WONDER WOMAN

Okay, male comic book fan confession time, I never collected 'Wonder Woman' during my avid years as a reader/collector. Not because I thought the character was just for girls, I never found a good jumping on point. Also, if I remember correctly my friend (who literally had a comic book collection that consisted of a little bit of every title) said the 'Wonder Woman' comic (at the time) wasn't that great? That story might be incorrect a little bit, but we did have discussions about Wonder Woman, and they seemed mediocre.

While I never picked up her book, I always loved the character. It was cool seeing her kick butt in a Justice Leauge comic. And I absolutely loved the idea (more like fact) that she could give Superman a run for his money!

More recently another friend of mine who reads comics told me about the New 52 run of 'Wonder Woman', and it sounded awesome. Because of this I started reading the Rebirth issues of 'Wonder Woman', and they have been really good. To save money and space I recently transitioned frome single issues to trade paperback volumes. Cannot wait to pick up the Wonder Woman books!

I am part of the unpopluar group that liked BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE. The Theatrical Cut is problematic and I vastly prefer the Ultimate Edition. Some issues just cannot be fixed, but for the most part as a comic book fan I enjoyed it. I really believe the best thing about the movie is when Wonder Woman shows up to help fight Doomsday. Yes, Wonder Woman steals the show from Superman and Batman!

Warner Bros has had a rocky start with their DCEU films, but I believe WONDER WOMAN is the first of many steers into correct course correction. Or maybe WONDER WOMAN will have fans (not critics) revaluate BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE and/or be more optimistic in November when JUSTICE LEAGUE hits theaters. Whatever the case, I think it's a no brainer that Diana Prince is now the anchor for the DCEU (sorry, not sorry Batman)!

Patty Jenkins' WONDER WOMAN is an origin film where we see Diana grow up to become the Amazon warrior we know and love. One day a WW1 pilot crashes on a secret island called Themyscira. The pilot is about to drown but Diana saves him. Germans break the invisible barrier and attack the Amazon warriors. The pilot, a spy name Steve Trevor tells them about the war. Convinced that Aries the god of war is behind it, Diana goes back to the real world with Steve to defeat the Germans and stop WW1.

Man, this movie was awesome from beginning to end. The 2 hour and 22 minute run time really felt like 88 minutes (something that cannot be said about BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE). I was glued to the screen. In my opinion WONDER WOMAN is so far the best DCEU movie to date. The film feels like a return/throwback to Richard Donner's 1978 film SUPERMAN. WONDER WOMAN director Patty Jenkins has given us a classic comic book movie. The film is DCEU cannon, but I'd be lying if I didn't feel it was a cousin to SUPERMAN (78).

I really enjoyed how colorful WONDER WOMAN was! I bet all the Themyscira scenes are just beautiful in IMAX 3D laser projection.

The cast is great too! Gal Gadot as Princess Diana/Wonder Woman is even better this time around. Move over Ben, Gal is the star now! And Chris Pine as spy Steve Trevor was great! I'm glad that Chris didn't get typecast as the young Captain Kirk from the new Star Trek movies. He is a talented actor and I expect even greater things to come.

One thing that I didn't much care for in the film was the villains. Why are villains so hard to get right these days? General Ludendorff started out being a real terrifying bad guy, but as the story progressed he became more cartoonish and over the top. and when Aries reveals himself it was kind of been-there-done-that in my opinion. The action climax (while very CGI) made up for it a little bit.

In conclusion, I highly highly recommend WONDER WOMAN! At the time of writing this blog post I like the movie more than GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2. It truly is that good.