Written by Gail Simone & Michael Jelenic
Directed by Lauren Montgomery
Wonder Woman: "You should have saved the world, instead of me."
Steve Trevor: "Maybe I figured the world's not worth saving if you're not in it."
Prior to her live action debut in Batman V. Superman back in 2016, Diana Prince (Keri Russell) did of course have another movie debut, albeit in animated form back in 2009 and after watching this film, it's easy to see what her 2017 live action adventure and what it decided to ditch and the results are rather interesting.
Things open with an ancient battle with Hippolyta (Virginia Madsen) and the Amazons, led by the rather fight happy Artemis (Rosario Dawson) going up against the God Ares (Alfed Molina) and his son, Thrax (Jason Miller) and it's a pretty bloody start until both Zeus (David McCallum) and Hera (Marg Helgenberger) intervene and the best punishment for Ares becomes bondage as the Amazons forge a new world on Themyscira and Hippolyta herself becomes a mother to Diana.
As the movie quickly progresses, Diana has grown up, become able to easy take on Artemis in gentle sparring but has the desire to leave the island and search the world for adventures. The opportunities arises for that when pilot Steve Trevor (Nathan Fillion) arrives on the island and Ares having taken warrior Persephone (Vicki Lewis) under his influence manages to escape from his prison and seek out both mankind and the underworld in his quest for revenge.
It's here that Diana proves herself in combat, gets the signature costume and heads to New York with Steve Trevor to hunt Ares down and while Diana's fish out of water experiences aren't as endearing as the 2017 movie, there are some nice moments in seeing her teach a young girl to sword fight and take on some muggers while Ares tried to keep Diana and Steve distracted with the brief appearance of Deimos (John DiMaggio), who is a little too easily taken care of here.
Then there's the trip to the underworld where human sacrifices are made and Ares managed to get his uncle Hades (Oliver Platt) to remove his bonds so that he could unleash his own hell on Earth. The fact that Hades so brazenly brandished Thrax as a servant gave Ares some pause for concern while also hinting at the fate that Ares himself would endure upon his inevitable defeat at Diana's hands.
The final battle itself is the clear highlight of the movie with Diana, Steve and the Amazons against Ares, Persephone and the army of the undead. It's gloriously shot, especially as fallen Amazon Alexa (Tara Strong) factored into saving the day while Ares defeat really did come at a rather humiliating cost. Then there was the fact that following the mission, Diana craved to see more of the world with Hippolyta realising that the Amazons could do with an ambassador outside of Paradise Island.
As for Diana and Steve - their scenes are a lot more caustic, especially with the latter's more blokey qualities being on full display but the rapport with Russell and Fillion is decent enough and by the end of this movie, they've settled into a rather nice form of domestic bliss.
- The movie ended with a nice cameo from Cheetah. We also got a rather bitchy version of Etta Candy in this movie, though her screentime was short.
- Rosario Dawson who voiced Artemis in this one would go on to play Diana in later DCAU movies, including the upcoming Wonder Woman: Bloodlines.
- We nearly got Lynda Carter in this movie as Hippolyta but due to scheduling conflicts she declined the part.
- Chronology: Seemed to be modern day America.
Wonder Woman is a strong animated debut for the titular heroine of the piece and while I do think the live action movie of the same name that debuted eight years after this one is the better movie, there's certainly a lot to enjoy with this one.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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