When Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman“ came out in 2017, it served as a cultural reset for what makes a superhero blockbuster. It opened the door for films like “Black Widow” and “Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.” So everyone was excited for “Wonder Woman 1984” to come out.
And then it did. And Twitter was flooded with reviews. The movie itself isn’t as terrible as the reviews make it seem. Gal Gadot was born to play Wonder Woman: She completely embodies the role of the Amazonian Warrior and brings Diana Prince directly off the comic book pages.
Hollywood has started to set most of their films and tv shows in the 1980s, and, maybe it is because I have seen it so much but at this point, but I think it is overused. We saw it first in “Stranger Things” and it has taken off from there.
The film’s villains include Maxwell Lord and Barbara Minerva/Cheeta, played by Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig. To me, these two give the best performances in the movie, and their characters’ motivations make sense within the context of the film.
However, considering that “Wonder Woman 1984” has a Rotten Tomato score of 60%, this movie is definitely flawed. A lot of it comes from the writing and directing of the film as well as the direction that they went with.
When watching this trailer for this film, I realized first that they were bringing Steve Trevor back after him sacrificing himself in the first film. And I wish I could go back to the time where I didn’t know how they brought his character back. Although I love Chris Pine as an actor, his soul possessing a random man where only Wonder Woman sees him as Steve seems like a total waste. Also, Diana and Steve do some questionable things while borrowing his body.
The main item of the film is called the Wishing Stone, a stone that grants anyone’s wish but takes something from them in return. The stone itself makes sense; however, the way in which its purpose changes throughout the film doesn’t really make sense.
The CGI in the film is also not the best, which, considering Warner Bros. had over a year to fix it, was shocking. Sometimes they fully forgot about characters in shots (it is most noticeable when Wonder Woman picks up two children and only brings one to safety). At some points, the shots are truly laughable.
Representation in Hollywood has never been great, but the depiction of the Middle East is extremely hurtful. It fits into the stereotype that Hollywood has always portrayed as the Middle East.
The film did have some good parts in it. The overall theme and message of the film that lying gets someone nowhere, which is an extremely prominent lesson and is constant throughout. Wonder Woman has always been an interesting character, and this film expands her character and shows sides of her that have rarely been shown in the comics.
Overall, this film was mediocre. It is a decent movie that has some lazy writing, but it is not horrible. However, this film definitely helped kick off all of the 2021 Warner Bros. movies going onto HBOMax and into theatres on the same day. I hope that the next film that comes out is better than “Wonder Woman 1984.”