Before she was Wonder Woman she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war to end all wars, discovering her full powers and true destiny. – (Source)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 93% (Critics) / 93% (Audience)
Directed By: Patty Jenkins
Written By: Allan Heinberg, Zack Snyder and Jason Fuchs
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston and David Thewlis
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

The Good:
Gal Gadot was perfection as Diana/Wonder Woman. I really enjoyed her small part in BATMAN VS SUPERMAN but she really lit up the screen in this movie. She conveyed charm, bewilderment, strength and pathos going through the different character developments of Diana from wide-eyed and sheltered princess to steely determined hero. I am pretty confident that all of the naysayers regarding her casting are eating their words.
The rest of the cast was great too. Chris Pine was really good as Steve Trevor and accepted his support role to Gadot with aplomb. He and Gadot had chemistry to spare too. Robin Wright was revelatory as the badass Amazon warrior woman Antiope. It was an entirely new side of Wright as an actress and she made a huge impression in a very short time on screen. Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston, Lucy Davis, Saïd Taghmaoui and all the rest were just perfectly cast and brought so much to the film.
And Patty Jenkins did a wonderful job at the helm. Considering her only other big screen work was the very small (in budget and scope) movie MONSTER, I was unsure about how she would handle the spectacle of a huge tentpole action movie but she did great in the big action scenes and the smaller more intimate moments as well. Best of all, to me at least, is that Jenkins was able to make a movie that dealt with dark themes while also being funny and immensely charming without venturing into the realm of schmaltzy or jokey. One of the things I like about the DC films is they don’t shy away from being “grim n gritty” and that aspect was retained without removing the necessary hope brightness that a character like Wonder Woman needs to embody.

The Bad:
I liked Danny Huston as Ludendorff, he was an evil SOB, but he was also not nearly as developed a character as he could have been. And for as under-developed as Ludendorff was, Dr. Poison (his right hand woman) was even more under-developed. I also was not all that impressed with Ares as the film’s Big Bad. He was a very lackluster villain that never lived up to the hype that has been built up around him for the entire movie.

The Ugly:
The final battle between Wonder Woman and Ares was bit on the underwhelming and redundant side. I felt like I had seen this exact same over the top FX heavy scene multiple times and it didn’t help that Wonder Woman seemed to just develop brand new powers with no explanation given during the course of the big battle.

Final Verdict: WONDER WOMAN was a fun, thrilling, charming movie that also delivered a hefty does of heart. Gal Gadot impressed as Wonder Woman and Chris Pine and the rest of the supporting staff acquitted themselves well under the steady directing hand of Patty Jenkins. Despite a blah villain and a less that spectacular ending, WONDER WOMAN still delivered.

Grade: B