Wonder Woman Can’t Act, But She Can Fly

Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine

Directed by Patty Jenkins

Rating: ** ½(2 and a  half stars)

To hold back on the season’s biggest blockbuster required super-hero willpower. But I waited for the rage to wane before getting into it.

First things first. Gal Gadot makes a super super-hero. She has the scrubbed guileless sexiness of a born seducer, the kind who doesn’t know her power. This is  what Wonder Woman, we are repeatedly told, is all about. She should not, must not, know the exact measure of  the strength the Gods have bestowed on her.

Wonder Woman is a saga of oldworld values told with a splendor and  stoicism that precludes our  cynical reading. There are many points in the story where the going gets pretty awkward ,clunky downright  askew.And that entire back story where a woman in war-torn German with a half-damaged face manufactures poison in  a lab , resembles something out of  a tattered copy of an Alistair McLean paperback.

And  yet if Wonder Woman works—and it worked only in parts for me—it is because Gadot  is quite  gal. Eager-faced and mint-fresh ,she’s like  a girl from that highschool prom whom every boy wanted to dance with. She brings a sense of wonderment to her exploits and antics in WW1 London that even an actor of Eddie Redmayne’s caliber  couldn’t in Fanatastic Beasts & Where To Find Them.

That’s because Gal’s Wonder Woman, a.k.a Diana, knows exactly  where to find the beast and how to slay it. The super-heroine’s ardent desire to rid  the world of war and misery is communicated with a strong sense of unfussy righteousness. Gal can’t act. Of course she can’t. But she  brings to the table  a rich feeling of triumphant virtuosity.

Gadot’s limitations as an actor are on full display in all her scenes with her co-star the very charismatic Chris Pine who can stare down Wonder Woman’s gaze at his junk and observe  it is “above average” without sounding sleazy.

The same  is true of the this big-screen wonder of a film. It manages to  hold its head high amidst all the absurdities of a plot that begs for logistic atonement  but instead gets large doses of multiple ferocity in strikingly well-shot war scenes where  Gadot dodges the bullets with her forearm.

Here, Gal just stuns you.

Clearly , her forte is action. She  glides across the battleground with a splendid sense of rhythm and grace. A large part of  Gadot’s glory must be attributed to director Patty Jenkins whose awe at the material is expressed in every frame.But she doesn’t let her awe get the better of  her vision. The narrative has a structured controlled  feeling to it. Gadot rides the waves of adventure like a  surfer negotiating a provocative potentially dangerous  ocean.

Yup, Gal  can’t act. But she can  fly.