When it comes to summer blockbusters in 2017, nearly all eyes have been focused on the rebooted adventures of a certain teenage webslinger. But against all odds, Wonder Woman stakes an early claim to being the best superhero outing of this year, with an exhilarating origins tale that is undoubtedly the greatest film to have emerged from the DC Comics Extended Universe.
Gal Gadot is Diane Prince, the titular hero who is forced to abandon the island of Themyscira when US military pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) washes ashore. Instead, she swaps her idyllic climes for the hellish landscape of the Western Front, although the conflict she’s fighting is far from the one that we’ve seen in the history books. As an introduction to Diane’s character, it couldn’t be a more perfect origins tale – with Zack Snyder’s accomplished story following her journey from fledgling warrior to full-blown badass.
Along the way though, we’re given our first glimpses of Diane’s power, with one particularly delicious sequence following her as she nearly single-handedly fights off encroaching German forces in an occupied French town. However, there’s no doubting that the film wouldn’t be half the success that it is without an incendiary performance from Gadot who allows her superhero to display a side that’s a little bit human. For all of Diane’s strengths, Gadot never lets us forget that she’s essentially a fish out of water in another world and it works particularly well when she’s forging a Clark Kent/Lois Lane relationship with Chris Pine’s military hero.
Saying that, Wonder Woman is not a film without its weaknesses; the final sequence drifts dangerously close to the overblown CGI sequences that Batman v Superman seriously suffered from but it’s thankfully rescued by a satisfyingly emotional pay off. All considered, director Patty Jenkins has crafted a film that is about to unexpectedly revive the maligned reputation of the DCEU on the big screen, and it couldn’t have arrived at a better time.
4/5
