I finally saw Wonder Woman. It’s OK.
This entry from Patty Jenkins moves DC’s films up a notch on the positivity scorecard. However, the writing lacks verisimilitude. There’s plenty of dialogue and interactions that seem more anchored in 21st century filmmaking tropes than in Greek Myths or WWI.
That aside, my main gripe is Gal Gadot. She can’t act. She has a nice smile, but she seems like a co-star in her own movie. That’s not Wonder Woman. Physically, she comes from the Michael Keaton school of super-hero performance. The costume looks good, but the physique is lacking. Her role as written is very naive and it muddles the character arc. Wonder Woman of the comics is aggressive, dominant at all times and distrustful of men. She’s a straight-up ass-kicker who learns to soften with experience, rather than a naive girl who hardens as she see’s our world. Here she’s written as strangely confused in a way that panders to the general conception of femininity. Wonder Woman is more aggressive than Batman on the page and she has to learn to trust and respect mankind.
Nonetheless, the film ends her character on the right note. It just gets there in a way that is odd and misplaced for this fan of comic books. It gave me more hope for the DCEU than Man of Steel or Batman V Superman. It’s now up to Joss Whedon to save this cinematic universe with Justice League reshoots.