Wonder Woman
I didn't really want to go see this. DC has screwed up so much with the two Superman duds, the spectacularly shitty Batman v. Superman and the colossally flubbed Suicide Squad that I really had no hope that anyone at Warner Brothers would have a clue how to craft an effective movie. I'm a DC guy. Batman is my boy. Justice League (before the stupid as fuck WonderTwins and BatMite shit) was my jam. It's true, I never cared much for Superman, but who did? Watching what DC has done to those characters with this latest "universe" has pretty much made me physically ill. So I went with resignation, near certain that I was about to be disappointed, disgusted and disillusioned.
Wrong.
This was a really good movie primarily because they got the casting just right and the director had enough sense to let Gal Gadot dominate.. I've rarely seen any actor simply own the screen the way Gadot did. She was absolutely mesmerizing. Granted she's one of the most attractive things I've ever seen, but it was more than that. She made the character and she made the movie.
I was a little concerned through the first third while they waded through the whole Amazon women on an island backstory. But when she emerged in full Wonder Woman bloom in the middle of a war? Fucking A. One of the best "superhero rises" action sequences I've seen.
Yes, it was DC so it was darker and more earnest and less flippant than the Marvel films. DC heroes (even in the comics) doesn't have the same insouciance as an Iron Man or Spider Man. They're more tortured, more reflective, more introspective. All those things played against the Superman/Batman and Suicide Squad films that got bogged down in it and never slogged out of the mire.
The story (even as silly as it was) was tighter here, more focused. It could have used a touch more levity perhaps, but it tried here and there.
There was stuff about WWI, some gas, some pilot, and even some Zac Snyderish fighting in the dark (thank God not the rain) but all of that was superfluous to simply watching Gadot do her Wonder Woman thing. Watching her here it made me hate Batman v. Superman even more than I already did because she was so ill used.
Solid movie, very enjoyable. It was good enough that it gives me a slight glimmer of hope that they're not going to donkey fuck the Justice League film.