WONDER WOMAN Reviews Confirm That "The DC Movie You've Been Waiting For Has Finally Arrived"

If you're of the belief that WB desperately needed to inject a bit more heart into The DCEU then Wonder Woman is the movie you've been waiting for. It's funny, engaging and action-packed, with a strong emotional core and a star-making turn from Gal Gadot. It does have some problems, but overall this bodes very well for Diana's cinematic future and, hopefully, the DCEU as a whole. Justice League, you're up!

Yet as with all comics-based extravaganzas, brevity is anathema to the Patty Jenkins-directed Wonder Woman, and it doesn’t quite transcend the traits of franchise product as it checks off the list of action-fantasy requisites. But this origin story, with its direct and relatively uncluttered trajectory, offers a welcome change of pace from a superhero realm that’s often overloaded with interconnections and cross-references. (A nod to Wayne Enterprises in the story’s framing device serves as a fuss-free tie-in to the upcoming Justice League.)

It may have taken four films to get there, but the DC Extended Universe has finally produced a good old-fashioned superhero. Sure, previous entries in the Warner Bros. assembly line have given us sporadically successful, demythified takes on Batman and Superman, but they’ve all seemed skeptical, if not downright hostile, toward the sort of unabashed do-gooderism that DC Comics’ golden-age heroes exemplified. Never prone to stewing in solitude, and taking more notes from Richard Donner than from Christopher Nolan, Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” provides a welcome respite from DC’s house style of grim darkness — boisterous, earnest, sometimes sloppy, yet consistently entertaining — with star Gal Gadot proving an inspired choice for this avatar of truth, justice and the Amazonian way.

It’s a great cast overall: Gadot mixes ancient wisdom and gravitas with the delight and, yes, wonder of someone trying ice cream for the first time, and Pine takes the generally thankless role of Steve Trevor and imbues him with both a sense of duty and a sense of humor. And since Anaya starred in “The Skin I Live In,” it’s fitting she plays another character who has suffered extreme plastic surgery; the movie gives her poisons expert a stereotypical villain’s disfigurement — a facial graft that makes her look like the Phantom of the Opera — but she still manages to find a soul inside this despicable war criminal.

It’s only in the movie’s unnecessary final half-hour or so that Wonder Woman finally meets her match: the special-effects imperatives of contemporary blockbuster filmmaking against which even the Germans onscreen seem insignificant. When Diana realizes that the villain she’s been chasing all this time is, in fact, not the end but just the beginning to a line of villains to be trotted out, no doubt, in subsequent chapters, the movie turns into an eye-rolling digital smackdown that mirrors every other late-period DC (and, to be fair, Marvel) movie smackdown. It would be nice one of these days if some heroic editor just lopped off the last 30 minutes of all of these things. But it’s hard to quibble about what’s wrong with a movie that gets so much right, especially when it comes to Gadot’s revelatory portrayal of Wonder Woman. The wait is over, folks. The DC movie you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Grade: A-

“Wonder Woman” is as much about a superhero rising as it is about a world deserving of her, and Diana’s hard-won insistence on battling for humanity (no matter how frequently they disappoint) adds the kind of gravitas and emotion that establishes it as the very best film the DCEU has made yet. There’s only one word for it: wonderful. Grade: A-

Wonder Woman is Gadot’s film, and she owns every scene she’s in, but the film also made me appreciate the talents of Chris Pine, who’s maturing into one of the very best leading men in Hollywood but embraces the role of Gadot’s second banana. As Pine ages, his boyish charm is tempered with an edge of sadness, and a slight hardness around his eyes, a perfect combination for a man like Steve Trevor, whose experience in World War I had a profound and punishing effect on his psyche.

Here's the short version: Wonder Woman is good. It's, by default, the best live-action DC Comics movie since The Dark Knight. It is, by default, the best female-centric comic book superhero movie ever made and is on a different plane from Elektra, Catwoman and Supergirl (and Barb Wire and Tank Girl and Red Sonja). To those who have been waiting for this picture their entire lives, who have yearned to see Wonder Woman on the silver screen in her own movie hacking, slashing and lassoing for justice and compassion, you can take a breath and relax. Even though the finished product has some serious issues, and the final product doesn't quite measure up to that dynamite 2009 animated movie, Gal Gadot makes a spectacular superheroine. Come what may, the much-discussed DC Films has given us a dynamic and definitive big-screen variation of Wonder Woman.

But it’s Gadot’s film and she is electric as Wonder Woman, a role she debuted in last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to wide acclaim. Unshackled from that film’s dreary baggage, the Israeli actress is able to shine as brightly in Wonder Woman’s smaller moments as she does when she lifts a tank with her bare hands. Her expressive face is magnetic as she witnesses the horrors of the world for the first time. Her optimism is at times heartbreaking — we, unlike Diana, know how evil the world truly is — but it is also inspiring.

