Wonder Woman - Review

After walking out so disappointed from the last movie I saw in theatres (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) I am so glad that the next movie I would see in theatres would not only be a good time, but it would be one of the best movies I've seen all year. That movie is Wonder Woman. Who would have known that Wonder Woman would be the highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes out of all the new DC movies? This movie is spectacular! I can't think of a single thing I dislike about it. Very rare does that happen for me. So, I should start off by saying, "Hey, feminists! This is how to make a movie about Girl Power and how strong women can be. Not by making a movie about four bumbling idiots chasing ghosts." First of all, Gal Gadot is great as Wonder Woman. She plays the adorable fish out of water character really well and she absolutely destroys those action scenes. Also, as a guy, may I say that she is absolutely gorgeous! Is that worthy of a trigger warning? Can men not adore women anymore? Oh, who cares. What I did like though is that Wonder Woman is brave, strong, and kicks ass and while she does look gorgeous doing it, I never felt like she was being degraded sexually. Not only does she play a great Wonder Woman, but we finally have a superhero whose main purpose is to protect and save innocent lives. Isn't that what superheroes do? They should. Lately, however, especially in Batman V Superman, you never get a sense that these heroes actually like saving people or even have it as their main motivation. It was nice to see a superhero whose only real goal was to save lives and destroy evil. Another thing I liked seeing here, that in my eyes have been absent from many superhero movies lately, is a romance between two characters that grows and is believable. Chris Pine is absolutely fantastic in this movie and his chemistry with Gal Gadot is great. You laugh at their humourous banter, you care about both of them and you really believe that they can fall in love with each other. On top of that, it is nice to see men and women in a giant blockbuster finally be on a similar level. What do I mean by that? Well, I've heard time and time again that Hollywood does not have any real women heroes. Sure, you have Ripley from Alien and Sarah Connor from Terminator, but most of the time, when movies need a strong female character, they often dumb down their male counterparts. Ron Weasley is clumsy while Hermione Granger is super smart, Katniss Everdeen is a strong warrior but Peeta is a burden to everyone around him, and while Rey is good at everything she does, Finn is bumbling all the time, often scared and gets his ass handed to him by Kylo Ren while Rey is the one to defeat him. Here, Wonder Woman is strong, independent, courageous and everything you'd want in a superhero role model, but she has help from her male counterparts like Chris Pine and they work together. They didn't make Chris Pine some comic relief idiot. There is one scene in the movie where Chris Pine and Wonder Woman are looking at some people hugging each other because they were saved by them. Chris Pine says, "You did this!" Wonder Woman turns back and smiles, "We did!" BOOM! That's it! That's what the feminist movement in Hollywood should be about! Men and women side by side equal. Not creating a new status quo where all men a disgusting pigs while all women are better than them in every imaginable way. Sure, Wonder Woman can be the hero and be the one to kick the most ass, but she has respect for her squad and is thankful for their support and help. Also, when that Wonder Woman theme starts blasting and she goes to town on some bad guys, holy crap that gets your heart pumping! It is so awesome, I think I muttered under my breath, "F*** Yeah!" when it happened. Lastly, I'm so glad that a superhero can come out in 2017 and be this streamlined. Meaning that no story elements were used simply to set-up further sequels or establish characters for spinoffs or anything to that nature. Instead, they use that running time that would be wasted in a film like Batman V Superman and develop Wonder Woman's backstory, develop a chemistry between her and Chris Pine's Captain Steve Trevor. This, in turn, leads to higher stakes in the action sequences, therefore, making them more exciting. Wonder Woman is an absolutely great film and it came out at a perfect time. At a time where superhero films are quite frankly only made to set up further superhero films and at a time where seeing a woman leader be this kind, humble and yet strong and brave is definitely a nice change of pace from seeing a certain orange walking hair piece leader in charge. Wonder Woman is not only an amazing movie, it's an important one. Give it a watch in theatres! I promise you will not regret it.