Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman must stop the head of a pharmaceutical company's illegal experiments for financial gain.

Opening with the horror-stricken images of a boy with bleeding eyes, Wonder Woman quickly moves to a foot chase though the streets. There's no origin story which some have highly criticised. Personally I'm a exasperated with origin stories, these superhero characters have become a part of pop culture and can seem some what unnecessary.

The pilot establishes Wonder Woman as a known face in the real world, a vigilant of sorts, with a reputation for knocking down doors, invading privacy, assaulting people and the videos uploaded to YouTube.

Adrianne Palicki is surprising good as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, and oddly the promotional pictures for the show didn't do her justice. She's tough, rough, sexy and sulky. The plot features a standard Cary Elwes performance as her marketing CEO and Elizabeth Hurley plays the antagonist head of a pharmaceutical company.

It's quite amusing that (in the world of the pilot) she has become marketable merchandise property and makes a remark that the comic version of her is incorrect with Diana stating that the Wonder Woman doll is insulting and she want's it redesigned. "These breast are ridiculous." "Wonder Woman isn't vulgar." "Wonder Woman is perfect, perfect t*ts, perfect ass, perfect teeth." It is apparent that Diana's/Wonder's crime fighting technology is funded by Wonder Woman's merchandising success which is an interesting titbit (no pun intended).

There's establishing flashback for Diana's love interest and some good camera work and effects from director Jeffrey Reiner, the contemporary music is dramatic and adds to the tension in the dialogue scenes. David E. Kelley's story explores briefly the problem of superheroes heavy handiness being unlawful and forever under legal scrutiny.

Wonder Woman is reminiscent of 'The New Adventures of Superman' (1993- 1997) although it does have a darker tone and sleeker look. It moves away from Superman's studio feel and while not particularly true to the comic, Wonder Woman's shot on location look and Kelley relevant poignant dialogue adds to its allure as much as Palicki's costume.

The only big action scene is at the 30 minute mark and is the highlight of the pilot with Palicki's physical prowess and wire-work being most impressive.

Overall, Adrianne Palicki equals Lynda Carter's incarnation and while not spectacular or highly engrossing it's no lesser than other mediocre TV productions that have been given a chance and a longer run. It may have evolved and brought a live action Wonder Woman to another generation but I suppose we may never know, that is until some else has a stab at bringing DC's female flag character to life.

This version of WW has turned her from fighting Nazis to being a Nazi. Call that hyperbole if you like but the fact remains that they have cast aside every shred of honor that DC heroes have with this drivel.

In the movie Hancock, Nancy Grace chastises Hancock by saying "Nobody is above the law". In this series they have her praising WW for her illegal and unconstitutional actions. When the police ask her to give over the suspect the first line we ever hear her say is "If I give him to you he will 'lawyer up'".

DC heroes never interfered with the criminal justice system. They groused about it but they realized that couldn't replace it. This version shows us a Wonder Woman who will happily adopt the Guilty-until-proved innocent, no due process approach of the Nazis she used to fight.

It sickened me to watch this garbage.

They got the look right. They got the action right. I like the actress. I like the costumes. The rest? Dang, how weird! Plot and dialog no better than the 1970s show--really, really bad. And a real fascist slant to the whom thing. And wonder woman seems to change size pretty drastically throughout. Sometime she looks very amazon tall and imposing, other times not. And her voice sometimes drifts into SoCal valley-speak tones. Anyway...the look of the actress and costume and how she looked kicking add worked. But that's about it. The whole thing seemed kind of ill thought out and a bit rushed. This was from a major producer known mainly for his writing?

I have read many reviews citing poor acting, poor writing, shoddy camera work... As a made-for-television pilot, I found all of these to be acceptable. It isn't a feature film after all.

I also had no trouble seeing Adrianne Palicki in the role. She has the right proportions, figure, and face to closely match the classic DC comic heroine.

But where it all falls short - profanely so - is in the complete abandonment of her Story. They seem to have ditched her Greek Mythology origin and made into some kind of female version of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Even her bracers (forged by the god Haephestus for her mother, Hipolita) and lasso aren't divine artifacts, but technological gadgets paid for by marketing clothing lines and action figures.

The show would probably have been picked up if they had used a different outfit and name, but the outcry from the comics community was loud and clear - Don't break the story!

Fair enough, as a bloke in his late thirties I admit it's probably impossible anyone would be able to totally fill Lynda Carter's red boots as Wonder Woman for me. However when I saw the pictures of Adrianne Palicki in the outfit I laughed.And several months later when I had finished laughing I decided to check out the pilot.

Turns out I had been a bit unfair on Ms. Palicki for, although no Lynda,for me she is the best thing about this pilot.Let me rephrase that - for me she is the only good thing about this pilot. Oh, O.K. the action isn't bad.

But the rest is just really really depressing. The dialogue is truly awful,the plot terrible, the supporting cast stinks. I'm not a major fan of David E Kelley so I expected to have to put up with people banging on about the law a lot (they do). What I wasn't prepared for was Wonder Woman's total disregard for the law. But the thing is this isn't the character of Wonder Woman that anyone - anyone - would recognise.

I had never seen Adrianne Palicki before but thought she had both presence and charisma.I suspect I shall see her again in the future. And with the success of the Avengers re-igniting talk of Wonder Woman on the Big Screen, maybe best for all concerned we just pretend this didn't happen...