Remember Catwoman? Thankfully you won't after this.

Superheroes are a great many things but scarce clearly isn’t one of them. While super-heroic figures have proliferated popular culture for decades, only a select elite have gone past the confines genre to achieve wider significance. In Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman; DC Comics possess the superhero holy trinity. The cultural significance of this trio of characters outstrips (almost) all challengers but, while Batman and Superman have left their indelible marks on cinema, Wonder Woman has been left floundering through no fault of her own.

It’s the kind of disparity that may possibly (and I mean, possibly) be acceptable, were there a compelling argument to be made that Diana Prince’s cultural significance wasn’t on the same level as Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent, but there simply isn’t. In fact, there’s a perfectly good case to be made that she holds a greater place not only within pop culture, but within a far wider social context. After all, have either Batman or Superman been a real-life UN ambassador? Didn’t think so.

As frustrating as Wonder Woman’s lack of big screen presence has been however, it’s far from surprising. Hollywood has a long and storied history with superhero adaptations but the gender politics involved have been nothing short of shocking. It’s always been an uncomfortably testosterone-heavy environment and while the easy answer for the superhero sausage party would be a massive dollop of good old-fashioned Hollywood sexism, the industry’s terminal lack of courage should not be discounted.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that women have rarely been treated as equals in the genre, an archaic approach caused by a deep-seated, financial-based fear of allowing female characters top billing. The female-led superhero landscape has been far from barren over the years when your last efforts were critical and financial bombs Elektra and Catwoman, things aren’t looking good. On the surface, the box office failures of these two don’t paint a particularly pretty picture for female superhero viability but, dig a little deeper and it’s clear a fundamental misunderstanding of the characters is as much to blame as anything.

Last time I checked, it was the year 2017 and, quite frankly, a female-led film of any description really shouldn’t be the novelty it is, but that’s where we stand and with an entire industry’s eyes firmly on her, Wonder Woman holds the hope for the future of superheroines everywhere.

Raised and trained to become a great warrior in the sheltered paradise of Themyscira; Diana, Princess of the Amazons (Gal Gadot) lives out a peaceful existence until she learns of the horrors engulfing the outside world when pilot, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), crash lands on her shores. Disturbed by the horror stories of this war to end all wars, Diana is convinced she can put an end to the conflict by defeating the one she believes to be orchestrating it – Ares, the God of War. Packing her shield, sword, and Lasso of Truth; Diana accompanies Trevor back to Europe and into the heart of the war, where she must head behind the German lines to take down the threat before it’s too late. As she journeys ever further into the war’s darkness, she will come face-to-face with both the true nature of man and her true destiny.

Origin stories are pretty standard fare in the comic book world. Every single hero has one but as superhero films grow in abundance, their inherently formulaic nature leaves them vulnerable to audience fatigue. As familiar as the end product may be, to avoid burnout, an origin story must be brave in its convictions and absolutely committed in telling the story at hand but, above all else, it must nail one key thing - character.

For any superhero film, character is everything. You can have all the CGI carnage you want but, if you fail to drill down into the core of your central hero, you won’t be getting very far at all. While Marvel have been making it look easy for years, DC have fallen way behind in getting, even their most iconic heroes, right. Four films into the much maligned DCEU (or DC Extended Universe to you and me) however, and it looks like they’ve finally made it to the promised land.

From the beautifully realised opening on Themyscira, to Diana’s first heroic steps into the breach of World War I; it’s clear that director Patty Jenkins holds a profound and deep-seated affection for Wonder Woman as a character and an icon. In distilling her key characteristics down their base elements, Jenkins has managed to dive to the very root of her popularity; avoiding any temptation to needlessly reinvent the character, in favour of a refreshingly faithful interpretation that successfully straddles the line between Wonder Woman’s inherent kitsch and the gritty verisimilitude that modern audiences crave. While Superman’s treatment in Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman has turned a character of hope and heroism into a cynical, brooding narcissist; Wonder Woman mercifully retains the sincerity, optimism, naivety, and fearlessness that has made the character such an icon.

As we bear witness to Diana’s superhero ascent in the murky, blood-soaked trenches of WWI; the genuine thrills inherent in Wonder Woman’s selfless, Golden Age heroism shine like a beacon of hope in a dark word and even darker DC universe. The moment Diana de-cloaks to reveal her costume deep in the Western Front mud, before blazing a trail through the machine gun bullets of no man’s land, all bets are off. In this one fist-pumping, awe-inspiring scene; Paddy Jenkins has cut straight to the heart of the beloved character and delivered DC the hero they need and the Wonder Woman her patient fans deserve.

