Wonder Woman (2017) (3D) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Patty Jenkins

Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright

Release Date: September 19, 2017

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

Synopsis:

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior.  Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The latest installment in the DC film universe takes viewers back in time to explore the origins of ‘Wonder Woman’. Born Diana and raised and trained on the beautiful and hidden island world of her people, without even a glimpse of violence or a man her entire life. Until that fateful day when her peaceful world is shattered and the war is brought directly to the Amazons, subsequently forcing Diana to accompany a spy back to the world of man. Believing the God Ares to be responsible for the massive war currently raging, Diana begins to find her way into the midst of the epic battle with the intention of completing her people’s mission once and for all by destroying Ares. That’s assuming of course that Ares is in fact responsible and the war isn’t merely a result of humanity’s own doing.

Directed by Patty Jenkins (Monster, TV’s The Killing) from a screenplay by Allan Heinberg (TV’s Sex and the City) which was based upon a story by himself, Zack Snyder (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice) and Jason Fuchs (Pan) respectively, Jenkins does a wonderful job at the helm of ‘Wonder Woman’ effortlessly capturing the heart and heroism of the character. The film also owes plenty of credit to the talented and well selected individuals that comprise the cast which includes Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious), Chris Pine (Star Trek Beyond), Robin Wright (TV’s House of Cards), Danny Huston (TV’s American Horror Story), David Thewlis (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), Connie Nielsen (Gladiator), Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live In) and more, nearly all delivering highly capable performances in each of their respective roles.

‘Wonder Woman’ delivers a visually stunning, action-packed and often quite humorous exploration of the warrior’s origins and delving into her reasons for being so hesitant on risking all for mankind. Featuring no shortage of glorious, detailed imagery and allowing viewers to better understand the motives and mindset of Diana, aka Wonder Woman and just what she is truly capable of. While the impressive visual elements in addition to some jaw-dropping action sequences that look truly marvelous are all important elements of the film, ‘Wonder Woman’ also has a great deal more to offer and in addition to further exploring the title character, the movie has plenty of additional lovable and cleverly crafted characters that viewers will quickly find themselves caring for as well and this attention to detail and focus on humanity and other such familiar aspects really allows this film to be something far more than another meaningless and only marginally interesting origin story. Director Patty Jenkins does a fantastic job guiding this adventure along each turn and her capable guidance is boosted all the more by a talented and perfectly selected cast that includes Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright and Danny Huston along with a number more. The fellow DC fans such as me that find themselves baffled by the hate of the previous films and even those who aren’t necessarily fond of the other recent DC Film Universe entries will both probably have quite a bit of fun with ‘Wonder Woman’ and I would strongly urge folks on both sides to at least give it a chance when possible. The fellow 3D enthusiasts should also have quite a bit of fun with this capable post-conversion that offers plenty of notable depth and additional detail on so many of the breathtaking landscapes presented within, along with quite a few grin inducing pop out effects that appear to leap out of the screen without ever really appearing to play to or have planned for the effect, yet appearing equally fantastic nonetheless and also allowing the film to work tremendously in either format.

Overall,’ Wonder Woman’ is a heartfelt and visually gorgeous adventure with no shortage of action-packed excitement and laughs throughout. Passionately guided along by director Patty Jenkins and further excelled by a wonderful cast that’s led by Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, it all results in a wildly enjoyable adventure that certainly makes a tremendously welcome addition to the expanding DC Film universe. ‘Wonder Woman’ is definitely highly recommended, especially to the fellow DC fanatics out there who might have missed it during its theatrical run. Many folks who appreciate comic book films to some degree yet haven’t been overly fond of the recent DC film entries leading up to ‘Wonder Woman’ will also probably want to make a point of at least giving this one a watch when convenient. It should prove itself well worth your time and probably the cost of a rental if nothing else for anyone who might be interested in the film yet is hesitant to drop the funds on a blind purchase.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray 3D release of ‘Wonder Woman’ features a full 1080p High Definition MVC encoded 3D presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. This 3D presentation looks pretty wonderful as a whole and offers a clean, detailed and fairly immersive 3D experience with no notable faults to be found throughout. The 3D presentation offers plenty of capable depth and gorgeous scenery that continually seems to be nearly within reach and also provides a cleaner display of the details thanks to the added dimension, while also featuring plenty of enjoyable pop out effects such as bullets, guns, and Diana’s lasso which all often appear to leap straight out of the screen. Overall, this is a highly capable and fairly impressive 3D high definition video presentation that should have no trouble repeatedly slapping a grin on your face.

The 2D Blu-ray release which is also included in the 3D Blu-ray combo pack features an AVC encoded full high definition video presentation also representing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. This 2D high definition presentation also looks pretty fantastic in its own right and provides a consistently clean and detailed presentation based on the scenes I had the chance to check out and scan through on the disc.

AUDIO:

Continuing the recent trend on Warner Bros Home Entertainment’s Blu-ray 3D releases, the standard 2D Blu-ray disc of ‘Wonder Woman’ yet again features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack, while the 3D Blu-ray disc once more features a somewhat less impressive 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. As this review focuses primarily on the 3D release, this audio section will concentrate primarily on the 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA included on the Blu-ray 3D disc’s presentation. This lossless multichannel soundtrack still sounds pretty great for what it is and offers a crisp, clean and hard hitting audio presentation throughout. It constantly takes full advantage of all five available channels in order to send a barrage of action effects, along with bullets, planes and plenty more whipping throughout the various speakers, and never causing any dialogue or other auditory elements that may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, this 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack sounds great and offers an immersive and aggressive audio presentation, yet it’s still a definite step down from the Dolby Atmos soundtrack included on the standard 2D Blu-ray presentation.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray 3D release of ‘Wonder Woman’ includes an impressive collection of supplemental material that takes fans deeper into bringing the film to life; the entirety of which can be found on the standard 2D Blu-ray disc. Included on the release is some additional footage from the film; an ‘Epilogue: Etta’s Mission’ (running approximately 3 minutes in length), in addition to a few ‘Extended Scenes’ from the movie (running approximately 9 minutes in total) and an ‘Alternate Scene: Walk To No Man’s Land’ (approximately 1 minute). We are also treated to a collection of Behind the Scenes Featurettes that take you deeper into bringing the film to life and featuring tons of behind the scenes footage, interviews/comments with the cast and a crew, plus more. The included Featurettes are: ‘A Director’s Vision’ which is broken down into five parts: ‘Themyscira: The Hidden Island’ (running approximately 5 minutes), ‘Beach Battle’ (approximately 5 minutes), ‘A Photograph Through Time’ (5 minutes), ‘Diana in the Modern World’ (5 minutes) and ‘Wonder Woman at War’ (5 minutes). The other included Featurettes are: ‘Crafting the Wonder’ (approximately 16 minutes), ‘Warriors of Wonder Woman’ (10 minutes), ‘The Trinity’ (16 minutes), ‘The Wonder behind the Camera’ (16 minutes) and ‘Finding the Wonder Woman Within’ (23 minutes). A ‘Blooper Reel’ (approximately 6 minutes) for the film is also included.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. It should additionally be noted that for the purpose of convenience, the images present for this specific release represent the 2D version of the film, even though the review itself covers the 3D version. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

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