Wonder Woman 2009
This is a direct to video origin story for Wonder Woman from DC animation. Just the fourth movie out of over forty movies now, it enjoys its PG-13 license for more more violence, plus some grown-up situations, but mostly violence, including a number of beheadings (I guess it would get an R to show the act itself, so you just see it about to happen and then a head hits the ground). The movie gets to have fun telling Diana’s origin story and her introduction to Steve Trevor, who is voiced perfectly by Nathan Fillion, though the character looks pretty dopey. There are some other quite decent stars providing voice work including Keri Russell as Diana, plus Rosario Dawson, Alfred Molina, Oliver Platt, and Virginia Madsen, though none of them are as distinct as Fillion. There is a good blend of enemies (centering on God of War, Ares) as well as some internal politics with the Amazons, including one named Alexa (years before another Amazon Alexa). They pack a lot into the usual 75 minutes or so of these movies, in some ways more than they packed into the first two live action Wonder Woman movies. The dialogue is frequenly clunky despite a few good lines by Steve Trevor, but writing isn’t really the strong suit of these movies. It is still an enjoyable debut for Wonder Woman, earning a low B+.
Written: 11 Mar 2022