Stevie's Wonder

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2017)

Well, this DC comicdom blockbuster wasn't what I expected at all. Although I am a DC fan, I'd never read the Wonder Woman comics themselves although she was a member of the Justice League Of America comics which I did read avidly as a boy.
There was an entertaining introductory prologue where we see the young Amazon Princess Diana learning her skills as well as gaining the independence she needs to later strike out on her own as she joins forces on the front line of World War One with Steve Rogers, an American soldier working undercover for British Intelligence, whose path initially crosses with hers when he accidentally leads the pursuing Germans to Paradise Island while escaping with top secret information vital to the war effort.
I thought the idea of transposing the action to 1918 a clever and effective one as it reduces the need for over-the-top "God On God" SFX pyrotechnics and in a neat twist, centred the action on the day before Armistice Day, making Diana's Mission all the more important and urgent.
Of course, being a super heroine, Wonder Woman, of necessity, requires a super-villain to push against, and after being sidetracked by another competing red herring, a suitably all- powerful foe in the person of fellow God Ares, played by David Thewlis, emerges in time for a climactic battle at the end. Thewlis however is better in his part before he reveals himself and has to be kitted out in his Greek toga to provide a seemingly unlikely foil against our girl.
Gal Gadot, highly praised in the title part, is indeed excellent in her role, whether playing the day-saving heroine or the innocent abroad character trying to settle into wartime London. Athletic and attractive she holds the movie together well. Chris Pine supports her ably as the down-to-earth hero Rogers.
I did feel the kitchen-sink climax between Wonder Woman and Ares undid a lot of the good work that had gone before as it too garishly contrasted with the WW1 realism striven for elsewhere.
One of DC's better recent movie entries, the story did however seem to write itself into a number of dead ends by the end from which it will be interesting to see how the writers move things on. However, in the comic universe, as we've seen many times before, all things are possible and I look forward to seeing this character return in future adventures.