Once you get past the exaggerated praise (that feels more about what’s happening outside the theater than anything shown in the movie), it’s a solid superhero movie that’s at least as good as anything Marvel (or DC) has put out since “The Dark Knight” trilogy ended.
What Works: Most critics have somewhat-myopically focused on “Wonder Woman” being the first female superhero film (is it really? damn) with reviews that include clunkers like “She shows the boys how it’s done!” or “Wonder Woman ‘ka-pows’ through the glass ceiling.” Of course, this ironically misses exactly what really works with the movie: it’s appealingly old-fashioned, sturdy sense of self.
Even back in the studio films of the 1930’s and 40’s (only a little bit later than the same era “Wonder Woman” is set in), classic actresses like Barbara Stanwyck, Vivian Leigh, and Bette Davis were fighting the patriarchy in blockbusters and generating real sexual heat while doing it. Director Patty Jenkins obviously has a love of old movies, and their surprisingly sexier female characters, and you can feel it in scenes like a disguised Wonder Woman crashing an all-male gathering of men as they debate the best way to destroy the world while saving it. You can also feel the old-world glamour in this movie’s wonderfully anachronistic depiction of actual sex.
Ironically, big studio movies today are actually more prudish about sex than they were twenty years ago, and if you don’t believe that’s true then just ask yourself when you’ve actually seen the overly buffed Supermans, Batmans, Tony Starks, and Thors of the world actually having sex. [Even in R-rated movies we’re regularly treated to fully clothed women loudly thrusting and miming orgasms in ridiculous “sex scenes.”] In a few key scenes “Wonder Woman” has an overt sexuality—Chris Pine naked before Gal Gadot, Gadot’s Diana wondering why he won’t sleep next to her, passionate kissing—that makes “the boy” superhero films look downright asexual. And it’s a great recurring joke that Gadot’s Diana always seems to be more open than Pine’s macho spy.
And even if the villain’s reasoning feels a little generic, the final showdown has an appealing Devil vs. God mythic quality to it that is actually much more successful as a Biblical allegory than Zach Synder’s clumsy “Superman” films, that kinda, sorta want the Big S to be a Christ-stand-in but can’t focus long enough on it between extended scenes of murky buildings being pixelated to death in explosions.
What Doesn’t Work: Gadot (this is the first time I’ve really seen what a star she is), Pine, and David Thewlis (also on “Fargo,” cornering the market on Faustian villains) work wonders, but much of the supporting cast is a little charisma-deficient. You’ll either find “Trainspotting”‘s Ewen Bremer a fun comedic sidekick or a profoundly annoying time-suck, something this over-long movie didn’t really need. And we’ve seen Danny Huston play so many megolomaniacal villains over the years that it’s time for him to finally play the role he was born to: Donald Trump.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Sure, the film’s a little overstuffed, and I would’ve deep-sixed the modern-day bookends that needlessly open and close the movie. Still, this is about as good a superhero movie as I’ve seen, and even if it’s slightly overpraised (mostly because the last few DC movies have been so bad), it’s still deserving of what a hit it’s become.