Mythology and World War I setting are pluses, but Wonder Woman's exploits add up to puerile wish fulfillment

Rating: 4/10 (8 May 2018)

When Wonder Woman came out, it was touted as a "higher class" action hero film. Indeed, right away we're introduced to a narrative infused with mythology, where Amazon warriors created by Zeus are entrusted to protect all mankind. Diana (never referred to "Wonder Woman" during the film), is the daughter of Hippolyta, and she and her fellow Amazonians live on a secluded island, training to eventually confront the God of War, Ares, who is held responsible for all the wars propagated by an evil mankind, fallen from grace after their initial emergence in paradise.
What Wonder Woman also has going for it is the World War I setting-Diana's leading man is American pilot Captain Steve Trevor who ends up on the Amazons' island, after his plane is shot down by the Germans. The setting of "the war to end all wars" is appropriate as many of the battles ended up in stalemates, highlighted by pointless trench warfare, leading to massive casualties. Later it's Ares who tells Diana that he was only a passive onlooker to all the carnage. It's men themselves who are responsible for all the perfidy. And what better illustration is the conflict, initially entitled "The Great War," which perhaps represents mankind's greatest folly.
While Ares remains Diana's primary antagonist in the narrative, the Germans, represented by real-life World War I general, Erich Luddendorf and a nasty chemist, Isabel Maru, are the primary villains on the earthly plane. It's Maru who's developed some new kind of poison gas that threatens to turn the war in favor of the Germans and Diana, Trevor and a motley crew assembled by Trevor, must stop them.
Act 2 of Wonder Woman is unfortunately rather puerile as the idea of a woman with supernatural powers proves to be wish fulfillment for deluded feminists and their male enablers. Maybe kids might be impressed by all the histrionics, but when Diana manages to wipe out an entire German regiment and successfully liberates a besieged French town singlehandedly, one can only laugh at the stupidity of such a concept.
At a certain point, Luddendorf is able to release Maru's gas, killing many in another French town, and Diana takes revenge, killing the brutal general (in real-life, Luddendorf did not die in World War I, and lived until 1937!). Meanwhile Trevor and his team blow up Maru's laboratory. Soon Trevor successfully highjacks the bomber loaded with poison gas which Luddendorf had ordered dropped on London.
The plot has two twists: Trevor must sacrifice himself to get rid of the gas and Ares is revealed to be Sir Patrick Morgan, the British politician who was trying to arrange an armistice between the warring parties. I suppose the writers get some credit for these twists but Diana's final confrontation with Ares proves to be anti-climactic, as we've already suffered through enough unrelenting gore.
Gal Gadot as Diana is eye candy for presumably a majority male audience and must be applauded for the very good shape she's in. Nonetheless Gadot does not have the requisite warmth to end up as an iconic, endearing character. More successful is the handsome Chris Pine, best known for his work as James T. Kirk on the Star Trek reboot. Special mention must be given to David Thewlis as Ares. He reminds me of the late Alan Rickman, who was a natural playing complicated antagonists.
Watch Wonder Woman for the production design and a few good performances. But in the end, it's really just another comic book action flick detached from the historical verisimilitude it attempts to impart.