Wonder Woman (2017)
★★ — Wonder Woman (2017)
When Wonder Woman arrived in cinemas in June 2017, it carried a weight that went well beyond its 141-minute runtime. Diana Prince had been a fixture of DC Comics since 1941, a character who had sustained her own television series, countless comic runs, and decades of cultural conversation, yet had never been given a solo feature film. That absence was, by any measure, a long time coming, and the pressure on this production to perform, both commercially and symbolically, was considerable. Directed by Patty Jenkins, the film is set against the backdrop of the First World War, placing its Amazonian protagonist in the mud and gas of the Western Front. It is a bold choice of setting for a superhero origin story, one that sets it apart, at least in conception, from the glossy, present-day cityscapes that most entries in the genre call home.
Jenkins, whose previous feature directorial credit was the crime drama Monster back in 2003, returned to mainstream filmmaking here after more than a decade working in television. The film was produced under the DC Films banner alongside Atlas Entertainment and Cruel and Unusual Films, operating within the broader DC Extended Universe that Warner Bros. had been building since 2013. The source material draws on the Amazonian mythology that writers like William Moulton Marston had established across decades of comics, and Jenkins works to translate that mythic register onto the screen, particularly in the early sequences set on the island of Themyscira. It is worth noting, for a production of this ambition and profile, that the action-heavy genre has rarely been short of competition. Anyone who has read the site's take on Mad Max: Fury Road will have a sense of just how high the ceiling can be for action filmmaking when everything clicks into place, and the bar that sets is a useful reference point here.
The principal cast is anchored by Gal Gadot as Diana, the Israeli actress and former model who had already appeared briefly as the character in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice the previous year. Opposite her, Chris Pine plays Steve Trevor, the American pilot who serves as Diana's introduction to the wider human world and as something of a moral compass within the story. Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright appear as Amazonian royalty, lending a certain poise and physicality to the island sequences, while Danny Huston takes on the role of the primary antagonist. It is a polished but, some would argue, unremarkable ensemble, assembled with clear commercial logic. Whether they collectively make the material sing is, of course, the real question, and it is one worth sitting with before we hear what our reviewer has to say.
Wonder Woman (2017) arrives with noble intentions (finally giving DC’s iconic superheroine a standalone origin story) but stumbles under the weight of its own formulaic structure and uneven execution. Set during World War I, the film follows Diana as she leaves her Amazonian paradise to stop what she believes is the god of war corrupting humanity. The first act, on the mystical island of Themyscira, is visually striking and full of promise, with dynamic action and strong world-building. But once the story moves to the trenches of Europe, it quickly devolves into a generic superhero plot with predictable beats and diminishing returns. Gal Gadot certainly looks the part (graceful, powerful, and physically convincing as an immortal warrior) but her performance lacks emotional range. Her line delivery often feels flat or rehearsed, and key dramatic moments fail to land because the character’s inner life remains underdeveloped. Chris Pine provides some much-needed charm as the love interest, but even his efforts can’t elevate the thin dialogue or rushed romance that’s meant to anchor the film’s emotional core. The visual effects are serviceable, though the final act collapses into the same CGI-heavy, weightless spectacle that plagues so many modern superhero films. What begins as a mythic fable about idealism and human complexity ends with a forgettable light-beam showdown that undermines the earlier thematic nuance. Wonder Woman isn’t a disaster, but it’s deeply underwhelming. A missed opportunity to deliver something truly groundbreaking. It has moments of beauty and bravery, but they’re buried under clichés, weak writing, and a lead performance that never quite connects.
It is a conclusion that, for me, feels fair and honestly arrived at. There are flashes here that suggest a more interesting film was possible, and the Themyscira sequences alone hint at what a more confident, less formula-bound production might have managed. But good intentions and striking imagery only carry a film so far. I kept thinking about how much harder this genre works when the writing is prepared to trust its audience, something I found Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga genuinely tried to do, even if with mixed results of its own. And when I consider something like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, another adventure film built around a female warrior at its centre, the gap between genuine mythic weight and the kind of superhero spectacle on offer here becomes all the more apparent. Wonder Woman is not a film I regret watching, but it is one I suspect I will spend very little time thinking about.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2017 | Watched: 2026-04-22
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Wonder Woman (2017) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel · Sky Go · Now TV Cinema
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Watch in the US
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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