Wonder Woman

Time for DC to finally step up to the plate. Having the history and the characters just can’t cut it anymore with Marvel streaking clear with every new release. DC tried to jump too soon to catch their competitors and fumbled the ball horribly with Batman vs. Superman (a good film hidden within a hastily assembled CGI-fest) and Suicide Squad (a great cast and styling hidden in a godawful plot.)

Fuelled by bad press, albeit good box office returns, it's time for the company to take stock, reassess, take things slow and bring things back to basics. Ironically, this comes in the form of a historically-set origin story introducing, potentially, the key cog in the DCEU moving forward, just as Marvel themselves did with Captain America: The First Avenger.

Enough movie and comic book politics though (whilst rivalry is all well and good, both companies know that fans enjoy both sets of movies and characters) and it’s time to finally hail DC’s arrival in the current game with the, rather excellent, Wonder Woman.

It’s true; it really is good and, worryingly, leaves DC with their least favourite word: expectation. Taking its cues from the aforementioned Captain America, and basically re-treading the plot beat for beat, we meet the titular Princess and her race of ancient beings brought to life by the Greek Gods. They’re on Earth to protect the world from war and get drawn into The Great War itself when a spy carrying German intelligence crash-lands by their secret island home.

We already knew of Wonder Woman’s potential with Gal Gadot’s film-stealing appearance in Dawn Of Justice and here she builds on that mystique with a pure and logical origin story touching on physical comedy (her adjustments to the real world harking to the humour of the first Thor film) and emotional pathos; her character arc, realisations and losses carry real weight.

The equally fantastic Chris Pine is our Earthly representative in this film. Despite being a self-confessed ‘above average’ spy he comes over as a humble, humorous character easy to root for in a role which could have spilled into sleazy territory. I’ve seen some reviews link the relationship between the two characters to an inverted Clark Kent/Lois Lane and this is absolutely spot on; Pine gets to play headstrong yet bumbly, constantly needing saving by his mystical companion who kicks ass in glorious slow-mo (the hand to hand combat, always a DC strength, is exemplary.)

Like Superman, particularly the first Richard Donner films and the underappreciated Superman Returns, Wonder Woman is played with a lightness of touch, a sentimentality in amongst the darker, wintry tones which have signalled the DCEU thus far.

It’s not a perfect film, the supporting team get next to nothing to do and hardly any exposition, it does feel rather similar to superhero films gone before and doesn’t do a great deal to subvert the formula and whilst, SPOILER ALERT, there is a nice twist at the end, the villains and threat-level here aren’t quite high enough.

All things considered, though, this is a true triumph and only goes to show the sheer laziness of Suicide Squad and the lack of charm in Man Of Steel. Choosing a small scale ending, like Man Of Steel, is a successful and ballsy move and the DCEU can only build from here. You can’t help but feel this should have been the start-off point.

It’s also about bloody time we had a female-fronted, proper superhero film (Catwoman and Electra do not count) and this goes to show the naivety of the companies worried this wouldn’t be a success. We’ve got Gotham City Sirens and Captain Marvel coming soon and, fingers crossed, this will give Marvel the incentive to finally give Black Widow a solo film too.

Well done DC, rather than making the film you think we want, you’ve decided, like Wonder Woman herself, to give us the film we deserve.

4 stars ****