This Wonder Woman doesn’t just have to save humankind — she’s also tasked with rescuing the DC cinematic franchise and the reputation of female superhero movies.
That’s a heavy lift even for an Amazon warrior. But Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), who hails from the, like, totally unfair and sexist women-only island of Themyscira, is up to the job.
There’s no small amount of baggage arriving with Wonder Woman — the icon of American feminism, scantily clad token woman of the comics universe and beloved, campy 1970s TV character. Director Patty Jenkins (“Monster”) manages to work all three angles: She channels “Xena: Warrior Princess” in opening scenes, and wraps up with a fanboy-placating CGI spectacle, but in between, “Wonder Woman” plays it pretty straight, with plenty of humor, heart and old-fashioned heroism.
Nearly devoid of snark, it’s closest in spirit to Marvel’s “Captain America” movies, with Gadot echoing Chris Evans’ earnest derring-do (except like a superhero Ginger Rogers, doing it all in a headband and armored bathing suit).
After a brief introduction, we flash to Diana growing up as the lone child (Lilly Aspell) on her island, where a race of mythic female warriors lives hidden from humanity against an idyllic backdrop of turquoise ocean vistas and waterfalls. It’s a strangely retro opening, underscored by wobbly Greek accents and playful sword fighting.
Diana grows up, training with her aunt, General Antiope (Robin Wright, who makes one hell of a glamazon). Then World War I spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) comes crashing into the picture with a faltering plane (it’s never quite clear how he punctures their reality-obscuring bubble, but hey, comics logic.)
Rescued from drowning by Diana, he’s forced to confess his secrets via the truth-extracting magic lasso, and she’s compelled to follow him back to help stop the fighting, which she believes is the work of Ares, the Greek god of war and the Amazons’ sworn enemy.
Cue the stranger-in-a-strange land jokes: Steve introduces Diana to his London secretary, Etta (an effervescent Lucy Davis), whose job puzzles Diana: “Where I come from, we call that slavery.” She’s equally nonplussed by women’s fashions and the boys club of the British military, where even genial officers like Steve’s boss Sir Patrick (David Thewlis) harrumph at a woman in their midst.
Pine makes a perfect foil for Gadot’s furrowed-brow sincerity, his Steve Trevor wry and comfortable enough in his skin to hold his own with Diana (even when she’s scrutinizing his naked form). The screenplay, by Allan Heinberg, gets in several great moments of gender banter, but knows when to lay off the humor and give in to a romantic moment.
Then it’s on to the front, where you won’t find any overblown war sequences: Jenkins’ gaze is on the horror of fighting, not the glory. Maimed soldiers and weeping mothers and children are front and center, and when Diana does stride onto a battlefield (called “No Man’s Land,” in case you needed some helpful symbolism), it’s a lonely fight into a terrified, occupied village.
Still, there are a couple of classic baddies: Danny Huston is a silvery menace as the German officer Ludendorff, whose second-in-command, “Dr. Poison” (Elena Anaya), wears a doll-like mask. Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewan Bremner and Eugene Brave Rock make a likable trio of Steve’s sidekick mercenaries, with Taghmaoui’s Sameer getting in a pointed zinger in a film whose main faces are all white. He’d have liked to have been an actor, he says, “but I’m the wrong color.”
Gadot, whose character was first introduced in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” exudes superhero charisma, which powers her through a clichéd last chapter. She liberates this genre from decades of hopeless sexism — not to mention audiences from sitting through interminable credits, as there is, blissfully, no after-titles sequence.