solid superhero flick

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2019)

While not quite the be-all end-all some friends and critics lead me to expect, Wonder Woman is a first rate, character-driven action movie with a terrific performance by Gail Gadot, who previously supplied the only enjoyable moments of Superman vs. Batman.
Action scenes are exciting and fun, although director Jenkins is perhaps a bit too fond of that trick where you slow down the action for effect; it doesn't have to be done for *every* *move*.
I heard a few people say that the film really captures how super-women would fight, but this really shows more how Cirque du Soleil performers would fight. It's basic martial arts fighting with a little more flexibility in the joints. It's very cool.
The movie works hard to create moments that look to come out of a comic book, like a strikingly iconic moment of WW walking towards the camera or, in the film's best scene, her crouched behind her shield against a bullet barrage.
While some superhero movies are just noisy action sequences strung together by a skeleton plot and cartoon characters (such as the overrated Avengers), Wonder Woman takes its story seriously, with WW's idealism butting up against humanity's awfulness.
For a movie set in WWI there isn't really that much period flavor. There is, however, a terrific sense of WW's otherness in a world where women are not taken seriously.
Overall one of the better superhero movies, and well worth watching.