Superheroine

With ‘Wonder Woman,’ DC finally made a movie worth watching

There’s no shortage of trolls in the rivalry between DC and Marvel comics. Or man-children getting offended by the legitimacy of female-centric genre properties. What’s amazing is how much of the conversation about comic book cinema gets mired in tribal inanities—especially when we’re talking about the potential (and deserved) success of something like “Wonder Woman.” 

With the disappointment of “Suicide Squad” in the rearview mirror and Zack Snyder stepping away from Warner Bros. for “Justice League,” indie darling Patty Jenkins gets in the director’s chair for her first feature since 2003’s “Monster.”

And she better come back, because “Wonder Woman” is the best DC movie yet. 

The shortcomings of the DC Expanded Universe are well known. Even before the current DCEU, with Christopher Nolan’s wildly successful “Batman” trilogy, the films possessed a humorless, self-righteous tone, and crushingly dour takes on their characters that bordered on the absurd.

Based on a script by DC Comics vet Allan Heinberg, “Wonder Woman” has a playful sense of, well … wonder. Mostly bereft of the bad decisions that plagued the era of Nolan and Snyder, DC has improbably planted one foot firmly in Marvel’s optimistic backyard and have, for once, beaten their archrival to the creative punch. 

Sure, it’s another origin story—a template that has grown tiresome over a decade of comic book franchises. But what makes “Wonder Woman” different is that I didn’t really know her story. 

The broad strokes from the ‘70s television series, which I ate up as a kid, are all here. Diana is an Amazonian princess, born to a society of benevolent warrior women living on the “Lost”-ish island of Themyscira. She rescues a downed fighter pilot named Steve Trevor. The Amazons decide to return him to the real world and send Diana to protect him. In the show, she becomes Trevor’s secretary, Diana Prince, concealing her true identity like Superman with a pair of nerdy glasses. When the need arises, she transforms into Wonder Woman and kicks the shit out of a bunch of baddies. 

We initially meet Diana (Emily Carey) as a child. Years later, when she has become a powerful warrior, Diana is played by Gal Gadot, who is great—possessed of a defiant charm that’s utterly genuine. She sells the fight scenes with concussive gusto, which Jenkins directs with surprising emotion and a keen spatial eye. Chris Pine, who plays Trevor, is equally charming and hard to look away from.

Aside from a telegraphed twist near the end and a half-assed attempt at romance between Trevor and Diana (who both have charisma to burn but feel more like siblings than lovers), “Wonder Woman” treads confidently with thrilling action sequences, a pulpy story, and engaging performances. Jenkins, while largely adhering to the visual aesthetic established by the previous DC films, directs with a thoughtfulness and sense of excitement that was glaringly absent from Snyder’s work. 

So breathe easy, geeks. You can believe the hype. “Wonder Woman” is a marvel.

For more from Joe, read his “Twin Peaks” primer.