A two-and-a-half hour thrill ride that delivers what it promises...and "so much more."

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2017)

Those aren't sarcastic quote marks, either!
This movie basically serves as a prequel to BATMAN V. SUPERMAN in that it explains the strange WWI-era photograph Bruce Wayne found in the latter film. Which is a good thing. Because, as most of us fanboys over age thirty know, the comic book Wonder Woman started out as a super-heroine fighting against the Axis Powers of World War II!
But, as the late, great Peter O'Toole pointed out (in that 1980 cult classic THE STUNT MAN), World War I is one of the most romanticized conflicts in military history. If only because it demonstrated to those born and raised in the Victorian era that war is _not_ romantic! Especially for those caught in the crossfire (literally and otherwise). It was in WWI that tanks, war planes, and fully automatic machine guns were first invented. So, naturally, there would never again be anymore marching into battle with fifers and drummers leading the way.
Diana of Themiscyra (having been raised on a well-nicknamed Paradise Island) is the perfect personification of all that culture shock. And Gal Gadot, having been born and raised in often-war-torn Israel, is able to give us (the viewing audience) a very convincing simulation of that shock. Even with the slightly jaded Steve Trevor as her tour guide!
That brings us to Chris Pine.
The U.S. Army didn't officially enter WWI till 1916, at the earliest. But, quite a few individuals didn't want to wait that long. So, they either joined the famed Lafayette Escadrille via the French Foreign Legion. Or they joined the British army as horse-drawn ambulance drivers. As Pine's version of Trevor is working for British Military Intelligence, I venture to think he was recruited into the latter via their French counterparts (Le Deauxieme Bureau). If so, I have to commend him for whatever boning up he did on the historical background of WWI. Turkey was, indeed, a German ally during that war. That, in turn, makes Steve Trevor's presence in the Mediterranean even more plausible. As he would no doubt have been trying to get to the British naval base on Malta in that stolen monoplane!
I also have to give kudos to the characters of Samir, Charlie, and the Chief. Original characters they might be (with undertones of a politically incorrect joke about three guys walking into a bar). But, they still lend a very nice mixed bag of poignancy and comic relief to this film.
As for David Thewlis? Well, let's just say (for those who haven't see the movie, already) that Sir Patrick Morgan is _not_ Bruce Wayne's great-great-grandfather.