Wonder Woman | MOVIE REVIEW

It took a while, but we finally have it; a DCEU movie that isn't taking a severe beating from mainstream movie critics. How amazing is that?

Wonder Woman was directed by Patty Jenkins (Monster) and stars Gal Gadot as, well, Wonder Woman. It's the fourth entry in the DCEU and DC's fourth crack at making a movie that critics won't rip to shreds. Hopefully, things won't be as hard the fourth time around.

In all honesty, I don't hate the DCEU. I could never quite seem to wrap my head around why people seem to hate it so much. I mean, sure, Suicide Squad sucked, but I enjoyed Batman v. Superman and Man of Steel is one of my favorite superhero movies, probably ever. I'm interested in seeing a lot of their future projects - particularly Aquaman - so I was going into Wonder Woman pretty stoked.

And, this time around, I actually wasn't disappointed.

We actually have ourselves a gorgeous movie, which is kinda where the list of things I like about Wonder Woman starts. I can't state enough just how beautiful Themiscyra is in this movie. It really is. I mean, granted, it's a magical island in the sea, isolated from the rest of the world, and it's supposed to look surreal, but they actually did a great job of making seem like it would actually be a place in the real world.

Everything from the white rocks to the Amazonian architecture to their armor design reminded me of all the best parts of Minas Tirith from LotR and the original Clash of the Titans movie. The place was just breathtaking, and it was helped by some absolutely amazing cinematography.

I mean, just look at that.

In all the superhero movies to have come out since 2014 - bar Logan and GotG 2 - the cinematography in Wonder Woman is the best I've seen. The shots were well-composed and managed to maximize the sets that they had, and I just really loved seeing that. The movie was a joy to look at, and that's always a massive plus for me.

I also really dug the visual contrast between Themyscira and the rest of the world. The world felt as if it was a character in and of itself and really did help make Diana's naivety and the sense of culture shock that comes with the tonal shift so much more believable. Themiscyra was such a utopic and idealistic society and, as such, Diana adheres to those values and sees things differently, and then when she leaves, the world outside is so drab and ugly that she really feels this moral obligation to fix it, and that was something I really liked seeing. The world made her sense of heroism all the more relevant to her as a character.

It was kinda what was outwardly lacking in Dawn of Justice. 

And, as far as Diana's character goes, I felt she was really well-written and well-portrayed, and I really liked the transformation she went through once she actually experiences the outside world.

In saying that, I really feel like I can't commend the direction enough. The way the story flows and the way the scenes are strung together really did serve to symbolize a loss of innocence or a change inside Diana, and I really liked seeing that.

And the supporting cast was great, as well. I thought Steve Trevor was a great character and that Chris Pine really brought a lot to the table. His lines were great, and he was incredibly funny, and he was just a likeable guy. The others are great, as well, but another true stand-out was Charlie the Sniper.

Or, as I like to call him, Simon Pegg Lite.

He was an interesting character that they managed to flesh out efficiently enough for me to get invested in him.

A lot of the action was awesome, too. With the exception of something that happens later on in the movie (I'll get to that later), the action sequences were well-shot, well-paced, and managed to build on one another nicely. There were a couple of sequences that really blew my mind, however I won't get into much detail about them out of fear of spoiling them.

They were pretty awesome, though.

On top of all of that, the score was good, as well.

As a package, Wonder Woman is indeed a great movie, but it's not perfect. I did find a couple of things to nitpick about, and they mostly have to do with the ending.

Now, the ending - or, at least, the fight scene at the end - was, by no means, a bad ending. I just felt as if it didn't exactly mesh well with the other action sequences in the rest of the movie. Since everything leading up to the ending fight felt very individual, the fight sequence at the end felt a bit out of place and the differences in visuals stuck out like a sore thumb for me.

Personally, I felt as if the villains were kinda undercooked, as well. You don't quite understand their motivations and it isn't really made clear why they're doing what they're doing. The only indicators you do get are that they're German and that they share really corny evil laugh moments.

I shit you not, there was a scene in here that I could've sworn was taken straight out of an Austin Powers movie.

Also I kinda do wanna address that, at this point in time, that the movie has seriously been over-hyped. Everywhere you go, you are gonna see an article asking if the movie deserves an Oscar. I liked the movie, for sure, but it really does help to keep your expectations in check before heading into it, otherwise you'll feel severely underwhelmed.

In other words, be realistic about it, and you'll have a great time.

That's not to say that I didn't have a blast watching Wonder Woman and that it was a poor movie. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Wonder Woman was a really well-directed movie with a lot of good character development and sweet action sequences, and it, in my book, deserves a Vader thumbs-up.

I'm honestly just praying at this point that the media doesn't overfeed us with Gal Gadot the way they did with Jennifer Lawrence.

Anyway, I imagine most of you have seen Wonder Woman and, if you haven't yet, you should definitely go check it out. In the meantime, this has been Rafa. Stay classy.