Director Patty jenkins, along with her cast consisting of Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Chris Pine (Steve Trevor) and David Thewlis (Sir Patrick) ought to be very happy with the box office earnings and critical response the movie has received. Outside of the movie, it is evident through countless interviews that the cast has a very strong chemistry with the two leads getting along very well and having a close friendship with the director. Patty Jenkins did an incredible job on this movie and this was most likely due to her immense passion for the project and well thought through idea of what she wanted Wonder Woman to be. All of the warriors on Themyscira trained together and were put through very strict programmes to become the warrior force. Through this, Jenkins created a real life Themyscira with the actors, consisting of athletes and models, creating a bond with each other and really feeling the full effect of what a powerful female army is. 
The movie opens by introducing the audience to a young Diana and through a montage of training shows her grow up to be the person we are familiar with from Batman V Superman. It is clear from very early on that her Mother isn't the most pleased with Diana training, fighting or learning about who she truly is. These early scenes introduce us to the incredible island of Themyscira and the warrior amazonians that live there. Through great CGI, awesome slow-mo's and heavily trained warriors, audiences were stunned into amazement. The introduction to life on Themyscira is like nothing else ever seen in a comic book movie before. Eventually, Diana does train and the path to her finding out who she is speeds up dramatically with the arrival of Steve Trevor. Diana and Steve form a quick bond. Through Trevors confusion, the innocence and naivety of Diana, and the intimidation of the army, the movie becomes an easy and very entertaining watch! Wonder Woman grabs her armour, shield and the god killer sword and leaves with Steve to go and save the world by killing Ares, which should lead to the end of World War I. 
It's this mid section of the movie, that relies on it's actors, character development and humour to keep the pace up and not feel as though the movie is dragging along. This is achieved as by this point audiences were already sold on Diana, who she is and what she stands for. The same goes for Steve Trevor. In these scenes, although not much is happening towards the movies plot, it was entirely necessary to deliver the strong emotional aspects of the movies ending. Audiences were shown Diana embodying the characteristics of Christopher Reeves' beloved Superman and scenes clearly paying homage to classic movies such as Indiana Jones. The movies light and inspirational tone did well to balance the dark and sinister scenes that were definitely shown. This is an area where many feel as though the DCEU has failed before. Increasingly at this stage of the movie, Diana's likability consistently increases as she shows her naivety to the world and her absent knowledge of artificially created social constructs that existed at the time and still exist today. She shows her strength and her ability to keep up with, or surpass anyone on intelligence and physical strength. The movie continues to deliver great development on the relationship between not only Diana and Trevor but the relationship of the group who are on the mission with her. The movie carries a strong sense of morality, heart and perseverance. 
In my opinion, the movies defining scene/moment is where Diana decides to leave the trenches and storm forward over No man's land despite clear instructions from Steve telling her it's too dangerous. The scene radiates inspiration. With the enhanced backing track and camera focus solely on Diana as she charges forth with her shield and gauntlets blocking enemy fire, it is no doubt a scene that will be remembered for a very long time. It is at this point she truly becomes Wonder Woman for the first time. The scene leads on to various other points of action as they defend a local village. With more slow mo's and demonstrations of Wonder Woman's ability, the enemy forces are wiped out in another all empowering display of power. The group are cemented together as friends and a photograph is taken. This was the photograph Diana was after during Batman V Superman. 
The end battle against the main villain comes after Wonder Woman defeats the faux main villain general Ludendorff and Trevor and the rest of the guys attempt to stop Dr poison from taking her creation to the air with the hopes of killing thousands. It is quickly revealed through a very cool twist, that Ludendorff is not Ares and that the sword Diana wields is not the god killer, she is! through a heavily CGI fight, Wonder Woman struggles to bring Ares down. She is very clearly overpowered by him being beaten down and eventually trapped in the metal of from a tank. Unable to escape she is forced to watch the death of her beloved Steve Trevor who sacrifices himself to ensure the destruction of the poison gas. Fuelled with rage, Wonder Woman breaks free and unleashes true power by demolishing German soldiers very quickly with ease. She is instructed to kill Dr Poison but due to a flashback to a very emotional conversation she has with Steve just before his sacrifice, she decides to let poison go and proceed to taking Ares down. Ares fires everything he has but Diana is just too powerful, striking him with a deadly blow which seemingly kills the big bad. 
The war comes to a close, with a mix of emotions from Diana as celebrations commence in London and the lives of those who fell are remembered. Flicking forward to present day as it is revealed she still has Steve Trevor's watch and his memory is held very deep in her heart. Diana's end monologue reveals she has found new hope in the world and will continue her fight for peace and justice. She jumps off of the building striking a mighty pose ending the movie and very nicely setting up DC's next movie, Justice League. 
Overall, Wonder Woman is a thoroughly enjoyable movie with the dark and serious elements keeping the tone consistent to other DCEU movies, the light and humour combating past criticisms and the spectacular action demonstrating that Wonder Woman is a force to be reckoned with. The success of the movie is a very big deal for Hollywood. It demonstrated that fans want to see female superhero movies and that females can most definitely be the lead of a summer blockbuster. The movie does well to really show Diana's strength without weakening male characters or making her so cold and absent of emotion. The character is relatable and finds her strength through love. The movie does well to stay on the right side of this as it can easily become a factor that weakens a character. Diana and Trevor are on equal terms but Trevor clearly sees she is more suited to fight then he, or anyone else is. Diana constantly displayed ability in areas that blockbuster females just haven't. She is an icon. The characters movie was about 75 years overdue but it was worth the wait. I give Wonder Woman a Blog of Steel rating of 9/10. With the only negatives being an underdeveloped villain and some instances of CGI that looked a little out of place.
Hopefully, off the back of Wonder Woman's success, audiences will be treated to more blockbuster movies with strong female leads and the inequality of gender representation in Hollywood will slowly fade out. It's frightening how children, did not have a strong female superhero too look up to on the big screen before 2017. Wonder Woman is the first comic book movie that tells a young girl that she can be a superhero too. Marvel have released an insane amount of movies none of which feature a female lead. We can only hope Wonder Woman's success has opened the door for many many more female comic book characters to get their own movies. The movie is more relevant than ever right now and it's success is deserved and promising. Maybe one day we'll have a world of big screen superheroes that represent all genders, cultures, religions and ages.
That brings us to the end of this weeks post! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it and as always if theres something you want to say or ask, just comment below or tweet me on my new twitter @Akash_Sond. See you next weekend with another post!
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