“Only love can save this world. So I stay. I fight, and I give… for the world I know can be. This is my mission, now. Forever.”
Welcome to JOE’s countdown of the Ten Best Movies of 2017. We’ll be counting them down one-by-one, with the #1 spot revealed on New Year’s Eve.
The #08 spot goes to… WONDER WOMAN
Irish Release Date: 1 June
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston, David Thewlis.
Director: Patty Jenkins
Budget: $149 million
Worldwide Box Office: $822 million
People didn’t really love Man Of Steel. People really didn’t love Batman V Superman. And there was no love lost over Suicide Squad. It seemed as if Warner Brothers and DC just weren’t going to catch a break. So instead they broke all the “rules” and went with the first female-centric superhero movie (Elektra and Catwoman don’t count, don’t @ me), and put a female in the director’s chair.
Oh, and they ditched the “dark and edgy” vibe that was douring out the rest of the DC slate, and we ended up with a fantastically optimistic, thoroughly enjoyable action movie with a brilliantly charismatic lead that only really tripped ever so slightly when it tried to fit back into the mould of other superhero movies.
Clip via Warner Bros. Pictures
After Gadot stole the show in BVS, all fears were put to rest that the relatively untested actress (we loved her in Fast Five, but she wasn’t exactly a superstar previous to WW), and she rose to the challenge of fronting this movie all by herself.
Thankfully, director Patty Jenkins (who was supposed to direct Thor 2 for Marvel before “creative differences” got in the way) paired Gadot with Chris Pine, and the pair had the best chemistry out of pretty much any pairing in any of the recent superhero movies.
The early action scenes were slick and well choreographed, the fish-out-of-water comedy was played perfectly, and aside from the dud of a villain, Wonder Woman put up a great fight for the best superhero movie of 2017, easily beating Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and Justice League. There was some stiff competition from Thor: Ragnarok (which just barely missed out on our Top 10 of the year), and there was only one other superhero movie that managed to beat Wonder Woman, but that is for another day…
For further reading on our end of year list, check out the following:
- The Top Ten Movies of 2017 – #09 – War For The Planet Of The Apes
- The Top Ten Movies of 2017 – #10 – Split
- The 12 best movies of 2017 you probably missed at the cinema
- The 18 Worst Movies of 2017
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
