The Second Best Superhero Origin Story Yet!

Rating: 9/10 (5 June 2017)

In my humble opinion, comic book movies work best when they don't take themselves too seriously. With the (possible) exception of 'The Dark Knight' and 'X-Men: First Class' , every 'realistic' CBM to date has foundered on the ridiculousness of the basic idea of super beings in garish costumes interacting with the 'real' world. 'Wonder Woman' never makes that mistake. From its opening in the mythical land of the Amazons, through equally 'mythical' versions of London and the Western Front in late 1918 (although I'm almost certain that the photograph that a certain B Wayne finally returns to Diana at the start of the movie was stated as having been taken in 1917 in BvS) to the somewhat clichéd CGI showdown between Diana and Ares at the end, the movie remains true to the spirit of its comic book source.
Keeping things as spoiler free as possible, the Amazons idyll of leather-clad workouts and combat training is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Allied spy Steve Trevor in a crashing Fokker monoplane, hotly pursued by ship-borne German troops. I must confess, I was so distracted by the similarities between this setup and the one in 'The Land that Time Forgot' that I didn't question the mechanics of following an aeroplane in a ship, nor did I notice that the ship either turns around and leaves after the Germans lose a pitched battle against the Amazons, or it spontaneously sinks, as it simply disappears from the movie at this point. Anyway, as a result of personal tragedy, or Steve Trevor's description of 'The War to End Wars', or both, Diana decides that Ares (Greek god of war, and the last of the Greek gods in the movie, for some reason) must be behind the slaughter of millions in this pointless conflict. So she and Trevor head for London, thence to Belgium and a showdown with General Eric Ludendorff (a real life historical personage), who is frantically searching for a new weapon to renew the German offensive before the Armistice can be negotiated (placing the events of the movie in late 1918, presumably after the failure of the 'Michael' offensive and the defeat of Austria/Hungary). Along the way, Diana discovers the true extent of her powers, refuses to conform to the restrictions placed on women by the conventions of the late-nineteenth/early twentieth century and puts Ares back in his box (until the inevitable sequel, presumably).
Suffice to say, Gal Gadot is a perfect Diana, very much cast in the mould of Christopher Reeve's Superman, or Chris Evan's Captain America; her limitations as an actress actually serving the straightforward moral certainty of the comic book heroine she is playing. Chris Pine is terrific as Steve Trevor, (almost) playing him as Captain Kirk suddenly finding that he's become Lois Lane. The supporting cast are uniformly good, although Danny Huston's Ludendorff is probably a little too much of an 'Indiana Jones' style Nazi (or, having quickly scanned his Wikipedia entry...) for a movie set in the First World War! But it's only a minor quibble, just like the anachronistic Native American sidekick, everyone, Germans included, using what look suspiciously like British WWII era gas masks, the portrayal of Douglas Haig as a one-dimensional, indifferent, callous warmonger and the already excessively (IMHO) criticized murky CGI finale, which at least remains true to the medium of comic books. The film ends with Diana's 'mission statement' as Wonder Woman, to save the world through the female principle (or 'love' as the dialogue puts it); no problem with that, it's been identified as a central theme of Wagner's Ring Cycle, after all. But unfortunately, the preceding two hours don't really establish any distinction between Diana's feminine brand of villain clobbering and the masculine variety. But then, it is a comic book movie, after all. View it as that, and enjoy!