A DC Comics movie that doesn't suck

So here's the thing we've got to keep in mind: the bar for Wonder Woman is ridiculously low. After the total disaster that was Batman v. Superman, the exercise in tastelessness that was Suicide Squad, and the extremely questionable choices of Man of Steel, all we really want is a DC Comics movie that doesn't suck. Like a gambling addict on a losing streak, we keep ponying back up to the table, ever more desperately convinced that our luck will change eventually. In my opinion, the problem is Zack Snyder. DC gets the blame for continuing, even after so many failures, to give him the reins to their franchise.

Patty Jenkins directed Wonder Woman, and you know what, it doesn't suck. So that's a relief, like finally winning a $20 pot at the poker table at three a.m. For two hours and 21 minutes, it thoughtfully avoids being offensive in any way.

I appreciated that we have a strong heroine who is confident in her own abilities, has a man but doesn't need one, and even wears an outfit that isn't skin tight and too terribly revealing. It actually looks like you might be able to move freely (and even fight) in the Wonder Woman costume, without risking a wardrobe malfunction. That's not anything.

We first met Diana in Batman v. Superman, where she was the best part of that disaster. Jenkins reminds us of that opening her film with a message from Bruce Wayne to Diana, attached to an ancient photograph, hinting that he knows who she really is. This gives Diana the opportunity to reminisce, looking back to her childhood on Themyscira, an island hidden from human eyes, home of the Amazons.

These female warriors are tasked with protecting the world from Ares, god of war, which makes you wonder why they're hiding as World War I rages on. But according to her mother, Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) Diana is not really an Amazon; she was sculpted from clay because Hippolyta longed to be a mother. Therefore, she doesn't have to learn how to fight. But she does anyway, with the help of Hippolyta's sister Antiope (Robin Wright). Because it wouldn't be much of a movie if Wonder Woman couldn't throw a mean punch.

American spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) somehow manages to pierce the magical shroud around the island, with a pack of Germans in hot pursuit. Now the Amazons have to fight, and fight they do, taking out well-armed proto-Nazis with bows, arrows, spears and acrobatics. As a result, Diana, against her mother's wishes, enters "the world of men," convinced that Ares is behind the war to end all wars, and that it's her job to stop him. With a magical sword.

And so Wonder Woman heads to London, and we get a series of safe/lazy jokes about dressing an Amazon warrior in petticoats and other Victorian garb. The stiff upper lips can't tolerate her presence in their war councils, moustaches bristle when Diana attempts to join in the men-only war meetings. So she and Trevor head off to end the war on their own. Trevor continually tries to protect her and/or boss her around, but she'll have none of it. It's pretty clear who ought to be in charge here. It really feels like the movie could have done more with this dynamic, but it keeps it awfully basic: Trevor says "do this," Diana says "no." Over and over.

Trevor has his own sidekicks: A sniper suffering from PTSD (Ewan Bremner,) an actor who can talk his way into or out of any situation (Said Taghmaoui) and a Lakota smuggler (Eugene Brave Rock) who looks a little bit like my late friend, Richard Twiss, but doesn't sound anything like him. These characters manage to get in a line or two about how their ethnicity affects their role in the war; Taghmaoui would like to be a leading man, but he's the wrong color in Victorian England, and Brave Rock is smuggling instead of fighting because his war has already been fought and lost. But you wonder if there was other good material involving these characters that ended up on the cutting room floor; as it stands, they feel vaguely sketched and it's not clear what essential role they are playing in the movie.

There's nothing really impressive or distinct about Wonder Woman, aside from the fact that we have a heroine instead of a hero, and it's a DC movie that doesn't suck. Maybe this is a giant step forward for feminism, but I doubt it. I can easily think of ten or fifteen better movies by and/or about women. Wonder Woman doesn't take comic book movies in a new direction; it isn't especially clever, creative, inventive, or interesting. It doesn't suck. That's about all I can say for it.

Willie Krischke lives in Durango, Colorado and works for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship with Native American students at Fort Lewis College. To read more of his reviews, go to http://www.gonnawatchit.com