A (Wo)man for all Seasons

The DCEU frankly has been in a rut for some time now. While Man of Steel was a very good take on the Last son of Krypton, the movie found a fair amount of detractors who didn’t like the overall bleak tone of the movie and Supes being so cavalier about loss of civilian life. Batman vs Superman was a convoluted mess and “Marthagate” didn’t help things. Then came the supposed light at the end of the tunnel, Suicide Squad, but we all know how that turned out – Studio intervention turned what could have been a gritty, superpower enhanced black comedy into a weird amalgamation of 2 different movies.

The only bright spot in all of these was the extended cameo of Wonder Woman in BvS that pretty much stole the movie from the title characters. As Diana from Themyscira and as her alter-ego Diana Prince, Gal Gadot seemed pitch perfect and the Cello-heavy theme by Zimmer and Junkie XL gave you goosebumps like the first time you heard John Williams’ Star Wars theme, or his Superman theme (Sidebar: The Wonder woman theme is my current ringtone). My anticipation for the standalone Wonder Woman movie was sky high.

But as they say, the night is darkest before dawn, and reports of reshoots and studio interference started trickling out. People in the know were saying that the movie was “a mess” and I started having flashes of Wonder Woman claiming that Hippolyta’s middle name was Martha!

However all the trailers (and there were so many of them) were excellent and early buzz and initial reviews were all overwhelmingly positive (especially from my brother and cousin) so I went in today with a lot of hope.

The movie kicks off in the present when Bruce Wayne sends Diana Prince the original of the WW1 photo that he showed her in BvS. The photo causes her to flash back to her childhood on the magical island of Themiscyra being brought up as the child of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. Trained in fighting in secret over the years by her aunt, Antiope (a terrific Claire Underwood, I mean Robin Wright), she gets a glimpse of the outside world when Steve Trevor from British Intelligence crashes his plane past the “bubble” that surrounds Themyscira to prevent the outside world from trickling in. From Trevor she learns of the “War to end all wars” aka WW1 being fought all over the world and how millions of people have died with even more to die unless the Germans agree to an armistice. Diana heads back with Steve to the “real world” to try and help stop the war and ends up learning things about herself and about the humans who may not always be deserving of her protection.

Gal Gadot shines from the first frame to the last as the Stranger in a strange world and kicks ass like nobody’s business. Watching her stride into battle with nary a flinch and staring down cannons without blinking brings goosebumps to your skin and a lump in your throat to see such an iconic character brought to glorious life and that too by DC, which has faltered badly in their last 2 outings. Chris Pine is understated and charming as the spy that would dare to love an Amazon. The supporting cast including Ewan Bremner, Said Taghmaoui, and Lucy Davis are given short but very impactful roles, each given enough to shine.

Let me also talk about the direction. Considering this was the first time a Female superhero led movie was greenlit by a major studio (we’ll just pretend that Catwoman never happened, thank you), it was important to get a director who would be able to bring this character that’s been a source of inspiration for so many, both women and men without putting the character down. Patty Jenkins (Monster) came out of left field, especially because there are so few women directors and noone has been given the reins of such a huge summer tent pole like Wonder Woman. Thankfully it turned out to be a serendipitous decision as she brings so much heart to the dramatic beats, the quiet moments with long dialogues and yet doesn’t shy away from the big action scenes as well. The only issue I had was with the muddled third act that tried to do a bit too much too fast. My only other complaint would be that I wanted more scenes of the Amazons kicking ass.  But Wonder Woman as a movie is a huge triumph for the character and for the DCEU. I really hope they can show similar improvement on Justice League and further movies as well.

Let me leave you with the kickass movie theme which Patty Jenkins used to great effect at key moments to really amp the audience up