Finally, the latest installment in the DC Extended Universe and the second installment into the Wonder Woman franchise has officially released and We have finally watched it.
In the past 24 hours, it’s gone from a “certified fresh” on Rotten tomatoes to having that tag removed because of bad reviews, however, I am here to tell you my review and thoughts on the movie.
Spoilers Beware!!!
What I Liked?
First off I’ll speak about the visuals and cinematography for Themyscira, in each movie in the DC universe we see Themyscira in, it’s always beautiful, it really pops. This was no different. We get to see a very young Diana compete in a “multi-stage competition” but when Diana takes a shortcut, she gets disqualified as a lesson to always tell the truth.
The film then goes to the early ’80s where we see Diana saving people in a shopping mall all while keeping hidden. The film then goes to a scene where we meet Barbara. She’s a no one, someone who gets made fun of, and just a loner, However, Diana helps her which causes Barbara to want to be more like Diana.
the film moves at quite a fast paste where we get to meet Maxwell lord, played by the great Pedro Pascal. He uses Barbara to steal an antique from the museum which grants their wishes. Of course, with the three people not knowing about it, they all seemingly make wishes, Barbara wishes to be more like Diana, Diana wishes for Steve to come back, and Maxwell lord wishes to be the most powerful person on the planet.
once again the movie moves at a fast paste and we see everything happen from Steve reuniting with Diana, Barbara to get self-confidence and her increase in strength and agility to Maxwell Lord being able to grant people’s wishes.
After a little bit of spending time with Steve, Diana shows him around, seeing his reaction to what would be “futuristic” things to Steve, this whole scene was funny yet something we’ve seen in other movies.
Diana and Steve steal a jet to fly to Cairo, in the plane when they’re being tracked, Diana uses one of the things she learned from one of the Gods, how to turn stuff invisible, she makes the jet invisible. I’m SO EXCITED WITH THIS AND WE HAVE THE INVISIBLE JET LIVE-ACTION.
This next scene what I’ll be speaking about is something that I’ve seen being trashed and talked about on Twitter because of how bad it is, or how Diana stopped a bullet with her Lasso. now While the scene did have some bad CGI which I’ll get into later, the scene was amazing. It showcased not only her strength when vulnerable but also showcased her will to save people and the world. Her powers are slowly fading and yet she goes up against people with guns, armored vehicles, and more?
While Maxwell Lord is granting people’s wishes to benefit him, we see exactly how it’s affecting him, it’s killing him, slowly but still killing him no less. We come to learn his plan, to make everyone make a wish so he can make a wish to take their health and emotions.
The world is literally falling apart because of Maxwell, we see chaos flooding the streets. It was truly a great scene that was shot very well. Since Diana’s powers are starting to fade, she couldn’t stop Maxwell from doing what he needed, which was to make people wish for stuff, including chemical missiles.
Steve tells Diana what she needs to do, she needs to renounce her wish to reclaim her powers so she can go off and save the world, while Diana doesn’t like this, they both say their goodbyes with Steve telling her that he’ll love her no matter where he is, Diana renounces her wish and off she sets.
Now, once again I’ve seen people on Twitter complain or get “confused” at Diana flying, It must be so hard for people to read up on something, We get to see Diana fly, like a full-on fly. It was great. It was finally fantastic to see, other than just seeing her leap very far distances.
Maxwell takes control of the world’s television broadcasts and talks the world into making wishes. They start making hundreds of wishes, some good, some bad, and some very dangerous. We get to see Maxwell heal from it.
Skip ahead to the end of the film where we get one of the emotional scenes, this time with Maxwell and his son. This was truly emotional, I think it was even more emotional because of Pedro.
What I Disliked?
I personally only had a few dislikes of the movie. One of those was Barbara’s story. It started off very cliche by being one of those stories where “Main hero helps me out, so I want to be just like them” stories. We saw it in plenty of movies.
The first half of the movie did have some decent action, and some decent scenes, however, the first half did somehow manage to go slow yet rush through a few key scenes which could have been expanded on, but giving the movie was 2 and a half hours long, I see why they chose to slightly rush through the scenes.
Now the Cairo chase scene again, I mentioned earlier how the scene had some bad CGI and it was true, it did have some bad CGI, especially towards the end where she saves 2 kids. You could tell it was used on a green screen.
my last dislike was, after everything in the movie that happened, Maxwell Lord just gets to go free and be a dad? Like no repercussions or anything, nearly ended the world and he can just go home?
Favorite Moments
Now for my favorite moments of the movie, We normally have 1 favorite scene but since this was a 2 and a half hour movie, I’ll give a couple of scenes.
- In one of the earlier Maxwell scenes where Diana is trying to stop Maxwell we get to see his guards try to stop Diana, she dismantles one guard’s gun while unloading the bullet which flies up and she hits it towards Maxwell, barely missing him.
- Diana’s entrance onto the island where Maxwell is broadcasting from. She enters and immediately gets into a fight with Barbara who’s gone full “Cheetah” now. The fight goes back and forth and ends up with electric cables flying around and Diana and Barbara in the water, Barbara won’t renounce her wish so Diana uses the electricity to stop her.
- Diana tries to stop Maxwell but it’s too much, so she outsmarts him by using her lasso to speak the truth into the world to get people to renounce their wishes, after a very decent speech, the world goes back to normal with Diana showing Maxwell a vision of his son running alone in the chaos.
Standout Character(s)
Diana was the heart of the movie once again. She killed it. I loved the introduction to Kristen Wiig’s Barbara and Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord. The 3 of them were standouts in their own right.
Would I Recommend?
100% Yes, Definitely check it out.
The Verdict
First of all, the hate that I’ve seen for this movie isn’t deserved at all. The movie is great, it’s shot beautifully and once again Gal Gadot killed the role. She is the perfect Wonder Woman. Was this movie better than the first? No, but it stands out in its own right, the first movie was serious because it was set in a world war, this didn’t have to be serious because of the time period it was set in.
The action was great in every bit of action we got. I absolutely loved it. The characters were amazing once again, from Diana to Steve to Maxwell Lord. They were all amazing, I’ve said it before, Gal killed it as Diana, she always does so for Pedro and Kristen to come into this movie and have their characters match the vibe that Diana gave was amazing, they both were spot on.
For the end cameo bit, this I did not expect and it caught me off guard. Lynda Carter cameoed as another Amazonian, the one who originally owned the Golden Armor, Asteria. I absolutely love cameos like this.
Rating: 9.4/10
Rating!
Story - 8.5
Action - 9
Characters - 10
Entertainment - 10
9.4
An absolutely solid movie backed up with great performances from the cast, great action scenes with some emotional scenes. They mixed really well.