This will be remembered for Wonder Woman's debut

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2017)

As I write this, the new solo Wonder Woman movie is playing to rave reviews and bringing in trainloads of box office dollars. The lesson? For me, it says that (a) people actually still like to get a positive upbeat feeling in this type of film, (b) they respond to something genuinely new (a female superhero! and totally carrying the movie!), and (c) you need to match the right director to the right material. At the theater where I saw BvS (as was the case everywhere), the audience spontaneously cheered when Wonder Woman made her dramatic fighting entrance in the middle of the battle against the Doomsday creature. Everyone had been waiting for her! Yes, BvS is constantly entertaining and slickly produced with good actors. And the opening scene -- a flashback to the destruction of Metropolis during Man of Steel, now as seen from ground level -- is terrific. A vast battle between cosmic forces is happening above the city as the people below (including Bruce Wayne) watch helplessly. But did we have to go on from there to the end of the film when now Gotham City is a smoking ruin too? The journey in between has enough material for two movies, leaving you wishing for a clearer, cleaner line without quite so many side trails.
Which brings us to the director. Zack Snyder has a very uneven relationship with this material. I admit Snyder's preference for dark, gritty, tortured personalities and loads of bludgeoning action fits Batman pretty darn well (and Watchmen, his earlier effort). After all, Batman sort of represents the zeitgeist of our age. But Superman? Wonder Woman? That's where the real mismatch comes in. Superman needs to be sunny Kansas wheatfields and titanic deeds in the name of all that is pure, simple, and good in humanity. And stylistically that just isn't Zack Snyder, try as he might. The whole premise of the plot -- that somehow Batman and the American Congress would actually be suspicious enough to destroy someone who saved the planet from an alien invasion -- just rings false. I found it hard to buy into. And of course the head-to-head battle is a bit of a cheat. If Superman has his normal powers, it's no contest, but if Batman uses kryptonite, it's also no contest. A "fair fight" between them is impossible. Superman vs. Wonder Woman, which has happened in the comics, would be more interesting.
Give credit to all the main actors though for wading through this material. Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill are fine, and Gal Gadot shows us a glimpse of what would emerge next year in a great Wonder Woman. Good work as well from Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams, Holly Hunter, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, and Laurence Fishburne. Without them it would be much less interesting.