Director Patty Jenkins
Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright
Rated M
Score 4/6

Before she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true destiny.

Upon its release Wonder Woman has been met with a certain amount of controversy when on May 31, it was banned in Lebanon after the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel asked the Lebanese government’s Ministry of Economy and Trade to block the film because its star, Gal Gadot, served in the Israeli military.
While the Alamo Drafthouse has been met with what can only be described as first world white people’s problems over its decision for two women’s only screenings for Wonder Woman. In case you were wondering here in Australia Women’s only and Men’s only movie screenings has been happening for at least several years at my favourite neighbourhood cinema for certain ‘chick flicks’ and ‘blokey movies’. So, to those have been voicing their displeasure towards the Alamo Drafthouse I stand upon my little cyber soapbox and say this ‘Dude seriously what’s your problem?’

Okay, we now are another step closer to the Justice League Movies, also for those of you who might be keeping track at home the last female Super Hereos in a lead role feature length movie where Catwoman in 2004 and Elektra in 2005 (way back before comic book movies where a constant thing) and wait I better not forget the Modesty Blaise movie My Name is Modesty which was released direct-to-dvd back in 2004 (and yes I have just realised that I am going to have to re-watch and review this) and was directed by Scott Spiegel.

Now, Patty Jenkins is the first woman to direct a superhero film with a female protagonist and this one of those it’s one of those it’s about time kind of things. Has a female director changed anything? Well considering that the movie hasn’t even been out for week yet, I’d say it’s way too early to tell. The thing there is an almost steady stream of comic book movies being released. Granted, it might not be such a constant stream of comic book movies at it seems in my head. But the genre has got to the point that it needs to reinvent itself I’m not sure Wonder Woman did that, all it did was prove that female lead comic book movies can be financially viable, just like Deadpool did with bloody violence. One of the drawbacks about Wonder Woman was not able to set itself apart from all of the other comic book movies that have been released. During the final 45 minutes of the movie I was surprised to see how many times I was reminded of Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger

It was good to see Gadot’s interpretation of Wonder Woman (who was little more than a mysterious figure in Batman v Superman) become a fully fleshed out character. Gadot gave an interesting performance. I also thought that both Lilly Aspel and Emily Carey each had an interesting moment as the 8-year old and 12-year old princess of the Amazons. Chris Pine was as charming as you would expect him to be and David Thewlis gave a great performance as the villain.