Just average & like most comic movies...predictable

Rating: 4/10 (10 September 2017)

This review "Contains Spoilers", but is vague enough that if you don't know already what will happen in any DC comic or Marvel comic movie you are new to this "genre" or have your head buried in the sand. This is Wonder Woman's "origin story" which the comic movie crowd like to call these types of movies...how the comic hero came to be...how the hero became a superhero.
Today's comic-movie formula is predictable...we are treated to an early intense and loud action scene in which the superhero's direction develops. More of the story continues interspersed with some less intense action scenes which lead to the final most intense (usually to SAVE THE WORLD) action scenes where, like I mentioned before, if you don't know already the superhero is somehow going to come out on top you are must be very naive. This is particularly true of the "first" movie of a possible sequel cycle of three. Three is the magic number today, and I suppose that's become ingrained due to the success of the original Star Wars trilogy. The superhero could die in a third movie because at that point a reboot of the "series" is due. If you are in movie two of a series the hero could be left for dead...a cliffhanger to get you to see movie three. So predictable...so boring.
And typical of most comic superhero movies nowadays (which are sequel-led, rebooted and remade at will on a what appears to be a Hollywood production line) the computer generated imagery allows such unrealistic outcomes like the ever popular falling off a steep cliff or tall building, just to catch yourself or be caught by your fingertips or a piece of clothing snagging at the last moment. Cartoonish feats of unrealistic strength are so easily depicted you are soon numb to all of it that you have no connection to the movie or the characters. At least laws of physics or gravity should be followed, but often aren't. The point that needs to be made is computer graphics can be used to add to a real filmed scene, but instead these kinds of movies have become computer generated animations into which human characters are inserted. They are starting with the fake and trying to insert the real. How about start with the real and try very hard to disguise the inserted fake?
Going back specifically to this movie it is barely an above average comic book action movie even by today's standards. As a movie it's below average because being so formulaic it's hard for any real drama to develop. Sure even a great movie has an underlying formula, but if you are drawn into an original or real story, the drama, and/or the characters you are less focused on the predictable formula.
One of the underlying subplots is the vague "love story" between Gadot and Chris Pine's character. It was a little confusing because the fact she was Amazonian where no males exist and being "created from clay" by Zeus what caused her to "do it" with Pine. (There's a real spoiler) As a movie it is somewhat improved from the Batman vs. Superman disaster where Gal Gadot first appeared as Wonder Woman. Probably this opinion is due to not having to watch Henry Cavill's flat depiction of Superman.
But sadly when it comes right down to it, like Tanya Roberts in Beast Master, the best part of this movie is looking at Gal Gadot's body (if you have appreciation for the female body). As far as her and Chris Pine's acting? What's to say...they did their jobs well disappearing into their characters. This is a movie not really of acting, but the actors becoming more or less props in another run of the mill Hollywood comic production line CGI-heavy action movie.