Wonder Woman (2017)
Directed by Patty Jenkins
An Amazon princess comes to the world of Man in the grips of the First World War to confront the forces of evil and bring an end to human conflict.
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But I’d argue that Wonder Woman’s time period is a pretty clever stealth weapon to explore some of the movies more progressive themes (more on that in a sec), not to mention the fact that it gives the film a retro-cool charge reminiscent of Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger.
“Wonder Woman” evokes not only the spirit of Richard Donner’s “Superman,” but also Joe Johnston’s “Captain America: The First Avenger,” while still being its own thing.
The movie is a derivative hash of comic book picture plot points and origin story touchstones — half “Captain America: The First Avenger,” half “Thor.”
And it does so by looking to the past, taking inspiration from the likes of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger .
There are moments in Wonder Woman that recall Captain America: The First Avenger a little too closely for comfort.
Wonder Woman’s shift to the first World War feels like an attempt to create some distance from the unavoidable Captain America: The First Avenger comparisons evoked by the plunking of another superhero into period battle, finding comic book–worthy foes hiding amidst the historical ones.
The camera loves Gadot, too, in the same way it loves other pretty god-like superheroes, like Chris Hemsworth’s “Thor.”
The movie is a derivative hash of comic book picture plot points and origin story touchstones — half “Captain America: The First Avenger,” half “Thor.”
And it does so by looking to the past, taking inspiration from the likes of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger .
There’s a shot early in the movie that reads as a deliberate homage to The Little Mermaid — if you were a kid in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, you’ll know it when you see it — and that, along with Marvel’s first Thor film, is perhaps the most direct comparison one can make to what Heinberg and company have created.
There are echoes of what the Marvel operation managed in the similar beats of the original “Captain America” and “Thor.”
Jenkins’ film owes much in concept and style to the likes of Marvel’s first Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.
There’s a smart gender-reverse tribute to an iconic scene in the first Christopher Reeve “Superman,” a scene of Wonder Woman breaking free of bondage, while the lasso of truth gets a good workout as a lie detector and a cool weapon.
“Wonder Woman” evokes not only the spirit of Richard Donner’s “Superman,” but also Joe Johnston’s “Captain America: The First Avenger,” while still being its own thing.
One of the first things you may notice about “Wonder Woman” is that it doesn’t seem as bleak as previous DC films, even though the bulk of the story takes place during World War I. There’s an overall lightness to the movie, both visually and tonally, that harkens back to Richard Donner’s “Superman,” and in many respects, it feels like Jenkins has taken a page from the Marvel cinematic playbook.
We saw the potential in Batman v Superman, but Wonder Woman confirms it -- this is an example of top-tier actor-to-character merging in the genre, akin to Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Christopher Reeve as Superman, or Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
She and Jenkins have leaned toward Christopher Reeve’s first “Superman” as a model for how to play the role: strong but innocent, a fish out of water.
The effect is eerily similar to seeing Christopher Reeve in the 1978 “Superman” — Gadot understands that her character is the one unironic figure in a cynical world, and she lets the humor of the situations happen around her rather than catering to it.
Unfortunately, his presence brings an attack by German troops, and you can guess how well the spears and arrows of the Amazons stack up against the German’s rifles (this invasion reminds me of the 1985 film Witness, in which the peace of an Amish community is disrupted by worldly troubles decided not of their own making).
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En ese sentido no podría ser un esfuerzo más convencional dentro del popular subgénero de los superhéroes; podrá estar inspirada en las historietas originales, pero esto no impide que remita a cintas relativamente recientes como Hellboy (2004), Capitán América: El primer vengador (Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011) e incluso Thor (2011).
Director Patty Jenkins (“Monster”) manages to work all three angles: She channels “Xena: Warrior Princess” in opening scenes, and wraps up with a fanboy-placating CGI spectacle, but in between, “Wonder Woman” plays it pretty straight, with plenty of humor, heart and old-fashioned heroism.
If there’s a Patty Jenkins commonality – this and Monster are her only two features – it’s a theme of compassion, even for people we think are among the worst of us.
Jenkins, who delved into very dark territory with 2003’s Monster and the series The Killing, brings the doomy DC vibe down to earth from some of its more operatic reaches.
The film, from Patty Jenkins (director of the 2003 film which won Charlize Theron an Oscar, Monster ), works elegantly to share the backstory of the first live action Wonder Woman appearing on film, as introduced in Zack Snyder‘s 2016 film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , played by Gal Gadot.
Director Patty Jenkins (“Monster”) gets some pleasant banter going between Diana and Steve, and both actors know how to underplay.
Director Patty Jenkins guided Charlize Theron to an Oscar in the 2003 biopic “Monster.”
Gadot sells the innocence and humor in these moments every bit as convincingly as Daryl Hannah in Splash.
The PG-13 action film is the best DC Comics-inspired movie since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, and one of the few comic book-based films to get the tone just right.
But is it the best D.C. movie since The Dark Knight and worthy of all the giddy pre-release buzz?
“Wonder Woman” isn’t the second coming of “The Dark Knight.”
The film is far from flawless, but Wonder Woman is arguably the best DC comic book film since The Dark Knight.
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Like Robert Downey Jr. in “Iron Man” or Ryan Reynolds in “Deadpool,” Gadot is so right for the role as the eternal Amazon warrior that all the movie really needs to do is go through the motions and it could be watchable.
Wonder Woman probably does the best job with a superhero origin story than any film of its kind since the first Iron Man, back in 2008.
They’re something like Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, if Julia Roberts wore a red-metal breastplate and arm bracelets that sent out seismic ripples of killer energy.