Warner Bros. might have been trying to hold off disaster with the announcement that the Wonder Woman review embargo would end just a couple of days before the movie hit the theaters. However, initial Twitter reactions to special screenings have been full of praise for the movie, star, and director.
Right now, Wonder Woman is certified fresh with 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and has a Metacritic score of 79. In both cases, the scores surpass those for a number of comic book movies, although the numbers are almost certain to drop.
Check out the critical reaction:
Chris Hewitt, Empire Magazine: Dawn Of Justice proved [Gadot] could handle the kicking and the punching. Here, she gets actual honest-to-goodness dialogue and invests Diana with excitable exuberance, bristling defiance, and a disarming belief in doing the right thing.
Dave Schilling, Birth. Movies. Death: What Patty Jenkins is able to do with all of that is ground it in emotion and character, to make audiences smile and walk out of the theater feeling uplifted, rather than exhausted. It’s the movie we’ve been waiting for. Trust me.
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap: It’s a film that not only improves upon many of the seemingly built-in shortcomings of superhero movies, but also mixes smarts, sentiment, and adrenaline in the best Hollywood style.
Joshua Yehl, IGN: Wonder Woman is leaps and bounds above the other three entries in the DCEU.
Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Wonder Woman is smart, slick, and satisfying in all of the ways superhero films ought to be. How deliciously ironic that in a genre where the boys seem to have all the fun, a female hero and a female director are the ones to show the fellas how it's done.
Andrew Barker, Variety: Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman provides a welcome respite from DC’s house style of grim darkness with star Gal Gadot proving an inspired choice for this avatar of truth, justice, and the Amazonian way.
Kate Erbland, Indie Wire: Jenkins’ feature flips back through time to deliver an origin story that functions beautifully on its own while also bolstering excitement for the franchise’s future.
Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter: This origin story, with its direct and relatively uncluttered trajectory, offers a welcome change of pace from a superhero realm that’s often overloaded with interconnections and cross-references.
William Bibbiani, Crave Online: One of the best superhero movies. Ever.
Matt Donato, We Got This Covered: Wonder Woman offers a full cinematic experience from beginning to end, which helps it stand out from other films of its kind that worry more about what’s to come than the story at hand.
Of course, some critics weren’t that thrilled with the movie:
Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist: Sure, the foundations of these stories are largely built as black and white sagas, but that doesn't pardon the movie's lack of complexity or excuse its shallowness. Yet, it's the DCEU's best film, but as we know, that's not saying a lot. But, hey, that terrific second act that we should cling to even if it's a distant memory by the time love defeats aggression. Wonder Woman might be molded by the mighty Gods, but as shaped by mere mortals, her mettle and beliefs can only be so wonderfully divine.
Steve Rose, The Guardian: Like many people out there, I had no shortage of excitement and goodwill toward this female-led superhero project, but in the event, it's plagued by the same problems that dragged down previous visits to the DC movie world: over-earnestness; bludgeoning special effects; and a messy, often wildly implausible plot. What promised to be a glass ceiling-smashing blockbuster actually looks more like a future camp classic.
