It starts with Diana as a child on Themyscira, where she lives with only females, including her mother and aunt. She watches the adult females training to fight and longs to join them in their lessons. Although her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), doesn’t approve, Diana’s aunt, Antiope (Robin Wright) begins to train her in secret.
Years later, when Diana (Gal Gadot) is an adult, a uniformed pilot (Chris Pine) crashes into the water off the shores of their island. A fight ensues with the men who are chasing them, and Diana, who has been taught that humans were good until they were influenced by Ares, the god of war, is appalled.
When the pilot, Steve Trevor, tells the women of a great and terrible war, Diana insists on accompanying him back to the outside world in order to put a stop to it.
The movie takes on a different pace as we leave the peaceful island. Diana winds up in the bustling city of London during the Great War and a good deal of humor is introduced as Diana is oblivious to being totally out of place, while her newfound friends quickly try to cover up any traces of her being an outsider (including covering up her superhero outfit).
The film offers a brilliant introduction to this innocent character, who simply wants to bring peace back to the world and return humans to the wonderful creatures she believes they once were.
With this being her first movie on a scale of this magnitude, as well as her first superhero movie, director Patty Jenkins accomplishes an amazing feat. I was left wanting more — specifically of Diana as we’ve seen her in modern times in earlier productions — but audiences will get that in the much-anticipated sequels.
The movie keeps audiences engaged as they view how Diana fares during the Great War, with her unbelievable innocence, but incredible fighting skills. Gal Gadot is a perfect choice in the lead role, providing the perfect combination of innocence, strength and determination.
This is probably the best of the DC comic-based movies to date, and the fact that it features a female superhero is just icing on the cake.
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