I can’t help but think this movie would have made for a very different experience had it released in theaters to kick off summer. Wonder Woman 1984 was more enjoyable than some of the more negative reviews would suggest but it should have been better and is a significant step down from its predecessor.
The biggest takeaway from Patty Jenkins’ follow up to her 2017 hit was that this effort was aimless. The opening scene, which HBO Max was giving away in advance, showcases the equivalent of the Amazonian Olympics in which a young Diana takes a shortcut (cheats) to give herself a chance to win but it ultimately thwarted by Robin Wright’s Antiope. The message in that opening scene seemed to be about Diana learning that there are certain rules she needs to adhere to despite her powers or, at least, that she can’t just take what she wants because she’s powerful. Considering the lengths that the opening scene went to in order to deliver that message, it’s very much disconnected from the story that follows.
Where the first Wonder Woman movie was a gritty World War I movie that attempted to be grounded, the sequel threw all that out and window. Instead, the sequel’s approach fetishized the 1980s and built the entire story around wishes. Even for source material that relies heavily on mythology and other fantasy elements, the wish powered plot engine was a crutch. The story had certain things it needed to get done and sometimes the shortest distance between two points is a wish-powered straight line. Somehow, it was still two and a half hours long.
Even if you buy into the mechanism for the story that’s being sold, the primary villain’s motivation is highly questionable. Greed is tangible, whether it be for money, power, or both, but there was something missing here. Sadly, the accumulation of those things doesn’t result in anything other than chaos and, as a result, the villain’s arc ends up right where it started, which really undercuts that whole storyline. The secondary villain is also greedy for recognition and power but it’s more of a straight line. Even with the confrontation, you’d expect, there’s a lack of resolution with both villains’ stories.
One of the biggest strengths of the first movie was the fight choreography and the layering of the visual effects into those sequences. The action scenes weren’t bad, there was just a lot more of the golden lasso this time around. Whether she was using it to swing around like Spider-Man or deflecting bullets like a Jedi, the Lasso of Truth was the predominant element of the action sequences. It was like her combat skills evaporated, which brings me to that hideous, gaudy suit of armor that’s so prominent in the promotional material. It has a backstory as this legendary Amazonian battle suit but when it does make its appearance, not only is it ugly, it’s shown to be pretty useless. So when I say fetishizing the 80s, that’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about.
I will stand by Gal Gadot as the right choice for the character. She’s definitively Wonder Woman in a way that her DCEU counterparts aren’t their characters. Her performance isn’t one of the many reasons why the movie is underwhelming. In fact, none of the performances dragged the movie down. Kristen Wiig was believable even though her character introduction was so incredibly over-the-top cliche. Bizarre fashion and makeup choices aside, it would have been nice to see her close it out. Pedro Pascal was good too. While his character was intentionally a cliche, it was more representative of the TV personalities of the era so it didn’t feel out of place. Both actors were good choices that helped their characters carve out the difference between hope and desire.
Chris Pine was still the heart of the film the second time around. It’s easy to cheer for Steve and Diana but you can’t help but wonder if they forced his character back into the sequel for that very reason. Much of their relationship is based on the hope of what could be for them, but they are both mostly focused on solving the series of problems at hand. Since they brought him back, I would have liked to see them dig deeper there but it felt he was there to serve as a plot mechanism more than to develop the relationship.
Oddly enough, even after Patty Jenkins admitted that she didn’t like how the showdown at the end of the first movie was a tonal mismatch that the studio basically forced into the final product, she went ahead and did the same thing the second time out. There is a little more emotional weight to it but the penultimate battle scene is just a CGI mess.
It’s tough to tell what DC and Warner Bros. are going to do from here. Wonder Woman was their one real success in the DCEU and there’s very little positive press surrounding this new one and there wasn’t much universe building either. I was talking to someone who pegged it as the 2nd best movie under the umbrella ahead of Aquaman. If that’s where the bar is currently set, 2nd best isn’t saying very much.
Recommendation: The DCEU lacks cohesive direction and WW84 is all over the place…but in for a penny, in for a pound.