WONDER WOMAN *REVIEW*

Whether you love or hate this DC Extended Universe, I think we can all agree on the
fact that generally critics have not loved it.
And so with a crowded slate of films coming up, some of them in more trouble than others,
DC really needs a win right now with a film that is more universally loved rather than
extremely divisive.
And is Wonder Woman that film?
Let’s get into it.
*clip* And as I normally do, I’m going no spoilers
to start off with, and then after a warning I’ll get into the spoilers.
So, Wonder Woman, does it live up to the hype?
Yeah.
It does.
I am so happy to say that I really enjoyed Wonder Woman.
Just a genuinely great time at the cinema.
Firstly, one of the best things about this movie is the cast.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, I need to say, props to her.
I liked her in Batman v Superman, but I didn’t think she’d be able to carry her own movie.
But here, she’s actually very charismatic and charming and what do you know, the acting
is actually really good.
Excited to see more of her in the DCEU, she definitely managed to lead this movie.
However, she’s not alone.
Probably my favorite performance in the movie was Chris Pine as Steve Trevor.
I really like Chris Pine in pretty much everything he’s in, and this might be my favorite performance
of his.
He’s so likeable and the funniest part of the movie for me, but he’s also believable.
I wanna hang out with this guy but I also feel like he could exist in the real world.
Overall, great job from these two.
Everyone else is great too, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Lucy Davis, the group of soldiers
they fight with, the Amazons, even Professor Lupin is in this, they’re all great.
There’s not really a bad performance I can think of here.
And before we get into the action and the visual effects and all the stuff people go
to these movies for, I wanna address those characters here, because after Batman v Superman
and Suicide Squad, this is such a breath of fresh air for me at least in this world.
Because while those other two movies had cool action and fun character designs, this feels
so much more just like a movie.
Which I know is a weird thing to say, but for the DCEU I feel like it bears saying.
This movie has characters that make sense, quite a few of them with arcs, and a coherent
plot, that, you know, works from a storytelling perspective.
Scenes actually matter and connect to each other, which is something that sometimes the
other DC movies have lacked.
And it was just nice to get a movie where it seems like they payed a lot more attention
to the actual script and how the story would play out.
Sure the story isn’t flawless, but at least it’s good.
Really good actually.
This movie’s also really well paced, it’s quite funny, it’s exciting, it’s just
a good fun movie.
It’s what a summer movie should be like.
And even when it’s not being a fun romp, the emotional scenes, some of them really
worked.
A scene towards the end, it didn’t make me cry, but it kinda made a little bit of
a knot in my throat you know.
And not even because it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, but just because I
cared about these characters so much after this, it was just a really heartfelt moment
and like the other emotional moments in this, it felt earned, it didn’t come out of nowhere.
Now of course, with this being a big superhero movie, there are gonna be some action scenes.
And the action in this movie, for the most part, is awesome.
It’s well shot and exciting and fun to watch, the CGI mostly looks really good, it’s well
thought out and choreographed, it’s just fantastic.
It’s nothing ground-breaking, this isn’t Winter Soldier levels of action, but it is
a lot of fun.
On that note the visual effects are also mostly really good, not 100% of the time though,
we’ll get to that.
But for the majority the visual effects are amazing.
The music is quite good, most of it is kind of the standard superhero movie music that
we get these days that a lot of people complain about, I don’t really have a problem with
it, it’s still pleasant to listen to.
And I’m sorry, I know a lot of people make fun of it, but I really love that Wonder Woman
theme.
It’s distinctive, it’s memorable, and it’s really badass.
So when that showed up, I couldn’t help but smile.
The direction from Patty Jenkins is really good, so is the cinematography, a lot of this
movie, especially the first part on Themyscira, is pretty beautiful to look at.
The movie has great sets and costumes, making this a period pace made it I think a lot more
interesting than if Wonder Woman’s origin was just another modern day one.
Also, Wonder Woman’s costume, I don’t know if they changed it at all for this movie,
but I liked it more in this than in BvS, maybe just because of where and how it was used.
Yes, this movie does feel a bit Captain America at points, and it did remind me of other superhero
movies in some aspects, but it doesn’t really feel derivative.
It manages to still be it’s own thing.
As far as links to other DC movies, there really isn’t any of that here.