Jenkins keeps the look and feel of the film classical, as it breezes through a strong second act. But, being a DC film, "Wonder Woman" can't help but devolve into a blurry, concrete-busting third act that feels dispiritingly like all the rest, not to mention a baffling reveal that negates most of Diana's growth. It's not enough to negate the good, though, and much of that is Gadot's doing.

She is the perfect Wonder Woman - a true blue hero who's as believable in her bafflement of women's fashions and social mores as she is dead-lifting a tank and swatting away machine gun fire with only her arm cuff.

I never cared about Wonder Woman before. Now I do.

After a few false starts, the DC Extended Universe has its first truly terrific entry under its belt. About damn time. Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Those hoping a shot of estrogen would generate a new kind of comic-book movie – and revive DC’s faltering movie universe – might need to lower their expectations. Like many people out there, I had no shortage of excitement and goodwill towards this female-led superhero project, but in the event it’s plagued by the same problems that dragged down previous visits to the DC movie world: over-earnestness, bludgeoning special effects, and a messy, often wildly implausible plot. What promised to be a glass-ceiling-smashing blockbuster actually looks more like a future camp classic. Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

Gal Gadot’s Diana is her best performance to date, blending the kindness, power, and innocence needed for the iconic character. Her story is very clean and very aggressively paced, peppered with lots of action, just the right amount of mythology, and—for the first time in a DCEU film—a lot of humor. Gadot’s Diana and Pine’s Steve are as comfortable and fun together on screen as you could hope. The banter is smart and playful. Diana’s fish-out-of-water situation is executed beautifully, but Gadot never lets her fierce subtext slip away.

Wonder Woman offers a full cinematic experience from beginning-to-end, which helps it stand out from other films of its kind that worry more about what's to come than the story at hand. Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

There aren’t many superhero movies better than Wonder Woman. Patty Jenkins’ film gives audiences a hero to look up to, a moral standard to which we should all aspire, and she does this by making a film which sets its own standards. This is adventure. This is powerful. This is wonder. 

There is much to love here; and I didn't even get into the terrific score from Rupert Gregson-Williams, or the scene stealing supporting performance from Lucy Davis. Yet, the most impressive thing about what Jenkins accomplishes is by making this a film for everyone. This is not about gender, but it is one that women and girls are likely to embrace. For many viewers, this is destined to be the best superhero movie of all time - and frankly, it’s very high on my own list. Ultimately WONDER WOMAN brings a powerful voice to the summer blockbuster; one filled with hope, inspiration and more than enough thrills to satisfy everyone. Rating: 9 stars out of 10.

Wonder Woman is leaps and bounds above the other three entries in the DCEU. With a dramatic setting, a few entertaining action scenes, and a strong supporting cast all working together to tell an inspirational Hero’s Journey, it more than offsets some occasionally uneven acting on Gadot’s part and some shaky technical aspects. The messy third act fight, however, is something that has plagued other superhero movies and is something even Wonder Woman cannot overcome. Overall, Wonder Woman is a win because it successfully tells the story of a woman taking on a war-torn world with the power of love. What’s more heroic than that? Rating: 7.9 out of 10.

Wonder Woman is the fourth movie of the DCEU and it’s easily its best (and I say this as someone who liked Man of Steel). Wonder Woman will give hope to people hoping for a well-made DC movie – but it also puts even more pressure on Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Because Patty Jenkins just proved it’s possible to make a great DC movie.

If Gal Gadot's all-too-brief appearance in Batman v Superman was promising, she fulfills that potential and then some in Wonder Woman. Diana is a tricky character: She needs to be optimistic but not naive, fierce but not frightening, unquestionably good but not tragically boring, intriguingly alien but not totally inhuman. Gadot, with help from director Patty Jenkins and the screenwriters, get this balance exactly right and gives Diana a disarming warmth that makes it impossible not to love her.

Action-wise, the movie is frustratingly inconsistent. Set pieces early on are kinetic, well-choreographed and, strangely enough, even speed-ramping is impressively used. Later on, however, this technique deadens. Deeper in, the action becomes cartoonish and silly. As much as Jenkins tries to make her mark, “Wonder Woman” does feel obligated to franchise prerequisites when wiping the slate clean would be best. You don’t have to dust too hard to find the Zack Snyder’s fingerprints and unfortunate sensibilities (clearly some vociferous and devout fans won’t see this as a pejorative, but he’s an irredeemable filmmaker at this point to many): the speed-ramping, slow motion, fundamental story flaws and pedestrian views of legends (he has the first “story by” credit) and that “300”-esque scene, tonally inconsistent with the rest of the film. Then there’s that plangent Junkie XL-written musical theme of pounding drums and squealing guitars—the clarion call of which signals to the audience where all the DCEU movies begin to suck. And of course, the deafening “Man Of Steel,” and “Batman V Superman” ending—loud, incoherent, and pointless to the level that one’s engagement in the movie begins to quickly drop like an emergency room patient’s dying pulse. Rating: C+

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers...and her true destiny.