This is the best DC Universe film I will admit that its unfortunate that its not as great as everybody is saying it is. This is not the worst film I have seen this year but Wonder Woman leaves a lot to be desired and is bogged down with niggling problems.
Before I get into the negatives I would like to talk about the aspects of the film I did like. Chris Pine was the best part of this film, other than some awkward comedy moments but his character was believable and him being a spy felt refreshing. His character had a clear motive and goals, the same could be said for the character of Wonder Woman but again its the "comedy" written for the characters that just bog the film down. I enjoyed the film when it was moving along and the scenes make sense within story. Other than that the rest of the film just did not work for me.
Lets start with the structure of the story because the first ten minutes of this film are poor and the film repeats the problem of having scenes that don't add anything to the story, sure you can call it "character development" but its not, it just slows the movie down where you could have the same development done with actions rather than stopping the film to directly tell the audience how the characters feel or their motivations. When Chris Pine is introduced that is when the film starts to get going because we have plot but as soon as we are introduced to this character the film feels it necessary to have an overblown action scene which is filled with the most annoying slow motion since 300. This scene does not really add anything to the story other than Wonder Woman's mentor is killed by a German which could have been done in a far more effective and less headache inducing manor. For example lets say that Chris Pine crashes off the coast of Themyscira, Wonder Woman goes to save him, as she is dragging him back to shore have a German plane come through and land on the beach. The Amazonian General played by Robin Wright comes down to the beach to investigate what is going on she attempts to get close to the plane but is shot by the German pilot, Diana sees this and kills the pilot checks on Robin Wright as Chris Pine is laying on the beach. There I just saved an overly complicated action scene for something that is more powerful, and does not overstimulate the audience within the first 20 minutes of the film, save the bad-ass Amazonian fighting for when Wonder Woman is on the front-line in WWI.
I think another problem with Wonder Woman is a problem all major motion pictures are facing today is too many characters. If the entire film revolved around Chris Pine and Gal Gadot this film would have felt less cumbersome which would have given more time to have Diana and Steve to grow in turn making his death even more tragic. Lets talk about the supporting characters because they don't really add anything to the story, maybe they are other DC characters but this is a prequel Wonder Woman film I don't think this is the appropriate place to sprinkle other DC characters. Steve's secretary is the worst part of this film, the Jar Jar Binks character that is only there to say "funny" lines and it is the most poorly written dialogue in the entire film and the actress is awful at delivering it. Then we have Steve's friends that include, budget Oscar Issac, Ewen Bremner and Chief. These characters add nothing to the overall story and don't do anything of importance except when Chief lights a smoke signal for Diana, that is it. Finally we have the villains and this is where the film falls apart because throughout the film Diana thinks that Aries the God of War is behind WWI and she wants to fight him and kill him, so we are introduced to two bad guys General Ludendorff and Dr. Maru the audience is lead to believe that Ludendorff is Aries. It turns out he is not and I thought that Dr. Maru, the female scientist, was going to be revealed as Aries which would make sense instead it just turns out that David Thewlis is Aries. This just comes out of nowhere and makes zero sense, why not have Dr. Maru be Aries.
The overall direction and look of the film is flat and rather uninteresting, with action scenes over-stylised and dialogue being flat and wide. This film has some of the worst effects I have seen this year, something about it was really off especially the end when it became a PS2 cut-scene. The action is where I have the biggest problem, there was no impact to anything because it was just overdone, again a case where if they had dialled back the style and just shot a solid action scene the film would have benefited but from a visual standpoint and a thematic one. WWI is not the setting for a quirky action comedy, because there are scenes where they try to display the "horrors" of WWI but then your mind is cast back to when she couldn't use a revolving door. The tone is all over the place. This is the DC film which would have benefited from having no humour.
Overall Wonder Woman is not the worst film you will see this year but certainly not the best, its flawed but I can see how you can enjoy some of it and to the average audience member it could come across as a decent action film but for me there are too many problems on a technical and thematic level for me to be invested. This film will make its money and be paraded as this massive progression in equality when in fact its just a superhero film that is a little bit better than Man of Steel.
6.5/10
Written By
Ashley Harvey
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