Gadot - wonderful! The rest of the film? Not so much. :(

Rating: 4/10 (21 October 2017)

I finally got around to watching WONDER WOMAN last night. Despite its popularity and all the rave reviews, it is mediocre at best. Gal Gadot herself is wonderful and a perfect choice for the part. She is able to project both the strength, courage and determination of a superhero, as well as empathy, love and happiness with equal ease. Her lithe, athletic form fits well into the costume, highlighting her natural sexiness. She is every bit the fighter you would expect, the worthy successor to the warrior tradition of her mother and her aunt.
The scenes on her home island are the best in the film. I enjoyed watching the character as a young child and later beginning her training. Robin Wright again demonstrates her acting skills in a small but memorable role as Antiope. The training and battle sequences on the island are a pleasure to watch. The use of super slow-motion is truly amazing.
But then of course, it is time for our young heroine to leave the island....and the movie promptly falls apart. The entire storyline becomes absolutely ludicrous. And I don't mean "comic-book" silly, I mean downright stupid. The grossly-overrated Chris Pine is hopelessly overmatched by Gadot, and the ancillary characters are the predictable group of politically-correct caricatures. Half the characters in the film could simply have been written out completely. The final superhero battle does restore some dignity, but not as much as it should. By that point, the ridiculous plot had so insulted my intellect and wasted my time that I had already begun to check my watch – which is always my personal gauge for a film's success or failure.
Watch this film, just to see Gal Gadot. She really is the embodiment of a superhero. But even her superior strength can't drag the baggage of this train wreck through to the end.