Really wanted to love it

Rating: 7/10 (4 June 2017)

This movie had everything I could want: A female lead, Chris Pine, and fantastic reviews. I went in with high expectations, excited to see this film that nearly everyone was praising, and for its part, it did sort of fulfill those expectations... until the last third of the film.
The first two thirds of Wonder Woman were exactly what I'd read online; they were fun, funny, and exciting. Gal Gadot is charismatic, entertaining, and really connects with the audience. The chemistry between her and Chris Pine is fantastic; their banter in the first two-thirds of the film is really what makes it worth watching. Enter Lucy Davis and the film becomes even more fun.
The fun is what keeps the film afloat and keeps the audience engaged, and the fun is what is suddenly sacrificed in the third act. The movie abruptly switches from refreshingly light-hearted to tiresomely typical of a comic book movie. The villain reveal is obvious, but I could forgive that if the show down were at least interesting. Instead, it is reminiscent of just about every comic book movie and quite frankly becomes boring. The fun, smart dialogue and pacing is sacrificed for an overly long, predictable, and clichéd fight scene. All of the emotional and character-based build-up is set aside and I found myself honestly not that affected by any of the sacrifices or revelations. Overall, it was seriously boring and Ares was a waste of a potentially great David Thewlis.
This disappointment is in addition to the excess of characters suddenly introduced halfway through the film. We see Etta fairly early on, so I expected her to have a larger role - and I was quite looking forward to that because I enjoyed her, Diana, and Steve on screen together - but she was set aside for three predictable and forgettable characters, who were half-developed and honestly quite pointless. The three could have easily been combined into one, which maybe would have given the audience a chance to connect with him.
Overall, I found it a little difficult to review and rate this movie. As I said, I enjoyed the beginning and the middle and would rate those a solid 8.5/10. However, it falls apart at the end and quickly checks every genre cliché that it had so deftly previously avoided. It's worth seeing, but it's not the game changer that internet would have you think it is.