Wonder Woman

Amazon princess Diana (Gal Gadot) is lured away from her island home by the distant thunder of World War I, joining the fight against Germany and Austria, in whose aggression she sees the hand of the evil god Ares. This latest comic-book movie’s chief asset is the charismatic Gadot—no wait, scratch that, she’s its only asset. The back story is a subliterate garbling of Greek mythology, while the foreground story is all but nonexistent; there are too many villains, none of them dramatically strong enough to be much of a threat, and the most interesting characters get killed off too soon (to say more would enrage the Spoiler Police). Director Patty Jenkins is hopelessly out of her depth; her first and biggest mistake was in not telling Allan Heinberg, Zack Snyder, and Jason Fuchs that their script stinks. J.L.