A Good DC Movie!

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2017)

Lo and behold, we have a good DC Universe movie! I despise Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. Hate them. Loathe them. I named Suicide Squad the worst movie of 2016 and would have done the same for Man of Steel had I been doing such lists that year. But there was one sliver of hope in Batman v Superman and that was, ironically, Wonder Woman. There was a brief moment at the end of that film that I actually enjoyed. It was when Wonder Woman finally showed up in costume and the so-called superhero trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman stood side-by-side. It was a moment that I had waited to see since I was a kid and, for a brief moment, I felt like a kid and had a huge smile on my face. Then the movie continued and I resumed hating the world. But I kept a small hope that a Wonder Woman movie could get this trainwreck back on track. And this movie mostly delivers on that hope. Mostly.
This is an origin story and I usually don't like origin stories. But, considering it has taken such a ridiculously long time for Wonder Woman to get her own movie, I suppose she deserves it. We begin on the hidden island of Themyscira, where Wonder Woman is growing up and training among her fellow Amazons. Hidden from the rest of the world and training for the eventual return of Aries, the God of War, all goes well until a British spy named Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine) crashes into the island. Wonder Woman hears of the ongoing World War happening beyond the island and insists that Aries must be the cause of it. She accompanies Trevor to the outside world with the intent of going to the front line and combating Aries. The film takes a lot of liberties with the source material, but I am okay with that when the changes work in the context of the film. For example, I love the Burton and Nolan Batman movies and they take massive liberties. While this isn't quite as good as those, it is good enough for me to give it a pass.
Most of this movie works really well. Wonder Woman looks perfect and, unlike most other characters in these movies, actually acts like her comic book counterpart. Both Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are great and their chemistry together is strong. Even the usually cringe-worthy fish-out-of-sea jokes work here primarily because Gadot and Pine work really well together. I laughed at several moments that could have felt forced and cheesy in other films. The musical score is excellent and Wonder Woman's theme perfectly embodies the character. The supporting characters are generally strong as are the action scenes. There is one sequence that deserves special mention: The No Man's Land Sequence. This is when Wonder Woman, seeing the brutality of war, has her screw-this moment. Emerging from a trench, she storms into No Man's Land (symbolism!) on her own, charges the German trench, kicks the living crap out of everything in sight and single-handedly frees an occupied village. It is a perfect summary of the empathy-fueled rage of the character. For anyone that has been wanting to see Wonder Woman on the big screen, this sequence alone is worth the price of admission.
So this movie is about 80% awesome and I was ready to write a completely glowing review. Then the last 20 minutes happened. Be warned, there be spoilers ahead.Wonder Woman spends the whole film convinced that Aries is behind the war. I spent the entire movie hoping that she was wrong and she would have to learn that humans can just be awful without any sort of evil influence. Sadly, that doesn't happen and Aries is behind it all. This leads to a massive, CGI-filled battle that feels like it is from a completely different movie than the preceding 2 hours. The tonal shift is jarring and feels like the result of a note from studio executives saying "we need more stuff to blow up!!" It's dumb and betrays what the rest of the film establishes. If I had written the film (and Warner Bros., please call me; I can help), this film would have been 20 minutes shorter and ended on a more somber note. But, no, we need to have a CGI monster to fight because, damn it, that's how these movies are supposed to end. Disappointing.
Aside from that gripe, this is quite good and I recommend seeing it in theaters. I own thousands of DC comics and it is a huge relief for me that this is actually a solid movie. But, don't worry. The Justice League movie is right around the corner, so Affleck and company are once again poised to steal my Wonder Woman-inspired happiness and convert it back into seething hate. So, I have that going for me. Which is nice.