After Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, the DC universe desperately needed a movie that wasn’t awful. Giving Gal Gadot, a relatively unknown quantity, the lead in Wonder Woman was something of a gamble. Could she carry a movie? That was the question asked by many, including myself. Well, the answer turned out to be “yes,” and the gamble seems to have paid off.

Wonder Woman starts out briefly in the present. Diana Prince (Gadot), working in the Louvre, receives an old photograph of herself from Bruce Wayne. As she looks at the photo, her mind wanders back to the past, where most of the movie takes place.

Diana was raised on the hidden island of Themyscira, home to the Amazons. According to Amazonian mythology, Zeus created men and everything was fabulous until Ares, the god of war, decided to corrupt them and make them fight. This led to a humungous war where all the gods were killed and Ares was driven off. With his dying effort, Zeus created a home for the Amazons to live and train for the next several thousand years in preparation for dealing with Ares if he ever came back. Continue reading →