Film of the Week: Wonder Woman

The fourth film in the DC Extended Universe, Wonder Woman’s origin story is explored. It’s currently the best film in the franchise. There’s no mess, but an actual structure I could follow without having to question the film on anything. The only real criticism I have is that the entire film’s one long flashback. The opening scene sets up the flashback, but it isn’t long before you forget that and you can enjoy the film. However, you’re reminded of it being a flashback right at the end. Those scenes aren’t long, so doesn’t really take anything away from the actual film itself, because the story doesn’t start until the flashback begins.

There’s two main sections to Wonder Woman – the part where she was growing up on the island and training to become a warrior, and the part where she fights in Word War 1. The latter takes up the majority of the film, but the tones are so different, it feels as if they’ve strategically interwoven two films into one, and the final product being something understandable, not a gigantic mess and a waste of time. The island sequence isn’t rushed, but instead explored enough to get a good sense of who Diana Prince is along with the rest of the Amazon tribe.

When Diana leaves the tribe to hunt down Ares, the God of War, it turns into a completely different movie altogether. It changes from a peaceful atmosphere to a war-stricken world, and the two treat the other as if they don’t exist, because in the eyes of them both, the other doesn’t.

From what we’ve learnt whilst following the DC Extended Universe, the trailers aren’t trustworthy, and so as much as the trailer for Wonder Woman looked amazing, the music was outstanding, I couldn’t say for certain that they’ve stepped up their game; I had to wait for when I saw the film, and I have to say, I am genuinely impressed. The film gave us what the trailers built, a rarity these days.

The casting choices were both perfect and surprising. Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Wonder Woman was already established in Batman Vs Superman, but in this film she was able to stretch her legs and put everything she has into the role, and it was an exceptional performance. Chris Pine was the perfect fit alongside Gal. His character, Steve Trever, a Captain from the United States Army Air Service who poses as a spy inside the German’s headquarters to gain as much intelligence as possible in order to help the British defeat them. In an attempt to escape from their base once acquiring a book that contains all the necessary information on what the German’s a planning, he crashes in the waters near the island, home to the Amazons. The two actors bounce off each other brilliantly – strengthening their chemistry and giving us an enjoyable experience.

A surprising casting choice was David Thewlis. We first see him speaking for peace, but in truth he’s the God of War, Ares, secretly pushing his influence to create as much chaos as possible. I wouldn’t have pinned David to play a God, but he plays it brilliantly. Ares was using David Thewlis’ image as a disguise. Ares can look like anyone, but the actor needs to play him well to be convince us that he is the God of War. David Thewlis does do that brilliantly.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I do recommend it. I personally don’t think the fact that the entire film is a flashback sequence ruins it. I can understand if it does, but I quickly forgot that it was until the very end. If they took the modern day scenes out, the film would have been so much better, but they don’t ruin the film because there is so much good stuff between the two bookend modern day scenes.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)