The whole physical package of Gal Gadot—pro-Israel and former Miss Israel—is stunningly gorgeous, and the character she plays, Wonder Woman (or Diana), in Wonder Woman (2017), is truly morally good. Which only adds to her irresistible being.
Directed by Patty Jenkins, the film may prove to be the summer’s best pop feature. Diana is a princess on a splendid all-female island, and when she saves the life of a World War I pilot (Chris Pine), pulling his drenched body to the island’s beach where other Amazon inhabitants join the pair, it is the kind of rich, spectacular sequence Fellini would have enjoyed shooting had the technology been available in his day. Jenkins has an eye for grandeur and wide scopes, and is adeptly served by her team of technicians.
Granted, Wonder Woman is imperfect but certainly watchable, and thrilling. It has beauty and violence but neither is overdone. Moreover, well, it’s a rather confused religious film (three men, by the way, devised the story here). In the final scenes, Wonder Woman begins to represent the ascent of Christ-as-God, of Christianity, and—because she mightily battles Ares, the god of war—the elimination of mean pagan gods. The puzzling thing is that Diana, from that all-female island, was created out of clay by Zeus (!), and he too is ripe for elimination.
Oh, well. I liked the flick more than I do most superhero movies. . . Gee, those Middle Eastern Arabs who refuse to see Wonder Woman because it stars a pro-Israel Jew don’t know what they’re missing. Get a life!