This June marks the release of DC's Wonder Woman film, but how does it stack up against the vast array of superhero films being released every summer? Wonder Woman, led by Patty Jenkins, marks the first major studio effort of a female led and female directed film, and they manage to hit most of the marks. The film is easily the best out of DC's new repertoire from their expanding universe. Wonder Woman manages to get a bit of emotion with a lot of action mixed in and that iconic theme music, courtesy of Hanz Zimmer and Junkie XL, add to some of the truley amazing fight sequences. The biggest issue with the Wonder Woman, deals mainly with her enemies. The evil Ludendorf, played by Danny Huston, is able to go toe-to-toe against Wonder Woman with the aid of a simple drug. The real villain (which I will avoid spoiling but will advise you not to google the cast for the film), actually avoids the simple DC formula of having nearly nothing to do with propelling the plot, and actually does serve a decent purpose. Another disappointment is the letting go of Doctor Poison. Her comic book history is a bit mixed but hopefully we'll be seeing more of her role in future DC films. There's also the complexity of (SPOILERS AHEAD), death of Chris Pine's Steve Trevor. While heroic, the fact that we know Wonder Woman gave up helping mankind sort of makes his death feel like a bit of a dramatic let down. Opting to not have him killed by the movies main villain, one would believe his heroic sacrifice would have inspired her to believe there is some good in man kind. Instead, she does the opposite and stops fighting. While the origin film has drawn strong comparisons to Marvel's first Captain America film, it doesn't get quite as atmospheric. Unfortunately, the movie begins and ends with the WW1 photo of Diana and her company that we see in Batman v Superman and sadly, the entire movie feels more like a trip down memory lane. We don't get nearly enough time in Themyscira, the homeland of Diana, which featured some of the best fighting in the film. It's also a shame considering the film rounded up quite the cast for the Amazon's, just for us to leave the island and never look back. All in all, Wonder Woman is a strong film, with some plot and villain issues, which seem to be a recurring theme in DC films. While we have several more origin stories coming from DC, Wonder Woman's solo effort is making a killing in the box office, which is good after Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad both under-performed by the end of their respective runs. All in all, Jenkin's Wonder Woman is a fun film, that manages to correct some of DC's mistakes, but falls short in some other places. It's a hell of a ride in theaters and that theme song will be ringing in your head for days. Go see Wonder Woman in theaters now!
RSS Feed
