Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Wonder Woman 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson September 20, 2017

Dating back to the early 1940s, the superheroine Wonder Woman has been the subject of comics, graphic novels, a TV series, telefilms, and animated movies but strangely, no standalone motion picture. All of that changed with Patty Jenkins's critically acclaimed $149 million blockbuster, Wonder Woman, which has grossed over $800 million worldwide at the box office. Reprising the role that she debuted in last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Israeli actress Gal Gadot delivers a commanding and beautifully nuanced performance as Diana/Wonder Woman. Gadot largely carries the movie on her shoulders along with an assist from Chris Pine, who looks comfortable in the subordinate role of American spy Steve Trevor. While Wonder Woman features a cast of thousands, it benefits from key contributions in secondary parts from such veteran actors as Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, and David Thewlis.

Screenwriter Allan Heinberg incorporates several characters from the Wonder Woman comics in his classical three-act script. Wonder Woman is essentially three movies in one. In a rather revealing indication of how they want to appeal to as many audiences as possible, Heinberg and Jenkins have combined the sword-and-sandals epic, British period drama, and war film into a two-hour-and-forty-minute cinematic journey. Following a prologue in Paris, the narrative flashes back to the paradisaical Mediterranean island of Themyscira where the all-female Amazonians live in peace. Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) tells her strong and precocious eight-year-old daughter Diana (Lilly Aspell) a bedtime story of how Zeus protected their motherland from Ares, the God of War. Hippolyta isn't convinced that Ares will one day make a return, a view not shared by her sister, Antiope (Robin Wright), who is far more concerned that he will strike again. Both Hippolyta and Antiope believe that the Amazonians should be well-trained and fully prepared for an attack but share opposing approaches to Diana's maturation and development. Antiope thinks that Diana should be well-versed in the art of sword play, for example, but Hippolyta figures that she's pushing her own daughter too hard. Everything changes when, seemingly out of nowhere, a plane descends from the sky and sinks into the Themyscira's ocean. Diana bravely plunges herself into the water to pull Captain Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) out of the sea. The Germans have been targeting the young American and when they empty their bullets, the Amazonian warriors are ready with their fire arrows. After the battle, the Amazonians interrogate Steve with the Lasso of Hestia, which forces the pilot to explain his identity and the essence of his mission.

When Steve tells about a Great World War occurring, Diana is convinced that a manifestation of Ares is lurking somewhere in Europe and accompanies Steve by boat to England. Meanwhile, German General Ludendorff (Danny Huston) is conspiring with disfigured chemist Dr. Isabel Maru (Elena Anaya), known to British allied forces as "Doctor Evil," on a virulent mustard gas so lethal that it can penetrate the sturdiest of gas masks. A cadre of Ludendorff's men have infiltrated London to find Steve, who swiped a book of Maru's containing bombmaking formulas. Ludendorff later travels to the UK where he has a brief encounter with Diana, who believes that Ludendorff and Ares are one and the same. The scene shifts to the Western Front and No Man's Land where Diana transforms into Wonder Woman and almost single-handedly takes on the Germans.

A battle victory deserves a photo op.

Because Diana and Steve each come from separate parts of the world where gender norms, social customs, and mores are very different, the scenes between the two characters are quite funny and amusing. For example, as Steve tends to his wounds in the Amazon's infirmary pool room, he's bewildered to what purpose the water really serves there. Since she was sculpted out of clay and exclusively been only around girls and ladies, Diana is a novice to reproductive biology (which she knows about, but only in books) and hence shows befuddlement when a nude Steve emerges from the pool. It's a comical moment because Steve thinks Diana is gazing at his genitals when she's actually staring at the watch to his left! It shows how Diana is also a virgin to the mechanical and industrialized world that Steve knows. When the pair go to London, it's culture shock for Diana in more ways than one. She's stunned not only by the city's drab, cold weather but also by a predominantly male and patriarchal society. When Diana speaks up at a meeting chaired by a UK war council, Steve tries to appease the British Parliament (all men, of course) that Diana is his blind sister (and later his secretary). But the stubborn woman will have none of this rubbish.

In addition to the flirtatious sexual tension between Diana and Steve, Wonder Woman also works as a grand superhero epic with pomp and circumstance. Unsurprisingly, it has "A" production values (exotic locations, splendid sets, and precisely designed period costumes). But beyond the two main protagonists and overall spectacle, secondary characters either get lost or are too underdeveloped. For instance, Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui) and Chief (Eugene Brave Rock), Steve's helpers in the war effort, are introduced toward the middle and given short shrift. Although Heinberg gives them heroic tasks, they're placed in conventionally subservient roles. Jenkins has defended their characterizations as being historically accurate (the ways that they were stereotyped at the time) but they each deserve a deeper back story. If the evil Maru received hers, why shouldn't they as well?

Wonder Woman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Reviewer's Note: This section has gathered material about Wonder Woman's aesthetics from an American Cinematographer article about the movie by Mark Dillon, Sharon Gosling's Wonder Woman: The Art and Making of the Film, the BD's featurettes, and my own analysis of the video.