Tying the high-fantasy superhero capers of Wonder Woman to the painfully human and all-too real conflict of World War I is certainly a brave choice, but one that works perfectly to solidify the film’s significance. To use humanity’s darkest hour as the back drop for a comic book adventure certainly runs the risk of flippancy, yet Wonder Woman skillfully avoids any accusations of frivolity with an end product filled with deep understanding of its subject matter and a clear compassion for the casualties of such a bloody war.

As Marvel learned when parachuting Captain America in among the bombs and bullets of World War II, framing your superhero within the confines of such tragic, real-world drama is the kind of gritty anchoring that resonates remarkably well with audiences; creating a far more intimate hero and relatable conflict than any number of CGI alien invasion in the process. As comic book universes expand at exponential rates, these intimate encounters with our heroes run the risk of becoming increasingly rare but, through Wonder Woman’s successes, there’s hope that lessons are finally being learnt.

While it’s unique period setting helps set Wonder Woman apart from many of its peers, it still manages to fall afoul of the occasional superhero sin. Despite the film’s familiar origin feel, Wonder Woman mercifully avoids the worst of the usual superhero pratfalls but, as it enters its third act, the disappointing downward spiral into familiar overblown CGI messiness seems unavoidable.

The sight of two god-like figures pummelling pixels out of one other has been the downfall of many modern action films, so to see Wonder Woman fall into the same old trap is as disappointing as it is expected. As Diana prepares to duke it out with her computer-generated nemesis, against a backdrop of nondescript green screen chaos, the film proceeds to lose much of the emotional resonance it worked so hard to accumulate.

Lost among the swirling CGI debris is our villain Ares and, while he’s far from the worst comic book bad guy you’ll encounter, he’s certainly not great. Predictable, ill-defined, and poorly executed; the motivations of this villainous god feel as undercooked as his character design and do little to make the character particularly memorable or rouse any emotional response towards him. As the forgettable final battle bores its way to its conclusion, the deflation of seeing an otherwise fantastic film stumble at the final hurdle is palpable.

For a character as singularly iconic as this, casting is absolutely everything and in Gal Gadot, DC have unearthed their definitive Wonder Woman. With physicality, beauty, and balletic grace; Gadot is the perfect embodiment of Diana Prince and, while her model-like appearance and less-than-stellar filmography have raise doubts regarding her viability, her powerful presence and effortless charisma banish any lingering doubts as to her worthiness. It’s been a long-old time since Linda Carter hit our TV screens and, in the meantime, several generations have grown up with no definitive live-action Wonder Woman to look up to. Through her own, natural gifts and Patty Jenkins’s skilled direction; Gal Gadot has successfully become an icon for a new generation and a worthy inheritor of the tiara.

As on-point as Gadot’s casting feels however, Wonder Woman’s true master stroke sits in its director’s chair. By drafting Patty Jenkins in for her first directorial gig in fourteen (yes, 14!!!) years, Warner Bros. can bask in the glow of the best DC decision they’ve made since picking up the phone to Chris Nolan. With the Oscars success of her breakthrough Monster all but a fading memory, the director’s prolonged absence from the film industry brought with it serious questions about her ability to deliver on a movie of Wonder Woman’s magnitude but, in hindsight, we clearly needn’t have worried.

The inability to handle uber-budget studio tent-poles has been the downfall of far too many well-regarded young filmmakers to mention but, through a fearless approach and a firm grasp on her character, Jenkins makes no mistake in kicking these fears into touch. Wonder Woman is a film that knows precisely where it’s going and exactly how to get there, as Jenkins serves up a huge dollops of crowd-pleasing, gung-ho heroism while refusing to shy away from the character’s valiant, old-fashioned sensibilities. Jenkins simply and unequivocally understands her hero, while plotting an impeccably weighted course for Diana, that works both as a blistering piece of superhero entertainment and the perfect encapsulation of the character’s inherent hope, naiveté, and selflessness.

Despite some rather tiresome CGI messiness in its third act, Wonder Woman is an overwhelming achievement in blockbuster filmmaking. Asking for superheroes being heroic might sound rather silly, but Wonder Woman’s brand of heroism feels like a much needed palette cleanser to DC’s recent brand of nihilism. Diana Prince’s earnestness and sincerity are a timely call back to Christopher Reeve’s Superman and a real breath of fresh air for both the DCEU and the superhero genre. It’s taken an age, but the world finally has a female superhero to be proud of and, with Batgirl and Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel on their way, the novelty of female heroes, super or otherwise, will soon be a thing of the past. If Warner Bros. possesses an ounce of sense (not a given, I know), Wonder Woman and Patty Jenkins will be the franchise’s focal point from here on in as, while Wonder Woman far from the film of the year, there’s a fair chance it’s the most important.