Standout film among the new DCEU

Rating: 5/10 (26 June 2017)

After the mild success of man of steel and the dreadful BvS, I din't know what to think of DC's next installment to their cinematic universe. After my first viewing I was genuinely surprised by Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman." Lets break it all down.
Acting: Gal Gadot is fantastic as Princess Diana/WW. After watching it I can't really think of anyone who could fit the character better than her. Due to Gal's success it's easy for another person's great performance to get overlooked. Chris pine shines as Diana's sidekick, Steve Trevor. His character had depth, was layered, and his sacrifice at the end felt very in character.
Visual Effects: I was not in love with the the visual effects. Everything looked a little fake, especially wonder woman's jumping. The slo-mo was overused to the point where it got ridiculous.
The main problem I had with this film was the underwhelming reveal of Ares' true identity as Sir Patrick. After Diana kills General Ludendorff and sees the soldiers continuing to prepare for battle, she realizes that he wasn't Ares. She then breaks down and Steve explains to her that maybe she was wrong, maybe it's humanity that has the destructive tendencies that leads inevitably lead to war and fighting. I wish the film had followed up on this idea because it would have been a cool introspective commentary on the volatility of humankind, as well as a new approach to a superhero film that I did not see coming at all. Instead they had to ruin with a by the numbers face off between a villain who wants to team up with the hero in order to fulfill his violent aspirations, and the hero who refuses to give in. The actual fighting reminded me a lot of the final battle in BvS.
I loved how we got to see Diana's motives, how the film started out in the present and you got to see how the past affected her choices that she made in BvS, and ones she'll likely make in the future film. Overall, there was a great development of Diana's character, to the point where everything she did felt in character and natural. It was awesome finally seeing a good Female superhero movie. Aside from the final battle and the visual effects, I thought wonder woman was a great film and a step in the right direction for the new DC universe.
8/10