Why Wonder Woman is so wonderful:

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2017)

Every once in awhile a superhero film comes along that communicates something worth thinking about on human nature.
Wonder Woman is such a film.
Finally, a dc universe film has come along helmed by a masterful director (who just so happens to be a woman ;). Wonder woman is a refreshing take on a classic character that has one foot in mythology and one foot firmly planted in the human condition (tellingly, in the world's first world-wide war). It is an impressive feat that somehow this movie manages to be a creation story, a loss of innocence story, a period piece, a war of the sexes, a hero's journey, a commentary on war, and a commentary on human nature.
What leaves me most in wonder though is how the film is able to pull off a sort of anti-superhero commentary on the superhero genre itself; in which the protagonist is simultaneously literally god-like in power but also powerless in the context of man's inhumanity to man.
Wonder woman is a character whose values are out of time like Captain America and whose powers are out of this world like Superman, but she is also unlike either of them. She is a woman. It is in this space that her story and motive takes flight.
Most superhero stories are almost completely centered on the protagonist or team of superpowered protagonists to defeat the clear antagonist. It took Wonder Woman to make me realize what superhero stories are too often missing: context. Specifically, social context. Diana is amazingly powerful but in the film she's never really a lone ranger hero. When she is in Themyscira she is surrounded by a sisterhood of Amazonians. When she is the "real world" she is surrounded by the brotherhood of a rag-tag team. The people around her teach her, influence her, and ultimately motivate her. Some may see this as a weakness but I believe this is the strength of Wonder Woman's story. She gains the humility and moral courage to recognize it is not just about her. In fact, more so than any other superhero film I can recall, Wonder Woman has the bravery to admit as well as to capture the gravity of the challenge before her (and really all of us)...that it is not so much about the villains outside of us but rather about the evil that is within all of us. (SPOILER ALERT) So why is humanity worth saving then (this is the very temptation Jesus wrestled with in the garden)? A repeated line in the film states: "it is not about deserving...it is about believing." We are not all good. We are broken. We are all in need of a power greater than ourselves.
Wonder Woman is not just about truth, justice, and the American way, but she recognizes that at the core is the hardest work of all...loving the other.