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The DC Universe itself has been saved by Gal Gadot’s box office smash.

“Thrilling, earnest, and buoyed by Gal Gadot's charismatic performance, Wonder Woman succeeds in spectacular fashion.” Not my words, the words of all the critics. And Rotten Tomatoes’ Critics Consensus quote on the latest DC Universe film only tells half of the story. According to the vast majority of reviews that have racked up the film a massive 93 per cent on the film review site – the highest rated DC title besides The Dark Knight and equal to the original Superman - Wonder Woman is the movie to save the floundering Justice League franchise, rejuvenate the superheroine genre, strike a blow for cinematic feminism and turn Gadot into the biggest breakout star of the summer. It’s already managed the highest-grossing opening weekend for a female-directed film ever, and here’s what the critics have to say.

 

 

“A glorious badass” – The Observer

 

“I know, superhero movies are for everyone, yadda yadda,” writes The Observer’s Wendy Ide. “But as a woman, it’s impossible not to feel a sense of ownership over the first female-led superhero flick since the lamentable Catwoman in 2004. And it’s impossible not to feel a warm swell of relief that she is such a glorious badass, one who wears her femininity with the same pride and poise that she wears her armour-plated bra.” Praising Gadot’s empathetic performance, Ide concludes, “we rediscover the tropes of genre through her questioning eyes. And for once, the comic book movie almost seems fresh again”.

 

“Supremely capable yet utterly innocent” – The Atlantic

 

As Gadot’s Diana Prince is drawn away from her female-only island into the thick of WWI, the Atlantic’s Christopher Orr finds her performance “a delight… supremely capable yet utterly innocent, a big fish who has left her little pond and now finds herself out of water altogether.” Orr, too credits director Patty Jenkins for concentrating on character and emotion rather than CGI: “here’s hoping that DC and Warner Bros. have registered the value of such straightforward pleasures in time for Snyder’s upcoming Justice League. If even he can learn such a lesson, perhaps there’s hope for the human race after all.”

 

“A tremendous win” – The Verge

 

Tasha Robinson of The Verge proclaimed the movie “a tremendous win” for the DC Universe, noting that “Wonder Woman has a lightness and wryness that none of its DC predecessors could claim, but it’s still about philosophical crisis and a hero trying to find an identity. It’s still exploring the DCEU’s favorite themes: whether mankind truly deserves heroes, and whether it’s possible for one person to justly wield immense power. Director Patty Jenkins (Monster) and screenwriter Allan Heinberg explore those themes with a humanity that the franchise’s previous films were lacking. They take their protagonist’s natural superiority for granted, making it a joy instead of a heavy burden. In their hands, Wonder Woman questions her place in the world, but not her inherent identity. And it makes all the difference to the story.” Um, there is still fighting in it, right?

 

“A melee of awesome action sequences” – NME

 

Phew. NME’s Dan Brightmore comes out with a reassuringly gung-ho summary of the film’s action scenes, made all the more authentic by Gadot’s time in the Israeli army. “In one of the film’s standout scenes,” he writes, “Diana and her crew (including Trainspotting’s Spud, Ewen Bremner, as a war-beaten sniper) are pinned back by enemy fire in a trench on the Western Front. A bullet-dodging, balletic display of ass-kicking ensues. It’s a real jaw-dropper and Gadot absolutely nails it. The inevitable face-off with Ares reveals a neat twist – prepare for a finale fused with emotional heft. If you’ve been suffering from superhero fatigue, Wonder Woman will restore your faith in the genre with DC’s best effort since The Dark Knight.” BIFF! BASH! KA-POW!

 

“Wonder of wonders!” – New York Observer

 

While having plenty of reservations – a “baggy” subplot, “tepid” villains and “dreary” CGI scenes – the New York Observer’s Thelma Adams was inspired by the feminist implications of Wonder Woman. “As a chick critic,” she wrote, “I feel honor-bound to support this female-driven-and-directed blockbuster. C’mon: I’ve begged for it. I’m still uncertain that women have to make movies in the male mode in order to prove their worth as filmmakers but a lot of people are convinced that equality demands turning the female gaze on established formulas. I’d prefer to break the mold but in the meantime, Wonder Woman embraces issues of female power and the need to turn from hate to love, from war to peace in a mainstream delivery system. And, shouldering the plot, the female lead is not solely a mother, sister, girlfriend or hooker, however gold her heart: wonder of wonders!”

 

“Superbabe-in-the-woods” – The Vulture

 

The Vulture’s reviewer David Edelstein has come under fire for the rather dodgy tone of his review, picking out Gadot for praise despite the film’s “limpness in storytelling”. “The only grace note in the generally clunky Wonder Woman is its star, the five-foot-10-inch Israeli actress and model Gal Gadot, who is somehow the perfect blend of superbabe-in-the-woods innocence and mouthiness,” he wrote. “She’s a treat here with her raspy accented voice and driving delivery. (Israeli women are a breed unto themselves, which I say with both admiration and trepidation.)”

“Fans might be disappointed that there’s no trace of the comic’s well-documented S&M kinkiness,” he continued. “With a female director, Patty Jenkins, at the helm, Diana isn’t even photographed to elicit slobbers… I didn’t miss Lynda Carter’s buxom, apple-cheeked pinup, though. It was worth waiting for Gadot.” Did Twitter like that? It did not.

 

“There were no nip slips, like not even close to one” – Dorkly

 

Readers of Dorkly were shocked and appalled to read an apology for their Wonder Woman review, which pertained to include lines such as “Wonder Woman lives on this island of lesbians or something (none of the girls do anything super hot with each other though so what’s the point??)”, “she’s a superhero so shouldn’t her jugs be way bigger?” and “the message is – I wish a hot foreign lady would choke me with that lasso of truth, and I would yell out ‘THIS IS SO HOT AND I HAVE A BONER’”. The reviewer reportedly gave the film two out of ten because it only got him to “half-chub”.

 

Of course it turned out that there was no original review and the ‘apology’ was a satire on Edelstein’s review (above). Had us going for a second though…

 

Read more about Wonder Woman on our dedicated blog.

 

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