Script doctor.

Rating: 1/10 (30 August 2017)

1: Lighten up on the inspirational music. I thought I was watching a car advertisement, I really did.
2: Multi-faceted characters. All the characters in this movie are one-dimensional and none of them has any appreciable arc. Chris Pine's character starts off a heroic good guy, he ends up a heroic good guy. Same with Gal Gadot. How about you introduce a little tension and misunderstanding between Gadot and Pine early on? Make him more of an ambiguous character, a rough diamond who is generally decent but makes some selfish decisions, which Gadot disapproves of. She can be more haughty, high-minded and judgmental early on, believing in her own righteousness and thinking he is a scoundrel. As the movie goes on, Gadot discovers her own flaws but makes Pine want to become a better man. This makes the end scene more touching, as her influence over him has completed his arc, he makes a huge sacrifice because he believes in her and she in turn learns that people can be both bad and good, but are better when they have someone to admire. Her arc is similarly completed when she learns that she is not perfect, that she too is flawed, just like the people she previously looked down on.
3: Morality: The morality of this film is disturbing to say the least. Wonder Woman goes around murdering ordinary working class German men because they happen to be unfortunate enough to be conscripted into the wrong army, at the wrong time. But at the end of the film she spares the life of a truly evil, genocidal torturer - who deserves to die by anyone's reckoning. Pity is indeed a noble and important human attribute, but where was her pity for the ordinary working class men she murdered? Why does she feel pity for a genocidal maniac who deserves to die? How about instead of having her kill ordinary working class men who were just conscripted at the wrong time and in the wrong place, she shows them pity and mercy, and kills the genocidal torturer? Why make the message of the film that people are both good and bad, but have everyone hugging once Ares dies, as if they were all under a spell? The morality of this film is all over the place. If everyone hugs once Ares dies, just kill Ares and don't kill his unfortunate minions. Were they under a spell, or weren't they?
4. Ditch the theme music. Seriously; it's totally at odds with the character you're trying to represent. The director has chosen to make the main character a pure and inspirational goddess, but allowed her to be represented by the raunchy, aggressive theme music of an angry stripper on PCP. I get that the theme tune was composed for a different movie, under a different director, but does anyone else involved with the debacle? Leave the theme tune to the end credits, if you have to use it at all.
5. Don't have the Amazons fight like they have no clue about war. They have bows, they have the high ground, why did they jump off the cliffs only to get slaughtered on the beach? It doesn't matter how much technology advances in warfare, you don't give up the high ground, especially to an unknown enemy. By doing so, it undoes all the early work of the film which portrays them as fierce and capable warriors and makes them look like silly girls playing games. If you need to have a scene in which people are dying and Wonder Woman gets to both show off her fighting skills and be tragically rescued, make it an ambush. Watching the Amazons fling themselves from the cliffs was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in a movie, almost as bad as the time James Bond surfed a tidal wave and equally cringe-worthy. Have them ambushed by the soldiers, you can have the same result with far more credibility and emotional resonance. It's difficult to feel too sorry for people who fling themselves off cliffs, shooting grappling arrows, only to Tarzan into a 8.22 mm round fired by a man with probably a fortnight's basic training. These women came across more Cirque Du Soleil than Amazon warrior, but on the plus side; if their island ever sinks under rising tides caused by global warming, they've got a steady career in Vegas just waiting for them. Three shows a day and all the shrimp they can eat. Yum.
6. The sidekicks were a confused mess. I'm not against the idea of having a disparate group of mercenaries all fighting for various things with ambiguous morality, in fact it was quite a good idea to teach Diana the nuance of human relationships and interactions. That said, the characters were poorly-fleshed out and didn't really serve much purpose. It felt like the director couldn't decide whether they wanted comedy sidekicks, or Saving Private Ryan type tragic soldiers, and so chose the former, but scripted the latter. What we ended up with was comedy sidekicks without the comedy, which was the worst of all worlds. My solution to this is simple, don't try to make them all individual characters with poorly thought out back-stories, that don't come to anything (like the sniper who couldn't shoot) - let them fulfill their destinies as comedy-sidekicks who make the audience laugh. You can still add serious moments, like when the Native American is talking about how his land was stolen by Chris Pine's people and Diana's criticism of his mercenary actions suddenly rings childish and hollow. That was a great moment, probably the best in the film in fact. By interspersing comedy banter with serious moments like those, you can created a much more powerful effect than by explicitly giving every one of them a tragic backstory, but never exploring it beyond hearing them complain a bit because you think it gives your movie substance.