Review: Wonder Woman: Bloodlines

Wouldn’t that be great if the voice of Wonder Woman aka Rosario Dawson would end up as the First Lady of the United States should her Senator boyfriend Cory Booker wind up winning the 2020 election? I mean, if British Royalty can bring on Meghan Markle as Duchess of Sussex, why not Wonder Woman in the White House? Would Rosario even bother with this voice acting gig should she get in?

In any event, she returns as Princess Diana of Themyscira who we see save and befriend a silly fighter pilot named Steve. Because she does that, Diana’s mother casts her from Themyscira to that of Earth where she is granted the mantle of Wonder Woman. As a member of the Justice League for several years now, Wonder Woman has done more than enough to show she can protect Earth from otherworldly foes. But, when Vanessa Kapatelis goes rogue as the “Silver Swan”, Wonder Woman has a bunch on her plate having to choose to kill the daughter of her longtime friend or protect Earth from Doctor Poison and Cyber as they attempt to revitalize Medusa and enslave Themyscira.

Overall, Wonder Woman: Bloodlines does the job it was sent here to do…successfully showcase that Wonder Woman could be a more than capable leading female character for the DC Animated Universe, and yes, she definitely could. Wonder Woman has more than her handful of rogue villains ala Batman and Superman where a full-blown animated series could very well work here. However, if that’s going to happen, we’re going to have to address some of the franchise’s inherent flaws when adapted for animation.

For starters, I couldn’t help but notice how choppy some of the animated sequences are and they are quite evident and is more of a knock on Warner Bros. Animation which typically shows these very same flaws on Mike Tyson Mysteries for Adult Swim. It’s a look that almost resembles the way production was done in the 1970s despite the fact that we are coming into 2020, and this pertains to not just the action sequences but even mouth movements which are more than herky-jerky. Moreover, some of Diana’s dialogue is written like a cross between the first-gen Hulk and contemporary and it gets rather annoying to listen to at times. The plot, while filled with a healthy dose of satisfying twists and turns, features more than a few instances of the classic cartoon cliche for comic books in the “hero vs villain in a race to get a trinket” that Disney is just as guilty of as anyone.

Fortunately, the meat and potatoes of the film are strong. Wonder Woman has to fight off a bevy of villains and she does so with Jeffrey Donovan’s “Steve Trevor” lobbing in more than a few quips along the way. The cliffhanger post-credits ending makes me want more, but only if some of the aforementioned technical trademark ailments from WB Animation can be resolved.