Distributed By: Warner Bros.
Production: Atlas Entertainment, Cruel & Unusual Films, DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Tencent Pictures, Wanda Pictures, Warner Bros.
Director: Patty Jenkins
Writers: Allen Heinburg, Zack Snyder, Jason Fuchs, William Moulton Marston (creator of Wonder Woman).
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielson, Danny Huston
Cert: 12A
Running Time: 141 mins

Okay, if Wonder Woman has any flaws, it can be clunky, but not between the action set pieces, which work extremely well. Mostly the clunk – for want of a better word – is mostly between Wonder Woman herself and the American pilot she rescues, Steve Trevor. And both actors, Gal Gadot and Chris Pine – looking comfortable away from the bridge of the Enterprise in a way William Shatner never has- work with what they have in dialogue and narrative, skirting round any campness. So, there is a love affair that doesn’t quite coalesce; the Amazon island is a sort of Sparta; and any other hint of absurdity in Wonder Woman is dispatched with grace and acting skills lesser actors would have surrendered to.

And speaking of the white flag, Wonder Woman never surrenders, not in cinematic or character terms. The World War One setting is as grime as any episode of Band of Brothers or any set piece from Saving Private Ryan. The machine gun charge by Wonder Woman is no one-sided affair. A definite thumbs up to director Patty Jenkins for not flinching from realism.

Gadot’s Wonder Woman, whilst at times naive, is never nothing short of a commanding on the screen. And not in the usual sexist way either, because – men – you will lust after Wonder Woman but in terms of romance, my testosterone driven friends, you are not going to be on top with this one. Wonder Woman far from the usual depiction of female superheroes, in either film or comic book. And I grew up in the 1970s, I know what sexist female superheroes looked like back then and what was expected of them in the minds of their mostly male readers. But I’m off topic so let’s get back to the conclusion of this review.

And my conclusion is this. Abandon all preconceived ideas of Wonder Woman, it is not ‘girly’, there is no less action because the lead is female. Wonder Woman is about as far apart from its 1970s counterpart as the DUP is from reality. There’s no kitsch spinning around to change costume. Wonder Woman’s invisible plane, from her comic book incarnation is missing too and that is no bad thing. Wonder Woman does not need that frippery.

My personal judgement on the quality of a film rests solely on whether I would watch it again. Wonder Woman meets my judgement 100%.

Reviewer: Steve Hooker
Editor? We don’t need no stinking editor.