Wonder Woman (2017) (a film review by Mark R. Leeper).

Zach Snyder directs the film adaptation of the comic book super-hero Diana, played by Gal Gadot. As introspective as we could expect from a super-hero film, ‘Wonder Woman’ takes place in the closing days of WW1 when Diana follows American flyer Steve Trevor to the trenches of the French Army where the Germans are brewing a super-weapon.

Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10,

The Amazons of Themyscira are a tribe of women who live on an island shrouded in invisibility. Their task, given them by Greek gods, is to guard peace and to protect the world from war. Since we begin the story in the midst of World War 1, we know that they have been falling down just a bit. We focus on young Diana (played by Gal Gadot) who is committed to peace, but who also harbours an urge to get into combat and to fight for peace.

She is trained to fight and collects some magical weapons. Her life changes when she runs across a downed American pilot (Chris Pine), the first man she has ever seen, and decides to go with him back to his world. There she becomes part of the struggle against the Germans who are developing a super-weapon. This weapon may bring an end to Diana’s world and to Steve’s.

Allan Heinber’s script takes its time getting to the major conflict, then really goes overboard. The script is unusually introspective as characters discuss questions of morality. On a lighter note, there is a sequence with the explanation of sex to Amazons who have never seen a male. The film also has a strong anti-war message going with more realistic carnage in its battle scenes and perhaps goes a bit far when the French army commanders refuse to make an effort to save innocent soldiers.

At least the script was written to not require the viewer to have seen previous films or be familiar with the Marvel Universe. It is interesting that the DC Universe has chosen Greek myth as a basis for their film after Marvel built theirs on Norse folklore.

We have competing systems of lore. I rate ‘Wonder Woman’a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

Mark R. Leeper

© Mark R. Leeper 2018