The god of war

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2017)

DC Comics and Warner Brothers are expanding their universe. After Wonder Woman's appearance in Batman v Superman in 2016, she gets her own standalone film.
In keeping with the Justice League universe, the film has that dark and murky look. We get a long drawn out beginning of a young girl who is a descendant of a Greek god wishing to train to be a warrior despite her mother's resistance to the idea.
We then see a grown up Amazonian princess, Diana (Gal Gadot) who develops little muscular physique despite all her training with fellow warrior sisters on a mystical isolated island of Themyscira.
When an an American pilot Steve (Chris Pine) crashes near this island followed by German soldiers, the Amazonians learn of an outside world where humans are engaged in a great war, the first world war. Diana leaves her island with Steve and goes to London with a desire to stop the war.
Steve has found out about a German chemist called Dr Poison trying to develop chemical weapons that would render gas masks useless in a background of both sides to the war having peace talks. Diane believes that Ares, the god of war is responsible for the human misery caused by warfare.
The film improves once the action moves to London but there are problems with the story. It is weak, when a sinister German general is disposed off well before the end of the film, it just confirms that a certain character is going to be the big bad of the movie.
Some of Steve's ragbag of associates who are there for camaraderie and comic relief are useless. A marksman who cannot shoot.
The film feels overlong and underwhelming. You have to suspend a lot of disbelief in Wonder Woman's acrobatic abilities as well parrying bullets with her wrist bands.
Gadot showed promise in her appearance in Batman v Superman last year, but carrying a film on her own exposed her limitations as an actress. Her range is limited and in many scenes she is just required to pose and replaced by CGI either in slow motion or sped up.