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Wonder Woman
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(2017) 141 mins Superhero, Action-adventure Director: Patty Jenkins Zak Johnson that things start to gain a bit more In my last review I wrote that none momentum. of the recent wave of live-action DC movies were able to top an A large part of the film’s success animated film featuring a Legofied is its exploration of the titular Batman. I might have to update superhuman’s fish-out-of-water that statement. Though not being antics, particularly when Diana’s without its flaws, Wonder Woman matriarchal Amazonian upbringing is a major improvement over past begins to clash with the social entries in the Marvel competitor’s realities of WWII-era G02 Europe. Her attempt at cinematic universe repeated rejection of norms and building, and hopefully a sign of rules of etiquette, as well as her the franchise heading in a less Cdour L and more entertaining direction. I N I black and white view of good and C Acomprise a large amount of evil L the film’sLhumour, which certainly Diana (Gal Gadot) lives on the A appears to beN sorely magically protected island of E lacking in other DC entries. Themyscira amid her fellow Amazonians, an exclusively female Of course, this wouldn’t work collective of warriors who appear without a convincing lead to be ripped directly out of Greek performance, and on the whole mythology. When Steve Trevor Gadot does a great job, her Diana (Chris Pine), an American spy/ displaying a mix of unbridled soldier crash-lands just off-shore, determination to end the conflict Diana joins him in returning to in the Western Front alongside London, where she sets out to her obvious naiveté. A good singlehandedly Great War T OendPthe AC I F I C Mcounterpoint that has been enveloping Europe. O T O R forAthisYdepiction is Pine’s Steve,W whose more cynical and realistic view of the world The first act of Wonder Woman is clashes on numerous occasions fairly typical superhero origin/callwith Diana’s. The chemistry to-action fare, with an emphasis between both actors is excellent on protracted context-setting as well, with this much-needed stories and montages of a young human element likewise being Diana training to become a fighter missed (or at least less believable) against the wishes of her mother. in the likes of Man of Steel. It’s when Diana finally leaves Themyscira and its onslaught of overplayed Amazonian accents 57
In what shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, the action sequences are magnificently executed, even though at times it seems like the editor feel asleep while pressing the slo-mo button. And Wonder Woman does suffer the same problem that a lot of its forebears have, namely a bunch of onedimensional, uninteresting villains who are just sort of evil for evil’s G16 sake. But, being an origin story, the focus is planted almost purely on Diana and the learning curve she embarks on. And this proves to be GT1 a good decision ultimately. Functioning as a kind of hybrid of Thor and the first Captain America, Wonder Woman injects the right amount of humour and sentimentality to help place it well above the other entries in the DC cinematic universe. It’s not perfect, but it gives you enough hope to look more optimistically at the dozens of inevitable sequels and spin-offs that’ll be heading your way in the near future. Verdict: How DC got its groove back.