Gal is the only super thing in this caper

IF YOU’VE ever wondered what it would be like if superheroes watched Girl, Interrupted, then the Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is your answer – a spat between two comic book characters that takes itself more seriously than a c hess match between Marc el Pr oust and Immanuel Kant.

So it’s a relief when Israeli actress Gal Gadot arrives and hijacks all the brooding, bone crushing, steroidal smackdowns. To say that the ageless Amazonian Wonder Woman, left, is the best thing in this film is like saying the best episode of Homes Under The Hammer was the one that had a caravan in Lincolnshire. The praise is so faint, it’s close to meaningless.

She only appears for seven minutes in a movie that drones on for months – but at least Gal is one of the few characters who doesn’t clog up our bank holiday weekend with Nietzschean declarations about power and heroes and goodness and evil, like Henry Cavill’s Superman (right).

Superhero movies are meant to be entertainment. But, like all entertainment, they offer a vision of the world. Essentially that vision says if you grab a costume, name yourself after your favourite superlative or animal, and dedicate yourself to avenging the oppressed, you will make the world a better place.

More importantly, you will be a better, more special, more high-profile person.

I don’t mind one superhero movie, or even a few, but the risk has gone out of mo vie-going, because apparently we’ re all wearing capes now.

When wish-fulfilment fantasies drive an industry, you have to wonder about the things we’re not paying attention to. Is there evil in the world? Of course.

Can it be resolved by putting on a Hallowe’en costume? Nope – and we’re spending way too much time wishing this wasn’t true.