Haters Are Sharpening Knives for a Pillow Fight

Rating: 10/10 (29 September 2018)

When you consider the context of both the DCEU's struggles and women trying to get their footing as filmmakers, this three-act joyride of a spectacle moves and shakes in a way we've never seen. Gadot is as charismatic as they come, and simply thinking about her chemistry with Chris Pine makes me well with happy tears.
It's a superhero origin story, plain and simple, and may be the best one since the likes of Batman Begins and Ironman. It doesn't introduce groundbreaking methods of filmmaking and art, and it doesn't have to.
It starts with Diana receiving the famed picture Lex Luthor had stolen from her in Batman V Superman. Despite the DCEU's controversial library, I LOVE that the films are so closely connected like this. The picture includes a friendly note from Bruce Wayne as she flashes back to the tale we are told, starting with her childhood on Themiscyra and ending with her defeat of a disguised Ares to turn the tide in WWI.
The story is beautifully told and, for lack of a better word, simple. It's simply marvellous. Gadot nails the innocence of being a pure-hearted demigoddess first setting foot in a war-ravaged, early 20th century world. Chris Pine is his usual emotional, charming self who does everything he can to help her while inevitably falling in love with her. As she realizes her power (the 'No Man's Land' scene is one of the G.O.A.T. and you can't convince me otherwise), we see Diana harden into a determined, confident, and terrifying force of nature.
Ares' true identity is a huge twist. I want to say it was predictable but it caught me off-guard in the theater. Either way, it fits and it works.
The action sequences are incredible. Diana slams her bracelets together while training to show a glimpse of her true Power, which finally provokes her aunt and mother into revealing her true identity as the daughter of Zeus himself. She saves Chris Pine more than once as she blasts her way through muddy, death-drenched battlefield with nothing more than a sword and shield. Finally, in a moment of sacrifice, she has a 'Super Saiyan' moment where she is unable to hold back any longer and finally defeats Ares in imagery very similar to millennia of depictions of her father.
I simply don't know how this story could have been told any better. In a way, its structure is an homage to the ancient Greek texts its lore derives from. People who rag on this film are looking for reasons to not be entertained and have missed the point: DC finally got it right, and the world finally has a female hero in one of the best superhero flicks to date.