The Film (4/5)

    Wonder Woman in all considerations could easily be considered the surprise superhero smash hit of the summer. It is the first truly great film of the current DC library of superhero films (post-Nolan trilogy, though personally I did not like those). It is a film that takes a character who has been in the popular consciousness for over 70 years, and finally gives her the solo outing, on the big screen, she deserves.

    Wonder Woman feels like an amalgam of 3 styles of cinema, all of which blend together nicely to create a unique superhero cinematic cocktail. The first part of the film falls into the Sword and Sandal genre, which blends into the comedic fish out of water film, while the latter parts of the film are a solid blend of espionage thriller and early 20th century set war film.

    Wonder Woman basically opens on Themyscira the island where Diana/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and her Amazonian tribe have dwelled for millennia. They have been granted protection by Zeus, but look to a future day when the God of War, Ares might come back, and need to be stopped. Into this comes an American soldier Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). He was on a mission to acquire a notebook, when he was attacked by German soldiers and ended up on the island. When he is rescued by Diana and the Amazonians and interrogated she realizes that a large war is happening in the outside world, and Ares may be at the center of it. Together Steve and Diana work to infiltrate the Western Front and the lair of Ludendorff who she believes is the manifestation of Ares. Along the way she begins to shed her identity, and transform into Wonder Woman.

    Wonder Woman does not reinvent the super hero wheel, but it is damn fun movie with a cool World War I setting. Gal Gadot really makes the Wonder Woman/Diana character her own. Chris Pine and Gadot have a tremendous chemistry on screen, and this really adds a lot to the overall film. Add to this that the film uses some fantastic character actors that really add some great power to the cast like David Thewlis and Ewan Bremner. Action sequences throughout are excellent, and the screenplay is strong balancing strong story with great character moments.

Audio/Video (4/5)

     Warner presents Wonder Woman in a 2:39:1 1080p AVC enconded transfer that preserves the theatrical aspect ratio of the film. Everything here looks quite solid, and well detailed, colors though mostly drab except for the island scenes are well represented.

    Audio is presented with a Dolby True HD 7.1 track in English with optional subtitles. Everything comes across very loud, and very clear. I did not detect issues with the track.

Extras (4/5)

     Warner has included a lot of extra behind the scenes material about the film that is sure to please fans, an epilogue short film, trailers, and deleted scenes/bloopers.

Overall

    In no way does Wonder Woman reinvent the superhero wheel, but it is damn fun time. The Blu-ray looks and sounds amazing, and comes with some great extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.