Film Review: Dull ‘Professor Marston & the Wonder Women’

CHICAGO – For a film that has free love, lie detection, bondage, the origin of a great comic superhero and 3-way carnality, “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women” still comes out rather flat… quite a achievement. Wonder Woman is the comic hero, and this is the rest of her story.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

The film is sincere in its effort to explain one of the more unusual creators of an enduring comic book character, one who applied his lifestyle to the characteristics of Wonder Woman. William Moulton Marston was a man who at his core wanted to create a hero of peace and love, with the additional traits of her built in as a result of his own careful research. The performances are good and worth noting, but the story – written and directed by Angela Robinson – gets stuck in the man-ahead-of-his-time rut, with the forces of censorship bringing the Wonder of the Woman down faster than any villain. It’s also supposed to be erotic, as the good professor loved his kinks, but ends up kind of sanitary in its sexuality. Overall, it should have, and could have, been more interesting.

Professor William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) is an academic specializing in human behavior. His wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) became his colleague and encouraging source, and was game for anything. When a lovely young coed named Olive (Bella Heathcote) looks for an associate position, William and Elizabeth finds her bewitching enough to propose a double “encounter.”

As this occurs, Marston also dabbles in the science of behavior, and develops a machine that detects shifts in body reactions that indicates lies. The three way affair turns into a live-in arrangement, which includes experimentation in kinky bondage. All of these factors come together in a “eureka” moment, and Marston pitches an idea of a Wonder Woman comic character to National Comics editor M.C. Gaines (Oliver Platt).

”Professor Marston & the Wonder Women” is currently in nationwide release. See local listings for theaters and show times. Featuring Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcoate, Connie Britton, Oliver Platt. Written and directed by Angela Robinson. Rated “R”