"Goodbye, brother"

Rating: 9/10 (13 June 2017)

This isn't a perfect film (what is??), but the reviews and audience reactions from all age groups and both genders already say this is a landmark cinema event. This is a fully fledged female-superhero movie, period. Is WW really going to be the sea-change in the superhero genre that has been WAY too long in coming? We'll see. But either way, all other female superhero films are going to be compared to this one.
Even more, this film has changed my view of what superhero movies can be. It's right at the top of the list in terms of emotional connections with the characters and feeling that things somehow MATTER. I haven't felt that way coming out of this kind of movie since X-Men United (2003).
Going beyond that, WW might also save the whole DCEU franchise by turning away from the glum, violent, angst-ridden 'style' of Zack Synder's Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. That approach admittedly suits Batman pretty well, but absolutely not for Superman and not for Wonder Woman. Brava, Patty Jenkins.
Earlier female superhero movies including Supergirl (1984), Catwoman (2004), Elektra (2005) suffered from poor scripts and poor budgets. Good intentions aren't enough. (Another one that's actually pretty decent is Aeon Flux (2005) starring Charlize Theron. Before the casting of WW was announced, Theron would have been my instinctive choice for the role given her commanding physical presence and action-film cred that also includes Hancock, Mad Max Fury Road, and Atomic Blonde.)
But Gal Gadot turns out to be great. I've seen this 4 times, and every time I've come away more impressed with her. Going in the first time around I expected she'd turn in just a steady 'OK' type of performance -- but she was a LOT better than OK. She has the necessary athleticism, she inhabits WW from the inside out, and she delivers her lines with absolute conviction. She *is* Diana so thoroughly that now you can't imagine anyone else doing it. Casting Gal Gadot might be the best thing Zack Snyder will ever do for the DCEU.
And the No Man's Land sequence! It's the central pivot on which the entire movie turns, because (as Patty Jenkins said) it's where Diana becomes Wonder Woman. I haven't felt a deep-seated thrill like this from a movie scene since the finale of X2, or the Lord of the Rings classics (remember the signal fires on the mountaintops from ROTK? Or the opening of The Two Towers? Like that.). But also huge credit to Rupert Gregson Williams' music: instead of something hard and jittery, he composes majestic, measured, deeply emotional music that is all the more effective to accompany the heroism on screen -- which not coincidentally, reminded me of Howard Shore's music for LOTR. I hope his luminous score gets an Oscar nom.
Diana of Themiscyra, as Wonder Woman, is heroic, but oddly, she is never courageous (!). That's because one of Diana's defining characteristics is that she's fearless, and without fear you don't need courage. She has an utterly clear mission in her mind and simply tackles everything head-on without letting anyone or anything stand in her way. (After all, why should she follow the lead of any of the men fighting this endless war? She's an Amazon, and Amazonian royalty to boot.) Another surprising treat is Gadot's thousand-watt smile, which we never got to see in the humorless BvS. and boy can she fight! The action sequences are among the best in this whole genre.
I loved the two scenes that framed Diana's time with Steve (which I haven't seen anyone else mention). On their first meeting, having saved him from drowning, she reaches toward his face with a flickering smile while curiosity and delight run across her face. The last time, looking at his photo in Trafalgar Square, she again reaches gently toward his picture while grief, memory, and (again) a flickering smile cross her face. Lovely.
My favorite line in the whole film is the very last one spoken, and it comes just before Diana blasts Ares to pieces: "Goodbye, brother". It shows that (a) she has finally come to terms with her full identity and power, and (b) she is now the only Greek god left on Earth.
Among lots of positives in this movie, two things that didn't really work for me were the sidekicks who tag along with Diana and Steve (although I was more OK with them on the second viewing), and the evil/mad chemist Dr. Maru (her character never got filled out and just felt odd).
Bottom line? I'm with the young kids who think Wonder Woman is awesome. Hope, idealism, and love do not go out of style. I can't wait to see WW in Justice League, and in her own sequel!