[star rating=”4.5″]
WONDER WOMAN. Directed by Patty Jenkins, with Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, David Thewlis
THERESA SMITH reviews
Finally. A DC movie that makes sense, does not belabour the point and just has fun as it tells the origins story of a superhero.
Nowhere near as dour as the Batman v Superman movie, Wonder Woman manages to be serious without getting mired in trying to be taken seriously. Repartee is witty without jokes being at the expense of anyone’s dignity and the film is well-paced to create suspense in all the right places. Fight sequences are well choreographed and make sense – with the battles becoming more complicated as our hero comes into her power.
A poised performance
Anchored by a poised performance by Gal Gadot, the film takes us back to World War 1 and shows us how Diana of Themiscyra, daughter of Hippolyta, becomes Diana Prince, or rather Wonder Woman as she becomes known to the world.
Gadot just had to look good in a car in the Fast and Furious movies, and she came across as wooden in Triple 9, but here she owns the role. Her sense of innocence is believable, it makes you think a bit of Christopher Reeve’s farm-boy from Kansas and her growing sense of outrage is also real. Plus, she pulls off fighting with a golden lasso like she has been practicing since she was a tiny tot.
The film starts of with Diana as a little girl (8-year-old Lilly Aspell is the cutest little would-be fighter), escaping her nanny to watch her mother Hippolyta (Nielsen) and aunt Antiope (Wright) train the Amazon warriors.
A motley crew of soldiers
We fast forward through her training until one day a World War 2 air pilot named Steve Trevor (Pine) crashes on the island and she offers to take him home.
Travelling to London and then the War Front, Diana is exposed to much that doesn’t make sense and we marvel alongside her at the illogical nature of mankind. She is supported by a motley crew of soldiers, gathered by Pine, who teach her a little bit about what it means to be human – remember, she is not, despite appearances.
The big showcase battle the film builds up to goes on too long, but considering this is one sequence out of a whole film (when DC has made convoluted, overly long battle sequences into their calling card) we can live with it.
Watching Wonder Woman realise she is so much stronger than she ever thought is a great reminder that women rise to the occasion when the going gets tough because we are stronger than we know.
Even though this is essentially a film about a superhero who is not human, we can empathise with her emotional journey as she discovers just how badly people can behave towards each other, and what it takes to be a hero.
What: Wonder Woman
Classification: 10-12 PG V
Running time: 141 minutes
Info: 0861-CINEMA (246362), numetro.co.za
Web: www.wonderwomanfilm.net
Theresa Smith Weekend Special film review. More from Theresa: theresathewordsmith.wordpress.com
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