Good First Half Marred by Poor Final Act

Rating: 7/10 (3 June 2017)

Unfortunately, I came out of the theater underwhelmed as the final act was such a let down compared to the kick-ass 1st act. The 1st act of the film, which mostly takes place on the Amazon's island, was the best part of the entire movie. The backstory of the Amazons was interestingly depicted through Renaissance-type paintings coming to life and the Amazon women were so charismatic , particularly Robin Wright, who steals every scene she's in. The battle between the Amazons and a small invasion force of WWI-era German marines was visually stunning and exciting. The use of slo-mo worked here because of the contrast between the modern weaponry of the sailors and the bows, arrows, and spears used by the Amazons.
The wonderful chemistry between the leads carries over into the 2nd act, which takes place in London, where WW is a fish-out-of-water and Chris Pine's Steve Trevor has to show her the ropes. But, this is where things start to go downhill. Instead of the amazing Amazons, WW is saddled with a new posse that fails to make much of an impression save for the character of "Sameer," a fez-wearing, flirtatious charmer. The baddies, a German General and a scarred female scientist known as "Dr. Poison," are underdeveloped and remain little more than comic-book clichéd characters.
The final act is, ultimately, a mishmash of comic book and good vs. evil tropes, elevated by the convincing and winning performances by the two leads. Because I genuinely liked them as individual characters and as a pairing, the lame finale is bearable. It's almost unbelievable that they killed off Robin Wright's character so early in the film. The 3rd act could have been elevated by the appearance of Robin Wright to help WW bring down Ares. If you're going to kill off such a bad-ass character, why not do it in the final act when the stakes are most high. Also, the 3rd Act wasted an opportunity to give us baddies that had some depth. Dr. Poison could have been a more nuanced character whose outward disfigurement mirrored an even more broken soul. The scene where she seemed to be giving in to Steve Tevor's flirtations but once again became embittered when she saw that he was distracted by the arrival of WW, was so promising but, ultimately, the character remained woefully underdeveloped.
A terrific cast with undeniable chemistry elevated this movie but it could have been better.