Solid genre movie - but still a genre movie

Rating: Null/10 (24 March 2018)

I watched this before watching Spiderman: Homecoming, but wrote this after doing so. Without the comparison I was already disappointed in Wonder Woman; but after watching a Marvel film, the difference was all the more evident.
Wonder Woman starts with a link to the modern attempt at a franchise before jumping back to an origin story. It is a simple affair in terms of setting up one main villain, and letting it play out. It does have some interesting and brave aspects to it, and I appreciated what it did in terms of the male lead and the ultimate villain, but there was a lot of baggy material around it. The supporting characters offer color but the film itself doesn't seem to spark. It is too earnest for the most part, and never gives the audience permission to enjoy it as a piece of entertainment (something that Marvel does well). The action sequences suffer from being too obviously CGI in nature, and some of the effects are surprisingly weak - in some moments it already looks dated and it has not been out that long.
The cast are good though, and deserve more. Gadot is much more effective on the promotional appearances than she is here. At times she is limited by her range, at others she is limited by the material. Pine is good throughout but not much more than a twinkle and good humor in terms of character. Thewlis, Huston, Bremner, and others all add quality to the cast but there is not always the material there for them. Like all the superhero films, it ends up with two special effects hitting each other surrounded by lots of CGI destruction; but what matters is what it does outside of that and leading up to it. In the case of Wonder Woman, it doesn't do enough, and takes too long to do it.