Back in 1941, the comic book industry as we know it was still in its infancy, but it was pretty much strictly known as a “Boy’s Club,” run by the likes of D.C. and its stalwarts, Superman and Batman. When writer and psychologist William Moulton Marston (who is having a biopic released on him later this year) and his wife Elizabeth teamed up with artist Harry G. Peter to create a hero that would help balance the scales in the comic book world with an equally strong female presence, they created a character with all the wisdom and strength of a goddess, along with the flaws and emotional frailties of a mortal. With superhuman strength, bullet proof bracelets, and a mythical golden lasso as her arsenal, Wonder Woman was unleashed upon the masses, and they fell in love with her immediately as a symbol for strength and female empowerment. The Amazonian Diana Prince has taken a long and winding road to the big screen, making her greatest impact off the printed page on the small screen both in animated and live action with mixed results. Gal Gadot made a huge splash last year appearing in the much maligned “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” as the powerful demigoddess, but it barely whetted our appetites to see Diana really strut her stuff. Now, after 76 long years, Director Patty Jenkins (Monster) brings the origin story, solo adventure “Wonder Woman” to theatres.
Diana, currently assigned to the antiquities department at the Louvre, receives a package from Wayne Enterprises containing a photograph from her past where she and a team of soldiers fought the Germans during World War I. This causes her to reflect on her experiences as the story jumps back to her days as a child on the mythical island of Themyscira, as her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) and her aunt General Antiope (Robin Wright) debate on whether Diana should be trained as a warrior, which could have major consequences. After American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crash lands off the shores of the island with the Germans hot on his tail, a fight erupts and Diana quickly realizes that the world she lives in is not as idyllic as she thought it was as she takes her place alongside the world of man to bring peace and justice to it however she can.
This film is such an amazingly pleasant surprise and is easily the strongest entry thus far in the DC Extended Universe. Patty Jenkins has delivered a truly remarkable film that stays faithful to the source material, with a performance from Gal Gadot that will made me fall for her immediately. The chemistry between her and Pine is simply extraordinary ad never becomes tiresome or boring. While the climax was somewhat of a let-down as it descended back into fairly familiar and predictable territory, the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses here. This film does the character all the justice imaginable and deservedly so. “Wonder Woman” may have taken an incredibly long journey to get to where she is now, but the results are simply… wonderful.