Wonder Woman [Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + Digital Download] [2017] [Region Free]

Fun action movie lead by female lead

So let's begin with two obvious points.1) this is a superhero movie2) the hero is a womanSo, this means that this film will appeal to two audiences (i) superhero movie fans and (ii) women who want a her who looks like them.This is arguably the same premise as Marvel's Captain Marvel. But this latter film fell flat, at least in the view of the male members of my family. The girls loved it. But it didn't really have the wow factor to be a top, top superhero film. Myself and my son (and my wife, oddly) were left feeling flat. Like we'd been in a film produced by brainstorm where the question was "how do we bring gender equality into the MCU" - we felt manipulated and not entertained.None of these problems affects Wonder Woman.The plot is strong. Wonder Woman takes on the proto-Nazi's of World War 1 AND battles the God of War whilst supported by a Yankee, an Arab hustler, a Native American and a drunk Scot.This feels like vintage Captain America - and, indeed, WW packed the punch of the first MCU Captain America movie.More importantly, though, WW felt like I was reading a comic book. A vintage comic book. I half expected to see ads for Sea Monkeys and Charles Atlas's muscle growth plan appear at certain points in the drama.Gal Gadot was excellent as Wonder Woman (her Israeli accent had the fun side effect of making every other woman of the Amazon Nation speak in a copycat Israeli accent - hysterical for those of us who know real Israelis).The Love story was believable. The Action story was gripping. The Ancient Mythology bent the truth a lot (and had the film's only logical flaw: Zeus seems to have been murdered before Diana (WW) came into being at his hand - odd that!).All together a 10/10.

I have been looking forward to this since WW showed up to at least partially redeem Batman vs. Superman.The experience starts out well. Pop the disc in, there's a brief US Govt. (wha?) anti-pirating thing, and you're straight into the main menu. No pointless ads or trailers. Nice. Start the film, and after the briefest of intros the film actually starts to play. Nicer. I was waiting for more titles to appear after the first scenes, but no. The 3D was not too excessive, in most cases just adding a sense of depth (but, yes, there were the obvious shots out of the screen for those that need that stuff).I have read criticisms of the acting, plot, direction, effects etc. But I just don't understand them. I was hooked from the get-go and thoroughly enjoyed this film. Definitely one to watch again.So, why only 4 stars? The packaging. Yes, this is another case of the disc clasp breaking and the disc rattling around inside the box. Seriously, in this day-and-age of more iPhone emojis than you can ever need (or recognise), Donald Trump, and Brexit, why can't someone develop a more robust holder for those precious (and not inexpensive) discs? The wonder (wo)man who comes up with that will truly deserve their Nobel Prize.

Gal Gadot is stunning as Wonder Woman, dominating almost every moment she's on screen apart from a few nice moments from Chris Pine, and there are a lot of great scenes, no mediocre scenes and this isn’t easy stuff. She doesn’t walk the fine line between female and strong, she shows us there is no line – she weaves the gordian knot of a real woman with no redundant threads and no missing threads. Similarly this is a coming of age movie, an action movie and an origin story woven together seamlessly. Unlike many action movies you know exactly why she's fighting and what she’s feeling in that moment and at the same time those action scenes are breathtaking, numerous and segued into and out of elegantly. And how she moves you have to see to believe, and not just in the action scenes – She’s elegant, lithe, powerful and determined, her acting doesn’t stop at the neck, it doesn’t even pause there – Her body language is perfect.I’d say that as superhero leads go they don’t get any better than this, but that would be understating it – There are awards she’ll win and that the movie will win that you’d expect a superhero movie to be in the running for. It should get most if not all of those. The only question is how many of the non-genre-specific awards it, and more specifically she, will get. I hope she gets the Oscar that any perfect performance deserves, especially given the challenging nature of playing an icon, a physically demanding role, no doubt a lot of green screen, and a character so far out of the norm both in nature and nurture.It's very difficult to find fault with this movie. The sound (at least in the cinema) is excellent, the score stirring, the 3D so good that it was unnoticeable, the special effects and cinematography outstanding and the performances of the supporting cast are almost without exception very good. As superhero movies goes this is a masterpiece on par with Avengers Assemble or X-Men: Days of Future Past. However, the smaller cast and the tightly focused well-crafted central story, Diana's story, lifted into the stratosphere by Gal Gadot's breathtaking performance, make it stand out from the rest – This is a masterpiece amongst all movies.