In a word? Liked it, didn't love it. Had some issues. But it had some greatness, too - makes me think of Batman vs. Superman, only replace the "most of the movie is godawful" with "most of the movie is alright."
First off, Gal Gadot is fine. Not the greatest performance I've ever seen - she's a very one note character - but it works well for the movie and she plays that one note very well. Comparisons to Chris Evans as Captain America are apt. "Shucks, I just can't help being so good all the time," but in a way that's endearing rather than obnoxious. She's not Christopher Reeves but she's not that far behind, either.
For the movie itself: the beginning is a bit slow, but I get that we need to ease audiences in, so I'm okay with it. Things start going with the Germans landing on Paradise Island - did NOT expect that, and man, what a cool action scene, with Amazons fighting WWI soldiers. Love seeing cross-historical battles like that.
Things slow down after that with the whole Steve/Diana romance, getting to London, so on, so forth... I thought this part was alright, sort of weighed down by the humor which was more miss than hit. I think my issue is that all of the jokes were LONG. Like, we have Chris Pine pause and stammer his way to the punchline. The gags are predictable - like, "she doesn't understand that clothes aren't for fighting!" - and we already know the funny bit, so we sort of figure it out before the movie gets to it.
Still, it was harmless at worst, and there were some cute scenes. Diana getting excited about seeing a baby is definitely one of my favorites.
After that we get the team together, which I was mixed on... Sammy was the only one I really liked, the others felt sort of flat to me. We just get glimpses of their depth - the Scottish guy with his night-terrors, Chief with his "man without a country" vibe, but they never get followed up on. In general I thought the cast outside of Diana and Steve was undercooked.
No Man's Land was, even knowing it beforehand... amazing. I got chills. Blocking the shots one by one, the enemy lines freaking out, the allies rallying and going over the top. This is the scene that justified the movie for me. The rest of the shortcomings don't matter, because it builds up to one perfect scene. And the followup, fighting through the village, the quiet night in town? Great stuff. If I ever bother rewatching it, that's the section I'm doing it for.
After that, though? All comes falling apart.
I think, even more than most people, the third act dragged it down BADLY for me.
Like, Diana gets in a fight with a superpowered middle-aged German general. Dumb but, sure, fine. We get this great scene where Steve has to explain that, unfortunately, at the end of the day? People are just kind of shitty. Not all of the, not all of the time, but wars aren't fought because a God of War makes them happen. It's just people.
Wait, whoops, sorry, turns out it WAS Ares. And yeah, they try to have their cake and eat it too by saying he's just nudging people along, giving ideas, that sort of thing... but it still completely undermines the earlier scene. It doesn't help that Ares himself is just awful. Like, even in his big ultimate armor form, he's just a wimpy looking British dude? At the dawn of man and war for the cosmos, he had that goofy mustache? I figured it would be a reveal - like, beneath the surface he's actually this huge, imposing, terrifying dude. But nope. Big, giant fisticuffs with that nerd.
And they go down the list of every single cliche on the way.
- "Your mother never told you your REAL origin!"
- "Kill her, and become like me!" "No, I will not be like you, I am a good guy!"
- "I'm gonna sacrifice myself now! THERE'S NO OTHER WAY!"
- "I love you, person I've known for a week!"
- "Mankind is bad, but it's also kinda good, so I won't turn evil."
- "My friend/lover is dead! SUPER SECRET POWERS ACTIVATE!"
- "Giant laser battle for the fate of the world!"
- "Bad guy is dead! Day is saved, war is over, everyone hug!"
They burned away a LOT of goodwill in the last twenty minutes. Not enough to ruin the movie for me, but enough to drop it from an A grade superhero film to a B grade.
If they really, REALLY had their heart set on the Ares plotline... just make him the German general. Have a decent-sized fight with him, not the giant CGI clusterfuck, have Diana finish the job, and realize that mankind is still kind of shitty. Steve sacrifices himself, because even though he's falling for her, he knows there's a bigger picture. She's inspired by his selflessness, big action/escape sequence, movie over. Boiling down "Diana must face the horrors of war" to "Diana has to fight War, like, that dude over there, he's evil" completely cheapens the message that the world of man is flawed, but worth protecting.
