Gadot inspires "Wonder" in the mind and soul

There is a scene late in Wonder Woman when its titular heroine, Diana Prince (played by Gal Gadot), nearly broken and defeated by her arch nemesis, Ares, The God of War, lays on the ground and contemplates if she can, in fact, ever stop the never ending carnage that he's inflicted on mankind during The Great War.  Her realization, at that very instant, of what exactly needs to drive the human soul is a moment that will forever transcend the superhero genre and elevate it to stuff of action legend - not unlike Diana's origin, which also traces all the way to the mythical gods of Olympus.

Diana's involvement with a righteous, honorable American spy Steve Trevor (played by the ever charismatic Chris Pine), will teach her about complexities of international politics when it comes to necessities of global war, and also about what it means to love someone, and to be loved in return (it sounds hokey, I know, but if you don't tear up by the film's climax, you just may be missing a heart).  Their relationship, which gradually grows before our eyes, is all the more memorable and heartbreaking because the two lovers' plight to "save the day and the world" puts them at odds of ever actually ending up together.  Such is always the mark of Hollywood's best romance epics.

Gadot, an actress of exceptional beauty, manages to easily convey her disdain to human indifference when it comes to the suffering of others; she's a performer blessed with unique talents, and I can not think of an actress more fitting for this role, both physically and emotionally.  Pine, with his wondrous blue eyes that can practically see right through you, continues to charm the pants of everyone he comes across, much as he did as Captain Kirk in Abrams' revamped Star Trek franchise.

More than any superhero movie that I can recall - DC or Marvel - director Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman is an astonishing examination of a strong, ideological female's idea of - and eventual solution to - World War I bang-bang-and-blow-shit-up global bloodshed.  Its juxtaposition of spectacle, action, myth and fantasy - with a touching romance at its center - is Hollywood's finest such blockbuster since James Cameron's Titanic.  Now, in addition to The Dark Knight and Spider Man 2 (2004), comic book geeks can add Wonder Woman to the best-of-list of cinematic superhero achievements.
A