Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman – I saw this movie on DVD with my brother and sister-in-law, while visiting their house for the weekend. I had already seen some of Gal Gadot's portrayal of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman in Justice League, and wouldn't have expected the movie to be so good after seeing the CGI battle extravaganza that is Aquaman. But in spite of some action sequences that I didn't find altogether visually convincing, I liked the heart of this movie – at bottom, the story of a young woman who leaves a very sheltered environment to seek adventure in a world full of dangers beyond her imagination, and who meets every challenge because she also has powers she never suspected. The reason she never suspected them may seem implausible to folks who are unacquainted with the inherent stupidity of comic book characters, who chronically keep secrets from each other, leading to conflict and alienation, because life apparently wouldn't be interesting enough if they learned from past mistakes. The reason she has the powers is another story, which I decline to tell you right now because it would spoil too many fun surprises.

Diana's adventure unfolds during World War II, which she only finds out is going on when an American pilot, working for British intelligence, crashes a German fighter off the coast of her hermetically sealed island. I forget the name of the island, except that when you hear it, you're tempted to say "Gesundheit." Everybody on it is female and, apparently, Greek, although they look and sound like they come from all kinds of places. Seeing a dude for the first time is quite an eye-opener for Diana, especially one who looks like Chris Pine, but then a bunch of German bad guys follow him through the dome of invisibility that protects Themiscyra (there it is, and thanks for the blessing), and suddenly Diana feels called to do battle against the ancient god of war, who she feels is behind everything that's going on in the outside world. If only she can get that guy, she reasons, the world will become a peaceful place. Meanwhile, Steve Trevor needs to get back to Whitehall to tell the war cabinet what he has discovered about the plans of a fiendish German general and the chemical warfare maven he keeps by him, a scary lady who covers her disfigured face with a partial mask.

Next thing you know, Steve and Diana are joined by a group of misfits on a mission that, from his point of view, is all about preventing the release of a weapon that could kill millions, while from her point of view, it's all about killing Ares. As they get closer to their goal, Diana kicks rapidly mounting quantities of ass, and the regard between the two grows into love. But they reach the limit of the amount of ass that can be productively kicked on an airfield where the god of war finally reveals himself, and the only way to move forward is – well, pretty sad, in an admirable and uplifting way.

So, it's altogether a pretty good superhero movie, maybe better in some ways than most of the ones I've seen in the last year or two. Besides the very attractive hero couple, the movie also features Robin Wright (The Princess Bride, Unbreakable), David Thewlis (Harry Potter 3, Timeline), Danny Huston (who has also played Poseidon and Viktor Frankstein), and Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, One Hour Photo). Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Diana, openly staring at a very naked Steve, asks, "What is that?" He looks down for a split second, then realizes what she means and says, "Oh, that's a watch!" It's an adorably awkward moment, with a giggle-worthy shot of innuendo. (2) The hero couple's parting conversation being drowned out by background noise – then replayed, as a memory, with the dialogue audible. (3) A group of people running across no-man's land, protected from a hail of machine-gun fire by a couple of bulletproof bracelets. I think it was just before this scene when my brother turned toward me and said something like, "It's about to turn into a great movie."