First female superhero saves the world
Wonder Woman, with Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, David Thewlis, Danny Huston. Directed by Patty Jenkins. 4.5/5
WITH the Germans about to sign an armistice to end World War I, General Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston) has developed a special form of hyper-corrosive mustard gas that he believes, if dropped on the battlefield, will win the war for the Kaiser and Germany.
A team of spies, headed by US pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), infiltrates the laboratory of Dr Maru (Elena Anaya) and must now get the doctor’s book back to England to warn them of the impending danger.
Trevor steals a plane and flies in the direction of England, but the plane is hit by German fire and penetrates the cloak that hides the island of Themyscira from the rest of the world.
Themyscira is home to the women Amazons who have been living peacefully since their battle with the god Ares, whom they are destined to fight again one day.
Diana (Gal Gadot), the daughter of Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), wants to be a warrior like all the others on the island, but her mother will hear none of it. Rather, she tells Diana that she is a special girl, the only child on the island, that she was crafted from clay, and that the great god Zeus breathed life into her. Even so, Hippolyta’s sister Antiope (Robin Wright) trains her in secret until she is as good a warrior as any on the island.
Diana sees Trevor’s plane pierce the cloak and crash into the sea and she rescues him.
At the same time a German ship with soldiers searching for Trevor’s stricken plane, also pierces the cloak and the soldiers come face-to-face with the Amazons who ultimately drive the invaders away or kill them, although many of the Amazons are killed in the process.
Trevor is hauled before the queen and interrogated. He is to remain a prisoner on the island, but, without permission, Diana decides she will go out into the world outside to find Ares and kill him, ending his threat to humanity.
She believes that Ludendorff must be Ares returned, so takes with her the mighty sword, the God Slayer, given to the Amazons by Zeus after Ares killed all the other gods in the slopes of Mt Olympus. She also takes the Lasso of Truth which compels anyone held by it to tell the truth.
Her mother reluctantly allows her to leave the island but reminds her that once she has left she may never return.
Diana bids farewell to her family and friends and follows Trevor to England where they meet with the Imperial War Cabinet, led by Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis), showing them the book of Dr Maru.
Morgan commissions Trevor to the find out more about the gas and try and halt its deployment. Diana and Trevor assemble an unlikely team comprised of Sameer (Said Taghmaoui), Charlie (Ewan Bremner) and Chief (Eugene Brave Rock), who head to the Western Front.
Diana’s courage and strength is put on full display when she crosses an impassable no man’s land to reach the German lines, inspiring the Allied forces in the trenches.
It is the usual story of good versus evil and yet, when Ares eventually appears on the scene, one is left with a sinking feeling that the god has a point when he says that he did not create the wars among man, it is man himself who is responsible.