Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman arrived in 2017 as the fourth film in the DC Extended Universe. Gal Gadot plays Diana, an Amazon princess raised on the hidden island of Themyscira who leaves home to stop a war she believes a god started. The film runs 141 minutes. It is an action, adventure and fantasy picture with a tagline that promises “Power. Grace. Wisdom. Wonder.” It mostly delivers the first two.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
A Princess of Themyscira
The setup is the film’s cleanest work. Diana grows up as the daughter of Queen Hippolyta, played by Connie Nielsen, on an island of women warriors the Olympian gods created to protect mankind. Her aunt Antiope, played by Robin Wright, trains her in secret after Hippolyta refuses. The film spends real time here, and it earns the payoff later.
Hippolyta tells Diana the story of Ares, the god of war, who grew jealous of humans and orchestrated their destruction. When the other gods moved to stop him, Ares killed all but Zeus, who wounded him and forced his retreat before dying. Zeus left the Amazons a weapon called the “god-killer” for when Ares returns. Diana believes every word.
Steve Trevor Crashes the Party
In 1918, an adult Diana pulls US pilot and spy Steve Trevor, played by Chris Pine, from a plane crash off the coast. German soldiers pursuing him invade the island. The Amazons take casualties but wipe out the landing force, and Antiope dies saving Diana. It is the film’s first real cost, and it lands.
Interrogated with the Lasso of Hestia, Steve says a great war is consuming the outside world. He has stolen a notebook from Dr. Isabel Maru, the Germans’ chief chemist, who is engineering a deadlier form of mustard gas under General Erich Ludendorff’s orders. Diana decides Ares is behind it all and leaves with Steve, carrying the god-killer sword, the lasso and armor.
“Power. Grace. Wisdom. Wonder.”
London, the Front, and a Notebook
In London, the pair deliver Maru’s notebook to the Supreme War Council, where Sir Patrick Morgan, played by David Thewlis, is trying to negotiate an armistice with Germany. Diana translates the notebook. The film’s middle stretch puts Diana among Steve’s allies — Sameer, Charlie and The Chief — and then in the trenches, where she walks into No Man’s Land and becomes the hero the movie has been promising.
Gadot carries these scenes without strain. She trained six hours a day for six months, gained 17 pounds, and studied swordsmanship, Kung Fu, kickboxing, capoeira, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and horseback riding. She has said the work was more intense than her training for the Israeli army. It shows in how she moves, and it shows in how little the film needs to cut around her.
Casting Gadot drew criticism. Some argued her Israeli heritage should have disqualified her from playing a character often seen as an American symbol of freedom. Others said she was too thin for a character traditionally drawn as busty and muscular. Jenkins, who was at first disappointed she could not help cast Diana, later called Gadot the perfect choice and said she shares “every quality” with the character. Gadot described Diana as relatable, compassionate and emotionally intelligent, with “the heart of a human.”
Where the Film Loses Its Nerve
The last act is the problem. David Thewlis’ Sir Patrick is revealed to be Ares, and the film trades its grounded war for a duel between gods built from computer-generated imagery. In this paper’s view, that turn costs the film the stakes the trenches built, and the answer it reaches — that killing one god will not end human conflict — arrives by a loud, weightless route.
The supporting cast does what it can. Danny Huston’s Ludendorff and Elena Anaya’s Dr. Maru are thin villains, written as obstacles rather than people. Lucy Davis’ Etta Candy brings warmth in a handful of scenes. Pine is the film’s secret weapon, giving Steve a decency that keeps Diana’s naivete from reading as stupidity.
What the Film Proved
Wonder Woman matters because of what it proved, not because it is flawless. Jenkins directed a superhero tentpole for Warner Bros., and the film was released in the United States in 2017. The Themyscira sequences and the No Man’s Land march stand out as the strongest material in the film.
The film’s real achievement is Gadot. She plays Diana as curious rather than blank, and the script lets her be ignorant of the world without being a fool. Her Diana does not know gender norms or inequality because no one taught her, and Gadot makes that read as strength rather than a gap. When the film asks her to sell belief in a god-killer sword, she sells it.
KEY FACTS
– Release: 2017
– Director: Patty Jenkins
– Runtime: 141 minutes
– Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
– Score: 7.2/10
Seven point two out of ten. A strong first two acts, a lead who holds the frame, and a finale that forgets what made the rest work.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
