Wonder Woman 1984 2020
I enjoyed the first Wonder Woman but as the sequel started getting reviews, things were not looking good. Origin stories are usually a little easier and more fun, but a sequel is always a challenge. For some reason the movie is set in 1984, so you get some funny fashions, a particular global political situation, and maybe a lack of technology, but otherwise not that much different. The movie fails on a lot of different levels even while it does succeed in a few areas. Wonder Woman’s weapons are a little underwhelming and they try to make them more spectacular than they are, which is awkward at best. So she flies by using her golden lasso like Spider-Man’s web, which would restrict her mostly to parabolic arcs, but not in this movie. While Wonder Woman is a neat character, her villains here are poorly drawn. Kristen Wiig appears in a role unfortunately similar to a bit she did on Saturday Night Live, but it is a caricature when a more realistic portrayal would have been helpful. The main conflict of the movie is also kind of silly and, like Wonder Woman flying, is very unwieldy. Suddenly the world goes post-apocalyptic and I’m not sure why, but a field of desperate extras never shows up on screen well, just looking like extras. Even within the plot there were things I was left thinking why is that a rule? How could this possibly happen? There are some things that work, mostly Wonder Woman herself as she displays some character flaws and learns to cope with them. It is good to see Chris Pine again and he gets to try out a little bit of unfrozen Captain America marvelling (sorry, DCing) at modern wonders. There is a nice glimpse at the beginning of a pre-teen Diana showing off her abilities and learning some lessons. Ultimately the message of the movie is kind of uplifting, but I still didn’t buy it. They have announced a third movie which hopefully will take this solid character and give her a better plot and characters to work with.
Written: 28 Dec 2020
Owned on: Blu-ray