A normal origin story

Rating: 7/10 (14 June 2017)

I was incredibly excited to go see Wonder Woman mostly because of the reviews -- and, of course, the excitement among women that we finally, finally had a superhero movie all to ourselves. I would say that, perhaps, my expectations were through the roof; I was bound to get my hopes smashed a little bit. And I won't lie: they were. But the more I've thought about the movie I saw, the more I have come to terms with what was given, and the more that I've come to enjoy the message I took with me.
See, Wonder Woman is your average, cheesy superhero origin story. The only difference is that it's a woman at the forefront -- which, of course, makes it abnormal in the superhero genre. However, the movie is no more or less cheesy than Captain America, or Iron Man, or the far too many Spiderman movies we've now had thrown in our faces. Is the writing a bit underwhelming and quite lazy? Yeah, it is. There are times where I seriously rolled my eyes because the writing definitely could have been better. But the action was top- notch (I don't usually like slo-mo, but it was used perfectly here), and the message was strong and clear.
It bothered me, at first, that the movie was so....simple, in a way. I guess you could say I'm so used to broody, dark, pseudo- intellectual superhero movies that followed in Nolan's footsteps (I'm looking at you, Man of Steel) that I wasn't quite expecting a superhero movie that went back to the basics. Wonder Woman wasn't without its critiques on modern issues, but they were interspersed throughout the film and unavoidable BECAUSE of the protagonist's entire backstory. And yet, I was waiting throughout the movie for some lightbulb moment of truth about life.
When that moment came, at the time I found it mediocre and predictable because the movie had been hinting at it all along, but I've since realized this was purposeful. The director, it seemed, always intended to have the movie be straightforward in its themes, and lighthearted in its mode of getting this theme across. The theme of love, choosing love, and accepting humans for all of their flaws was always the intended message, and it was a CLEAR message with little other room for interpretation (which was the point). Although the acting at times was wooden, and the dialogue off in quite a few scenes, the end game was always to get this clear, empowering message about humanity across - - without any weird, unnecessary brood in the middle. Was the love plot a little dissatisfying? Yes. Was it necessary to further the message? Yes. Were the side characters...unnecessary? Yes. But I'll argue they were needed in order to make it, like all the others, a cheesy, classic superhero movie. And while at first I was irritated that Wonder Woman was so...classic...I'm glad that it was, because it makes room for fleshing out her story further in the sequels.
I'm okay with that, mostly because it allows me to see more killer action sequences (more Amazons, please!) with a solid protagonist.