Unfulfilled Potential

Rating: 2/10 (30 December 2017)

In a phrase exploited by a character in another wasted opportunity, "The Circle," this expensive effort is a shameful example of "unfulfilled potential."
I came here today expecting to write a notice that would buck the tide of popularity by pointing to the many ways "Wonder Woman" has turned out to be a greatly predictable banal bore. But I see my fellow Users have beat me to it. Excellent. It is good to see that many in the IMDb base share such good taste. Then why on earth are these overpaid Hollywood geniuses making the movie while these intelligent, sensitive viewers are not?
I do not blame the actors or any who demonstrated decent artistry in their specialties. I mean to include the designers and to some extent the musicians among those who deserve credit, but they have seen their work co-opted and exploited by the producers and a pass-through director and script writers. These latter have taken their cut or salaries under the false pretenses of providing a fresh vision.
The dialog. Even when the dialog aspires to match an epic tone with the mythic origin story it fails to inspire. When it is just people talking, it might as well be nods and grunts for all the humor and romance it wants to convey. Despite IMDb's category, there is nothing truly quotable to be scraped from this sound track.
The plot. Twist? What twist? The predicable nature of this kind of epic demands there be one or more twists - if only to justify why the story plods along within time-worn ruts. Sure, we'll put up with battle scenes turning against our heroine so long as she finds a clever, clever way to get out from her foe's evil clutches. But Nope, nothing clever here. She just gets madder.
When he gets bigger, she gets stronger.
Brilliant.
The characters. Who cares? Did any viewer ever worry about anyone? We knew WW would have the skills and strength to get out of any predicament. We knew that love would be interrupted, as it always is in any attempt at a love sub-plot. Depth was barely skin deep.
The ethnic diversity was a fine attempt to --? Well, to what end I'm not sure. Probably to avoid being lumped by PC critics with all the other movies that don't have "ethnic diversity." Boring.
The crime. The great sin here is the enormous budget being wasted. The film *looks* great, and I feasted my eyes on the period uniforms and settings and on the fine equestrian scenes with female archers, etc etc. I guess from a business perspective this was a fine investment. The high viewer rating suggests that there was a reasonable degree of consumer satisfaction, so maybe future ticket sales by the same team has been assured.
But - silly of me to bring it up, I guess - where was the honest emotion? - the real camaraderie? the insight?
The art?