'Wonder Woman' is really two movies, just as that first season of 'Supergirl' was really two series smushed badly into one. It is intelligent and nuanced in one part, and exceedingly dumb and viciously violent in the other. Oh, if only we could break superhero movies and television series out of the mindless brawl blockbuster mold, we might get some really good works. 'Wonder Woman' suffers from an utterly ludicrous and dumb final fight that I would have chopped up and used for firewood, but what can we do? It was an extremely successful movie, which was hopefully due to the other aspects of the movie.
We're in an age of woman power, which is great, and 'Wonder Woman' definitely succeeds in bringing a female protagonist to the fore, but it also brings a male lead along for the ride, and both Diana of Themyscira's and Steve Trevor's stories work. Actually, in many ways, Trevor's story works better as it's not marred by the horrifically dumb final fight, but let's not linger on that any more. We don't have to be boring and negative; we can look at the positives. It's not so much a woman's movie as a fair partnership, which is in itself almost unprecedented.
So, 'Wonder Woman', what is it exactly? It's a war movie, with a nice dose of Greek mythology mixed in. It's also a movie about making peace, led by someone who really does inflict an awful lot of violence, which contradiction was often quite jarring. For every moment that Gal Gadot's lead character was inspiring, or delightfully giddy, while exploring the world outside of the secret sanctuary of Themyscira, there was another moment of violence that was just annoying and vexing. Chris Pine's Steve Trevor was much more the pacifist, which was interesting. There's a mixed message at the core of 'Wonder Woman', which reflects its dual nature.
To summarise the plot very briefly, Diana of Themyscira, a royal princess of the Amazons, rescues a Great War pilot and spy from his sinking plane off the coast of her island, prompting a quest to venture out into the war-torn world to try and eliminate Ares, the last of the Greek Gods, who has been fomenting much of the conflict ravaging the world. Fortunately, Trevor is a spy for the British, who puts together a team to help Diana get to the Front and then behind enemy lines, on a mission that coincidentally overlaps with hers.
As with the 'Supergirl' series, the problem here is a generational one, where lots of people are used to superheroes who aren't warriors, and who think lots of violent brawling is the opposite of heroics, and lots of more modern people have no idea that there used to be another way. That's where I am, and it is an issue. Will we move on from what we have right now one day?
'Wonder Woman' is one of the very best superhero of the last twelve years, since 'Iron Man II' and 'Superman Returns'. It still has lots of the problems you find in these movies, but it's definitely trying to be more when it's not being dragged into the black hole of bad finales. And it's got a wonderful woman in the lead.
O.
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