Wonder Woman (2017)

Diana (Gal Godot), princess of the Amazons, is just discovering that she is different from her sisters when pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) pierces the bubble that hides the island and crashes. He’s followed by ships full of Germans, thus bringing WWI to paradise. Steve has vital information on evil “Dr. Poison’s” newest lethal gas. Diana assumes that the god of war must be behind the bloodshed, so they set off together, with slightly different plans on how to end the war.

There’s been a lot of talk about this film in the days before its release, so let me get the big questions out of the way.

• Is Wonder Woman good? Yes.
• Is this the best superhero movie ever? No. Not by a mile.
• Is this the best DC-Snyder-verse movie? Yes, by ten miles and a walk around the park.
• Was Gal Godot the right pick for Wonder Woman? Oh yes.

So, if it isn’t the best superhero movie ever—as some reviews have claimed, and as its early Rotten Tomato score indicated—where does it fall down? In the expected places. At times it tries far too hard to be epic. As Mal would put it, there’s a lot of speechifying. We also get the “everyone is stupid” problem so common in films. If people would take just a few minutes to explain things to Diana, a lot of things would go better and easier. But apparently everyone thinks that ignorance is just fun. Plus if you can’t figure out the big reveal an hour before it happens, you don’t deserve to see movies. There’s also a hold-overs from the Snyder films (Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman): the excessive use of slow motion/stop motion in fights. And the third act drags. Plus there’s no attempt to make any sense out of Greek gods in the universe (the comics fall down on that one too). And I should mention the special effects. Generally, they are good, but a couple times Diana suddenly becomes a cartoon. I haven’t seen anything that bad in a big budget superhero movie since Spider-Man, and that was fifteen years ago.

To counter those numerous problems, we’ve got a nice trade off between serious and light moments. We have a theme with some weight to it on the nature of man, war, love, and peace. We’ve got an above average plot for an action film—not brilliant, but grading on a curve, it is on the positive side of the hill. The acting from everyone (when they aren’t speechifying) is solid, with a few extra points going to David Thewlis. And while Chris Pine is doing the same thing he does in every film, it fits nicely in this case.

But here’s the thing: None of that matters. You see, Wonder Woman, the film, is—at best—a good movie. Not great. But pretty good. I didn’t love the movie.

But I loved Wonder Woman.

And that’s what matters. I don’t know if Gal Gadot is a good actress, but she is a charismatic one, and she was born for this part. DC Comics-based films haven’t had her like since Christopher Reeve in Superman. She is perfect, and the role is written exactly right. When was the last time you liked a DC film character? Not liked watching them in a film, but liked them? Sure you liked The Dark Knight, but it wasn’t because you really cared about Bruce Wayne. I enjoyed watching Keaton in the Tim Burton films, but I didn’t love the character. I was interested in him—intrigued even. But I held little affection for him. It has been thirty years since DC managed this. This is the superhero that’s been missing.

Gadot and director Jenkins combine all the elements in a way that’s been lacking. Diana is friendly and good in the purest sense of the word. But she’s also cool—we’re talking Tony Stark level of cool. She’s innocent, but smart. She’s strong while also being very feminine. She’s sensitive but knows when a smirk is the proper response. She isn’t broken. She doesn’t have weird issues. She is a hero and one you’d want to meet.

With a franchise film, what matters most is character, and they nailed it. If I ran Warner Bros, I’d be junking other Snyder films to get everyone working on Wonder Woman 2 and Wonder Woman 3. Maybe those films will have weak plots and be filled with problems, but they will be about Wonder Woman, and that’s the important thing. People will go to see her. I’ll go to see her. DC finally has the character they need, the character Superman should have been in the last two films. She might just save the DC Snyder-verse.

Yes, the lone female superhero is here and she rules.