Brilliant movie - Gal Gadot excels as Wonder Woman

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2017)

Wonder Woman – a review
I went to see Wonder Woman this evening, along with my three wonder women: my wife, step-daughter and grand-daughter. I really enjoyed this movie, which is based on the DC Comics mythology, which in its turn draws from themes in Greek mythology. Gal Gadot plays Diana, the Amazon Princess, Chris Pine (you may remember from Star Trek) is Steve Taylor, Robin Wright (from House of Cards) plays Antiope, and Connie Nielsen is Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons and Diana's mother.
The story is played as a flashback, in which the present day Diana Prince meditates on a photograph of herself with a group of men taken during the Great War of 1914-1918. It tells the background to the whole story, which involves a struggle of the gods between Zeus and Ares: Ares prevails but Zeus manages to leave a weapon to be used by the Amazon warriors when the time should come. Well, guess what, the time has come. With the prelude out of the way, the main story gets underway with the appearance of Taylor whose place crashes just off the island of Themiscyra. He brings news of the Great War currently being waged and the dreadful slaughter going on. Since the Amazons' very purpose is to bring peace and justice, Diana argues that they have a duty to take part, but Hippolyta forbids it. Diana defies the Queen and escapes, taking what she believes to be the weapons Zeus devised to be used for her purpose. Diana and Taylor head for London where they deliver vital information concerning the development of poison gas which will lead to millions more deaths and prolong the warfare. This time Taylor is forbidden from taking any further action, but he defies his orders. The pair go to war in Belgium along with a small groups of misfits – the scenario reminds me very much of the Guns of Navarone. They deliver a small Belgian village from their occupying force, but soon after the village itself is destroyed in a gas attack. Diana realizes that Ares, her ancient nemesis, is behind all this and defeats him in a final battle.
There are some quite humorous scenes of Diana trying to figure out how to fit into life in the wider world, but the general anti-war message is far more important, indeed sometimes the movie gets rather repetitive about the horrors of modern warfare. Diana demonstrates the positive value of standing up for the weak and powerless against a brutal and oppressive power, and shows compassion for those who are weak. It is interesting to watch her development from one who is idealistic and slightly naive – she thinks that if she destroys Ares that the war will end, while Taylor claims that the problem is in the hearts of men who are too willing to use force for their own gain, who employ whatever means Ares may place in their hands.
There is certainly plenty of fighting and lots of loud booming explosions. At times I felt that the fight scenes looked pretty much like something out of X-Men or the recent Batman / Superman movies, whose genre they share. Diana's special gadgets – her armlets, shield and whip – are all principally defensive weapons rather that offensive, but her style of doing battle was not really all that different from that of the men around her.
All in all though, it was very good to see a strong, self-confident central female character who drives the action throughout the movie. I recommend all men to bring their wives and daughters to see this movie, to introduce them to a new kind of feminism. The line that sums it all up for me is : "It's about what you believe. And I believe in love. Only love will truly save the world."