Unexceptional superhero adventure elevated due to its gender politics

Rating: 5/10 (22 October 2017)

A mainstream blockbuster fronted by a female superhero has long been overdue. You can count on one hand the amount of women-led comic book movies, so this was both an important and necessary project to see come to life. And it arrives at a politically and culturally divisive time, which I suspect played a large part in its thunderous praise and success, because this is totally unremarkable superhero fare. Pedestrian at best, risible at worst.
The problems begin with Gal Gadot in the title role. She certainly looks the part and is at her best when playing up the fish-out-of- water comedy (which is surprisingly prevalent throughout) but she comes off as wooden and stilted in the more dramatic scenes and makes for a super bland super-protagonist. Her uneven, clumsy performance is occasionally salvaged by the eclectic supporting cast around her, from Robin Wright's steely warrior mentor (who would have been a great Wonder Woman herself in the 1990s) to Chris Pine's love interest (who essentially just replicates the charming rogue he plays in everything).
As the late Roger Ebert once said, a film is only ever as good as its villains, and by that measure 'Wonder Woman' falls well short. Danny Huston has absolutely nothing to do as a generic evil German General who makes the Nazis in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' look three dimensional, while David Thewlis as the surprise villain at the end feels like a personality-free version of Tom Hiddleston's Loki character from the 'Thor' movies, which is fitting considering 'Wonder Woman' is a mishmash of the plot elements from Marvel's first installments of 'Thor' and 'Captain America'.
Director Patty Jenkins achieves the right visual aesthetic for the material, presenting vibrant colours for the fantasy realms of Wonder Woman's Amazonian home, and washed-out muted blues and greys for the grit and grime of the real world at war. Some of the imagery she architects looks as beautiful as a Renaissance-era work of art, but her absolute insistence on over-stylizing her generic action sequences soon wears thin. Whenever someone jumps, flips or runs, we instantly slide into slow motion to emphasize EVERY. SINGLE. MOVEMENT. and it often breaks the momentum of the action itself. It's almost like Jenkins didn't realise that the bullet-time effects from 'The Matrix' are no longer fashionable to imitate. In the years to come, the action set-pieces and shockingly ropy CGI effects will be the first thing to date.
With that said, 'Wonder Woman' has a good heart, much like its main character, and it is impossible to dislike entirely. Jenkins ensures that the story never takes itself too seriously, peppering the voyage with plenty of jokes and culture clash gags along the way, and while the plot is ripped straight from the pages of the superhero origin story playbook and plods along with no real sense of propulsion, it surpasses the turgid misfires of its DC universe siblings 'Man of Steel' and 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'.
If nothing else, 'Wonder Woman' has proved one thing for sure; women can be just as capable and competent at making generic and uninspired blockbuster balderdash as the men.