Wonder Woman comes to 4K in a package containing the UHD disc, the Blu-ray, and an insert with a redemption code for the digital copy. The movie was shot using 4-perf Super 35 and framed for the 2.39:1 aspect ratio, which was also the ratio for its theatrical exhibition. The 2160p presentation reveals that the picture was photographed using both motion picture and digital cameras. For example, the first section in Themyscira brings out the organic grain, particularly on the faces of General Antiope and Queen Hippolyta. This was more pronounced to me since I watched the 4K of Wonder Woman on a 130" screen. For the record, a majority of the movie's London and Belgium exteriors (all shot in the UK) as well as all the interiors were shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 stock. The classical approaching to shooting on celluloid was purposeful by the filmmakers. Jenkins sought an "epic, smooth elegance. It can soak you into a period without you noticing you're in the modern world. You can't do that yet with digital — I've tried," Jenkins conceded to Dillon. "Film creates an illusion of a glamorous world. That was important because we were trying to bake in the elements of both period and illusion. Film's veneer brings it all together." According to AC's Dillon, the traditional motion picture stocks will be the primary preference for DC Entertainment productions in the future.

Digital intermediate colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld oversaw the final grading and specified that the film has mainly two color palettes. A turquoise ocean, sunny blue skies, and a generally lush green provide the look for Themyscira (see Screenshot #s 6 and 7). When the narrative shifts inside to the infirmary pool room, the aesthetic takes on bioluminescent lighting (to quote producer Charles Roven). See Steve in capture #8. The filmmakers tried to create the illusion that the water has a soft glow. Production designer Aline Bonetto explains this further. "I was inspired by the fact that there are now people who are working on the light that is in a photon. On Themyscira there is a lot of water everywhere and they have some photon element in the water that gives light by night. We used this idea in the infirmary. For that set we lit with just big bowls of water and it created something totally different visually." As Sharon Gosling notes, the pools were assembled with LEDs lodged in their walls to create this ambient lighting.

The scenes in London and Belgium have a "cooler cyan," as Sonnenfeld describes it. For the World War I era scenes, Jenkins and cinematographer Matthew Jensen studied the paintings of portrait artist John Singer Sargent. "[Sargent] had what we would consider a very modern approach to using light in his portraits," Jensen observed. "A lot of it was very soft frontal, three-quarter light that quickly fell into blackness beyond the character. That painting style dictated a lot of how I approached lighting the faces. We didn't want a lot of backlight and highlights. We were just going to try to work with a single source and then once that became our key light, we started playing with the colors in the shadows." The UHD and Blu-ray transfers very nicely demonstrate the 3/4 light with inky blacks on the characters' wardrobes. If the cinematography (and transfers) have a flaw, however, it has to do with the low-key light that is too dark and the scene where Steve and Diana ride on horseback to their boat at dusk is a prime example (see Screenshot #s 9 and 10). Looking at the long shot (#9) in both 4K and 1080p, it just appears a bit too dark (possibly the fault of Jensen's gaffer). Contrast is better and more pronounced when Steve and Diana converse aboard the boat (see #11).

Warner has broken the main feature into twelve chapter stops.

Wonder Woman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner supplies Dolby Atmos and English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) audio tracks for the main feature. I was immediately struck by the Atmos' sonic clarity and amplitude in the center channel, especially when Diana and Steve deliver voice-over narration. The words are clear and quite loud. There is often clear and distinct separation between the narration/dialogue in the center and the two front speakers, which bring out the f/x and music. Additionally, car horn sounds from Daimler and other German vehicles are discretely rendered on each front. Brass and timpani occasionally reach a crescendo, which produces quite a roar in the fronts and surrounds. The walls of the home theater shook during a thunderous blast in the middle of a Amazonian training session. Fisticuffs, clanging swords, and foot-fighting have crisp and thud-like sounds.

Warner provides optional English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French, and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles for the main feature. The SDH identify the character whose speaking and give a nearly complete transcription of the dialogue. (It even corrects some broken English.) White italics are displayed when voice-overs are uttered and when dialogue is spoken off-screen. There are compulsory English subtitles (see #20) when languages other than English are delivered.

An English Audio Descriptive track as well as language dubs in French, Latin Spanish, and Portuguese are also available.

Wonder Woman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner has produced a slew of featurettes on the making of Wonder Woman. These can be found only on the Blu-ray. Subtitles can be accessed via remote. They include English, French, Latin Spanish, and Portuguese subs.

• "Epilogue: Etta's Mission" short (2:41, 1080p)

• "Crafting the Wonder" Featurette (16:26, 1080p)

• "A Director's Vision" Featurettes (25 min., all 1080p) - "Themyscira: The Hidden Island" (4:56), "Beach Battle" (4:56), "A Photograph Through Time" (5:07), "Diana in the Modern World" (4:39), and "Wonder Woman at War" (5:03).

• "Warriors of WONDER WOMAN" Featurette (9:53, 1080p)

• "The Trinity" Featurette (16:05, 1080p)

• "The Wonder Behind the Camera" Featurette (15:34, 1080p)

• "Finding the Wonder Woman Within" Featurette (23:08, 1080p)

• Extended Scenes (9 min., all 1080p) - "Boat Conversation" (3:37), "Selfridges Shopping" (2:07), "Parliament Steps" (1:13), "Morning at the Train Station" (1:13), and "Charlie Never Sleeps" (0:54).

• Alternate Scene: "Walk to No Man's Land" (1:04)

• Blooper Reel (5:37, 1080p)

• Bonus Trailer for Justice League

Wonder Woman 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Variety has reported this summer that Warner is internally mounting an Oscar campaign with prospective hopes for Wonder Woman to become the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture. Director Patty Jenkins has reportedly signed on for a sequel. The 4K Ultra HD is the best way to experience this box office juggernaut. Bonus materials are fairly extensive though not exhaustive. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.