Released: December 2020
Director: Patty Jenkins
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 151 Minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Genre: Action/Adventure
Cast:
Gal Gadot: Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
Chris Pine: Steve Trevor
Kristen Wiig: Barbara Minerva
Pedro Pascal: Maxwell Lord
Robin Wright: Antiope
Connie Nielson: Hippolyta
Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen a massive explosion of superhero movies. We can thank the original X-Men movie for that. Sure, superhero movies existed before that with films like Superman and Batman, but towards the end of the 20th century, the quality of superhero movies was going downhill, and Batman and Robin almost killed the genre. But when X-Men hit theaters back in 2000, it proved to the moviegoers the world over that you could have a good superhero movie that can be taken seriously. While X-Men had its hits and misses over the years, the MCU(Marvel Cinematic Universe)got kickstarted by Iron Man, back in 2008, and ushered in a new era of comic book movies. DC Comics and Warner Bros. tried to catch up with films like Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, that would be followed up by the Superman reboot, Man of Steel, which would be the first official film in the DCEU(DC Expanded Universe). Unfortunately, Warner tried to put the cart before the horse when they announced Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which would feature Superman, Batman, AND Wonder Woman. It was clear that DC was trying to catch up to Marvel, because they had TWO Avengers films done and out the door. Well, the response to Batman V. Superman wasn’t that great, so there was a bit of a seismic shift over at DC Entertainment. That shift gave us Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Two outstanding films that were designed to get DC movies back on track. Yeah, Justice League was a bit of a mess, but there were some tragic circumstances with that film. But what I’m talking about today, is the Patty Jenkin’s follow-up to Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984. I’ve got some things to say.
Nearly 70 years had passed since Diana Prince, the princess of Themyscera had battled and defeated Ares, the God of War towards the end of World War I. The battle came at a high price with the death of her friend and lover, Steve Trevor. In the year of 1984, Diana spends her time helping people while trying to stay out of the spotlight. One day, she runs into a scientist, Barbara Minerva, who had come into possession of an unusual stone. This stone appears to grant people’s wishes, and therefor attracts the attention of Maxwell Lord, an oil tycoon whose business is collapsing. While studying the stone, both Diana and Barbara make their wishes, not knowing that they would come true. But those wishes come at a price, as Diana finds out. The first Wonder Woman film was incredible, and it had a really good story from beginning to end, despite a predictable third act. It really focused on Diana and her attempt to navigate the world of men during the first World War. But she had a guide in Steve Trevor who had inadvertently crash-landed on Diana’s home island of Themyscera. It was a bit of a “fish-out-of-water” story that was given room and time to breathe and flesh out the characters. Wonder Woman 1984, on the other hand, is a narrative train-wreck. The base story and plot is fairly easy to follow, but it’s completely hamstrung by questionable decisions when it comes to character motivations and actions. A lot of these things don’t necessarily make sense. The entire plot surrounding the stone comes across as a contrived and overly pointless MacGuffin. The overall theme about wishes is not awful, but it’s presented in a way that’s incredibly cheesy. Superhero movies are inherently cheesy in certain aspects anyway, but WW84 takes it a whole different level. The tone is all over the place.
Let’s start with what worked. First off, the acting is top-notch. Gal Gadot has really settled into her role as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. She’s clearly enjoying the role and it really does suit her. There had been people who were not entirely convinced that Ms. Gadot was going to be able to pull it off, but she did. She had the look and she could physically handle it. Chris Pine returns as Steve Trevor and the chemistry between him and Gal Gadot is one of the best parts of the movie and it leads to some pretty emotional moments. I fully admit I got a little choked up at certain points. I was not entirely convinced that Kristen Wiig was going to be the right person to play Barbara Minerva, because the character would eventually become the supervillain, Cheetah. I was wrong. She was incredibly convincing as the initially timid scientist, but as the character got more confident, the more of a threat she became. But she’s not the main villain. Nope, that goes to Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord, or Wonder Woman’s villainous equivalent of Lex Luthor. Pedro Pascal has made a huge name for himself with roles in Game of Thrones and most recently, The Mandalorian. He is an amazing actor and he really pulls out the stops here. He doesn’t go into full mustache-twirling mode, as he does have some legitimate motivation for what he’s doing. The acting is what’s keeping this movie together.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of problems with this movie. First of all, the pacing is way off. It’s boring at times, and the action here really isn’t that good. It’s incredibly CGI-heavy at times, and some of the physics are highly questionable(physics in a superhero movie, WTF?). You can obviously tell that characters at times are CG, and sometimes it’s not good CGI. There’s an encounter between Wonder Woman and Cheetah that happens towards the end of the movie, and you can absolutely tell that this was not what Patty Jenkins was really going for. If you’re confident about your effects, then you wouldn’t set a fight like that at night. In the dark. There’s a lot of great visuals here with some stunning cinematography, but none of it really matters when you don’t care what happens on the screen. On top of that, the music isn’t that great. There’s nothing here that I’m going to remember in a day or two, and that sucks, because Hans Zimmer is one of the greatest film composers alive today. The soundtrack for the previous film was infinitely better. The costume designs are pretty good, especially for Diana Prince. I absolutely loved the golden armor that she wears at the end of the movie, and the story behind that armor is interesting. This film being set during the 80s has some visual flair and sound design that are specific to the decade, but again, it’s not something that I’ll remember next week.
Is Wonder Woman 1984 a terrible movie? I personally don’t think it is, but it’s not a particularly good movie either. After Justice League came out, it looked like that DC and Warner Bros. had turned a corner and started producing really good movies with the first Wonder Woman film as well as Aquaman and Shazam!. These were good movies. Cheesy at times, for sure, but there was real passion for the stories and the characters. WW84 feels like a huge step backwards. To me, WW84 feels like the Wonder Woman equivalent of Superman III. There’s good stuff here, but it’s held back by some really questionable decision-making in terms of tone and design. It’s too cheesy for it’s own good and it won’t be taken seriously. But I get the distinct impression that the studio interfered with this film, which doesn’t surprise me as Patty Jenkins said she was forced by Warner Bros. to do the CGI-heavy third act of the film. It’s just been announced that a third Wonder Woman is on the way, with Patty Jenkins attached as the director. I hope lessons are learned from this mess and they deliver a knock-out third film. Wonder Woman deserves a hell of a lot better than this.
My Final Recommendation: 6/10. If you decide to skip this one in theaters, I don’t think anybody would blame you.