There’s basically one reference that I can think of, and if you haven’t seen Batman
v Superman, it still totally makes sense in this movie, so if you’re not a DC fan, don’t
worry, you can still go see this movie.
Now as far as the negatives, there are some.
This isn’t perfect.
Some things really don’t make any sense here, not big things like plot points like
just little things.
Two things I can think of are Germans speaking English to each other constantly, that’s
just weird.
And also, her lasso of truth, the physics of that and how it works weren’t really
clear to me.
Cuz sometimes it’s a lasso, sometimes it’s a rope that wraps around people, but then
towards the end it seems like it can do whatever she needs it to.
Like at one point it’s deflecting pieces of debri out of the air.
I get it, it’s magic, just wish it’d been better explained or more consistent.
Really my only real problems lie in the finale of the film, which don’t get me wrong is
still good, it’s just not as good as the rest.
The action firstly isn’t as great as it is in the rest of the film, there are some
moments where it looks a bit CG to be honest.
I don’t really understand what the problem with DC movies are, where the visual effects
look great for like 90% of them and then the final action takes place in some dark location
and for some reason the CGI becomes more noticeable.
Still, not terrible, there were some fun action bits in there as well.
But also, the ending gets kind of cliched, like up until that point in the film, the
movie wasn’t overly cliched, like it avoided them more than I thought it would, especially
with Steve Trevor’s character.
But then at the end with the villain and whatever he’s about, no spoilers, I was just thinking,
ok, I’ve seen this a million times before and I know where it’s going.
Not a really awful villain, just some of his plans and motivations I felt like we’ve
gotten before in so many other things.
Now before I get into spoilers, I’m just gonna wrap up this part of the review.
Wonder Woman is a really fun movie, and it’s by far my favorite DCEU movie.
Is it anything totally genre-changing, I don’t really think so.
Sure I think this is great for female-led superhero movies going forward, and for the
record, unlike….these movies, this is actually a female superhero movie that I think young
girls really can enjoy and relate to and aspire to be like, so that’s really good.
But as far as this being as ground-breaking or even as good as a Dark Knight or a Logan
or an Avengers?
I wouldn’t say so.
It’s just a very enjoyable movie, and I think this bodes well for DC going forward.
I know a lot of people are going to be comparing this to Guardians 2, since that’s the other
MCU movie of the year so far and some people will say this is better and some will say
this is worse, honestly I think I enjoyed them about the same, for kind of different
reasons.
But what they share is a blend that these movies should have of good action and effects
but also good characters and story.
This movie isn’t perfect at all, but it’s just a really good time all the way through
it.
In the end, I’m gonna give Wonder Woman an 8.9/10.
Alright, now let’s get into spoilers.
If you haven’t seen the film yet and you don’t want it spoiled, click away from this
video now.
*clip* Now there’s not a lot to really spoil here,
so I’ll just go over really the two or three things.
Firstly, Steve Trevor’s death.
Look, that was the emotional ish moment I was talking about, when you heard what he
said to Diana and then him sacrificing himself, that kind of hit me.
It just also does suck because I wish they could bring him back somehow, because he was
so charismatic.
Who knows, it’s a comic book world.
I’d love it if he could somehow return, but probably not.
Also, I wanna say, the conversation Steve and Diana have after the battle when they’re
dancing and all that, excellent.
Surprisingly well written and heartfelt scene.
Then the twist that it was actually David Thewlis who was Ares.
The twist itself was pretty good although I can’t really say whether it was predictable
or not, because it was ruined for me going in.
In preparation for this review I just looked up Wonder Woman cast, and it said David Thewlis
as Ares, and I was like, oh ok so it’s not Danny Huston, it’s gonna turn out to be
David Thewlis all along.
And sure enough, it was.
Then at the end when Wonder Woman finds out she’s really the daughter of Zeus and a
god, yeah, that was kind of predictable although maybe it’s just cuz that’s been a Wonder
Woman origin at some point.
The final battle with Ares again, wasn’t as great as the rest of the action, but still
had some awesome moments.
So those were my thoughts on Wonder Woman.
What did you think of it?
Let me know all of your thoughts down below in the comments.
While you’re at it be sure to like this video, check out my Instagram and Twitter
@bhl_hudson, and subscribe for more videos like the one you just watched.
Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next time.

WONDER WOMAN *REVIEW*

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WONDER WOMAN REVIEW