Wonder Woman

The problem with this animated Wonder Woman movie is that the plot is a little bland for adults, but the level of violence is probably too much for kids. And even though it's only 74 minutes long, the story still feels watered down, and some of the dialogue feels heavy-handed or wooden. That being said, it's a pretty straightforward telling of Wonder Woman's origin story. It's not bad, but I expected it to be better.

I am happy to say that this is a very decent movie. Wonder woman has waited so long for her own epic, albeit a straight to DVD release. The story takes us through her roots, where she came from, and more importantly, who she is. The story works, and it has its own originality. What could make it better? If it were live action thats what. If they added a little more to fill it to maybe 100 minutes, and got someone young new and able for the lead part, and maybe removed some of this Steve's chauvinist's attitude, then this Wonder Woman movie in Live action WOULD BE EPIC! This gives me hope that the big screen live action will be close to perfect.

Wonder Woman makes her live action solo movie debut in 2017, but that is not her first feature length film. In 2009, the animated Wonder Woman movie was produced by Warner Premiere as part of its then-new direct to video series of movies. Overshadowed by higher profile releases like Batman Gotham Knights (no doubt bolstered by the success of Christopher Nolan's dark knight trilogy), the 2009 Wonder Woman animated movie failed to perform as well in terms of sales. Surprising when you consider that on its own, WONDER WOMAN is a well made, thought provoking, energetic little movie that deserved much more recognition than it got.

Our story opens in ancient times where the amazon women wage a bloody war which ended with he imprisonment of Ares, but at the cost of many lives. As a reward, the Greek gods grant the amazon queen Hippolyta a child fashioned from clay: Diana. The amazons flourish in isolation on paradise island where Diana grows up into a fine young warrior. But a part of her seeks greater adventure outside the boundaries of the island. Her chance comes when pilot Steve Trevor survives a frantic mid air battle and crashes on the island.

As the amazons hold a contest to determine the one most worthy to escort Trevor back to America, Ares escapes with the help of a traitor just as Diana wins the contest. Tasked with tracking down Ares, Trevor opts to help Diana as the enter man's world in search of the missing god of war. But Ares has a far more sinister plan in the work, one that could spell the doom of the world and the extinction of the amazons.

Right from the get go, the first thing that struck me was the dialogue in the movie. Written by comic scribe Gail Simone, the dialogue is witty, clever and mature. Take the visuals out of the equation and it feels like watching a well written live action movie or prime time TV show.

Our characters are brought to life by a perfect cast; Alfred Molina is truly menacing as Ares, Rosario Dawson as the regal queen, and Keri Russell imbuing a nuanced inner strength to Diana.

However the true standout performance is Firefly's Nathan Fillon as daring scoundrel pilot Steve Trevor. Steve is part Han Solo, part Maverick Mitchell from Top Gun and Fillon slips into it perfectly. He completely owns the roll, delivering his dialogue in the most natural way possible, sharing a magnificent chemistry with Russell.

The story is deeper than your average cartoon. Aside from being an origin story for Wonder Woman, showing her growth from reluctant and slightly defiant girl to a champion of the oppressed, the narrative weaves in many underlying themes relevant to our times.

Themes of sexism, gender bias, racial privilege and the differing expectations on man and woman are all interwoven into the narrative and brought to the forefront. It is refreshing to find a movie that is this smart in its handling of such themes; indeed a rarity in American animated works.

Unfortunately, the movie is not without its flaws and WONDER WOMAN's flaws are in the visuals. The animation was done by Moi Animation, a Korean studio who worked on many critically acclaimed works such as Legend of Korra and Young Justice. WONDER WOMAN was their first feature length work, having only done animation in the past for TV shows like TEEN TITANS and BOONDOCKS. The animation is OK. Nothing horrible but nothing as stunning as their later works. The often uninspired way the fight scenes are done does not help matters. Fights either involve one too many cuts or just do not feel as dynamic as other later DC animated movies.

The art work is also up to personal taste. Director Lauren Montgomery brings a look that mixes 90s Disney cartoon aesthetic with the more simplistic designs of the Bruce Timm cartoons, but the mix tends to look a bit lazy at times.

I personally did not like it as all the women looked the same, with big emphasised lips and angular hips, only differentiated by different hair styles. The few attempts at using CGI for vehicles just came off looking cheap and unprofessional.

On the bright side, composer Christopher Drake bring an epic score to the movie, giving otherwise mediocre fight scenes a sense of intensity and danger.

At 75 minutes, some would call the movie short, but i call it succinct. A lot happens in that time, going from paradise island, to America, to the depths of the underworld, and then to a climatic showdown in Washington DC. This brisk pace may leave it up to the viewer to connect some of the sub plots but the main story of Diana's more innocent nature contrasting with the ways of the modern world works to develop her character from sheltered princess into a true warrior and hero. This movie in a word is terrific, let down only by its technical shortcomings. If you can forgive that, that you would be in for a truly wonderful experience.

...But this movie was the best of the new Animated DC and even Marvel movies coming out yet (maybe with an exception of the Justice League: The New Frontier Movie), which might've been a bit better...

Everything just fit from the Storytelling, Jokes to the Action and even the Voice cast... usually they tend to overdo it (especially on the Action part) but it was just about right in this feature.

More of them in this quality please, I'd even like a TV show if it stays like this :P

I gave it an 8/10 with a tendency upwards.

MOAR!

I've never been a Wonder Woman fan, the ridiculous outfit always put me off much alike Superman and at time of writing haven't even watched the live action Gal Gadot film

For this reason I went into this expecting very little so found myself blown away by just how good it is.

Essentially an origin story it follows Diana from birth through to adulthood and her double pronged first mission to return a pilot to the world of man and to defeat Ares God Of War who has escaped confinement.

It never fails to amaze me how good the voice talent is in these things. Here we have Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, Marg Helgenberger, Virginia Madsen, David McCallum and one of my favorite actors Oliver Platt.

They do a fantastic job here as do the animators and the writers, I really enjoyed this. Is it ground breaking? Hardly, but considering it was a movie about a character I don't much care for they really knocked it out of the park.

The Good:

I love greek mythology

Very well written

Great voice cast

The Bad:

I still can't take the invisible jet seriously

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Don't believe the lies about the stork or the sex thing, my eyes have been opened! Babies are molded from sand.

Fighter jets float

The man who created Wonder Woman was born in the 1800's, let that sink in

Heroes have no appreciation for property damage

Being attacked by a god causes instant sobriety

The question who ate all the pies has been answered, it was hades