Makes me Wonder

Rating: 5/10 (9 November 2017)

Looking past the Gal Gadot appeal, Is there anything that Wonder Woman brings to an overcrowded table?
This is the same origin story as everyone else in the Marvel and DC universes. The character has a quest hinging on a romanticized destiny...check, a love interest...check, a nemesis...check, the bad guys have a secret weapon....check. More bewildering is the praise of feminism that has elevated the film to greater acclaim than it deserves. This is nonsense.
The hero is a heroine; that is pretty much it. Gadot has enough conviction to command the screen but she is not a great actress, Fortunately she doesn't need to be. The script doesn't give her much of an inner life. In particular, her romance with Steve Trevor is fairly staged and seldom organic. Her claim to understand the power of human love by the end of the movie is no more earnest than Trump's claim to understanding the problems of America.
Wonder Woman is unusual in its structure. It has an enjoyable middle section bookended by a fairy cheesy first and third act. Diana leaves her home in the over green screened Amazon world and enters WWII Europe with Steve Trevor. The film handles her displacement in the real world with some good humour before allowing her to shine on the front lines of the battle. The action scene are fine, although there are a few too many kicks and punches in slow motion. Watching this effect in 21st century cinema is like watching a sporting gear commercial. The climax is disappointing because it is dull. Diana exchanges gimmicky banner with her nemesis Ares while engaging it a relatively lifeless fireball fight.
The movie succeeds in making you want to see more of Gadot in the hope that maybe a sequel will have more imagination in the writing. However, that seems unlikely.