Gal Gadot is Wonder Woman

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2016)

The last time I trusted a project like I trusted this one, was when Steven Spielberg got on the world stage, reluctantly, and agreed to direct the sequel to Jurassic Park. But unlike that disappointing exercise in half assed mediocrity, Zach Snyder decided going into this project that the critics, the audience, and everybody else in the world who was not directing this film was going to have to step back and literally, shut the Hell up.
Zach Snyder's track record speaks for itself. He turned two star material in Watchmen into something almost worthy to be watched. He wasted no effort with those hot, crazy girls in Sucker Punch. He made the testosterone driven mess that was 300 a visual masterpiece. He was smart enough to put a woman in charge in 300: Rise of an Empire, and infuse her story with a slow motion ballet of blood and beauty. And he took that commitment to visual and auditory excellence, and made Christopher Nolan look like more of a genius than he really is, making Man of Steel a shockingly vivid, visceral example of comic book storytelling, perhaps the 5th best comic book movie of all time, Superman (1978), The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2 and The Avengers notwithstanding.
And what of Miss Gal Gadot?
Her name is Wonder Woman.
How did I feel about the first 40 minutes of this film? I thought it was one of the best movies I had seen in years. At first, I thought the critical backlash on this film was probably the biggest bunch of nonsense in recent Hollywood memory, and was a tragic, real life example of the very thing the movie is trying to say about humanity. I was thinking that not only is there nothing bad about this movie, not the acting, the cinematography, the dialogue, the characters, the plot, the casting—I was thinking that not only is none of that stuff bad, but that there was hardly a moment of it that does not aspire toward excellence. I was thinking that Godzilla, Jurassic World, Age of Ultron, Terminator Genisys, none of that stinking garbage belongs in the same room, the same planet with this rosy masterpiece of a movie. At least, that what I thought in the first 40 minutes or so.
Forty minutes into this move felt like twenty. That level of filmmaking talent poured into characters this iconic has truly created a perfect storm of elements, that has come together to produce a whirlwind of cinematic watchability. A once in a lifetime opportunity for everybody who loves a simple, interesting movie. Every critic that rated this movie as less than a A minus should check their character. Or so I thought.
But after about an hour, the giddy high I was on settled down into something close to normalcy. No, Jesse Eisenberg is not a shoe in for a nomination. And neither are the solid performances from any other actor, nor the sweeping cinematography nor breathtaking effects. And the music here fails miserably. But there are elements of this story, flashes of boldness and power, that rescues it from total mediocrity over and over again.
And I stress again...Miss Gal Gadot?
Her name is Wonder Woman.