiscyra followed close behind by a fleet of
German soldiers, Diana comes to know about men, and starts on a journey of
rediscovering a world embroiled in World War 1, and the true purpose of her
mysterious birth.
A beautiful spectacle of a film,
with fluid fight correctly timed fight sequences, choreographed to a
power-packed background score by Junkie XL and Hans Zimmer, DC and Warner Bros.
have provided a grounded film that sticks as close as possible to its comic
book roots, with classic forgotten villains and yet dissipates information in a
way that even a layman audience getting introduced to Wonder Woman for the
first time can tune into.
The only CON that seems to have
become a running disease for every DC movie, is its cinematography and
green-screening. Bringing in the MCU at this point, it must be pointed out how
realistic all of their films appear, making it very easy for a viewer to
imagine those same characters in front of themselves in reality, because that’s
how close to reality their sets and their world is. DC has this penchant for featuring fights in the dark, something one can
observe even in the trailer of the upcoming Justice League. And not wanting to be harsh, but DC’s
cinematography is more like a video game rather than a film. This becomes a
huge problem, even with a movie like Wonder Woman, who has a monumental
build-up to a climactic reveal, to feature a boss-fight in a night-sky that
looks so artificial, it very nearly kills the entire momentum it had built up
till that point.
VERDICT – 4 
/5 toots of the bugle
Probably the best thing by DC after the Dark Knight trilogy, in the name of Hera!!
Gal Gadot is truly a Wonder Woman for one of the most earnest and immersive performances of her career, and for restoring faith in the DC universe, one which is hoped shall not diminish with Justice League.
