***SPOILERS AHEAD***

In order for me to fully critique the movie, it’s easier to spoil it. The movie is still in theaters, and will be on HBO Max until January 25th, so there is still ample time to watch it even from home =)

A young Diana participates in a contest on Themyscira. Though she performs admirably for most of the race, she cheats to get to the end. Her Aunt Antiope pulls her out of the race, explaining that no good thing is worth getting dishonestly.

In the present day, it is 1984 in Washington, D.C. Diana works at the Smithsonian while moonlighting as Wonder Woman. A new coworker, Barbara Ann Minerva, is asked by the FBI to identify articles from a robbery. Diana has taken a liking to Barbara and offers her help (also, Diana was the one to stop the robbery, as Wonder Woman 😉 ). The two women become friends, but Barbara begins to grow jealous of Diana.

Businessman Maxwell Lord also takes an interest in Barbara, but for a different reason. He was behind the attempted robbery and is after one of the artifacts: the Dreamstone. It can grant one wish to anyone who holds it. It has unknowingly been used by both Diana and Barbara: one wish for more time with a loved one, and one wish for becoming like someone else. Maxwell Lord wishes to become the Dreamstone, so he can make everyone else’s dream’s come true – but at a terrible price. For as the wishes get granted, something gets taken away. In Diana’s case, Steve Trevor being back means the gradual loss of her powers. How can she let go and renounce her wish, when she finally has everything she ever wanted?

I’m sure you guys have been wondering for my take on this movie. I’ve been putting it off because… I didn’t like it. I was entertained enough to sit through it once. Don’t get me wrong. My expectations weren’t very high to begin with. I figured they wouldn’t be able to top the first movie, and I was right on that. I just wasn’t expecting it to be… that bad.

My biggest issues were with the length of the movie and the writing. It could easily have been 45 minutes shorter. WW84 suffers the Aquaman problem of wanting to use more villains in a single movie than they know what to do with. As Aquaman underutilized Black Manta, his arch nemesis, in favor of Orm; WW84 did the same thing with underutilizing Cheetah, her arch nemesis, in favor of Maxwell Lord.

And, oooh boy, did they mess up with Cheetah. It felt as if they tried to do the New 52 route, where Diana and Barbara were close before Barbara’s transformation. But it was so rushed, so little time dedicated to building their relationship, to where it might as well not have been in the movie at all. I was SO hoping and looking forward to seeing Diana build a female friendship equivalent to Carol Danvers’ relationship with Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel (Nancy’s review and my comparison of CM and WW). These relationships are so, SO important and I was hoping there would be more of it in the DCEU after CM’s release. Instead, we got one work scene, one dinner scene, one gross scene of a drunk guy trying to assault Barbara, wherein Diana saves her and leading Barbara to make her fatal wish – and that was it. That was the only time dedicated to their relationship. At that point they may has well plopped Cheetah into the movie as an arch nemesis, with no context, as was the case with some villain introductions over comic book history.

Speaking of gross guys… this movie is full of them. And full of the gross, blatant misogyny that made Captain Marvel so insufferable for me to sit through. I get that it was the ’80s, and maybe it is a somewhat realistic representation of what women went through at the time, but I was totally surprised at the lack of subtlety from the first movie to this one. The microaggressions that were so effective in the first movie are totally missing here, in favor of the insultingly obvious “jokes,” unwanted advances, and the like. “They Captain Marvel‘d it,” I said to my husband later: an inside joke with us that means a complete and total lack of subtlety.

I don’t know that much about Maxwell Lord in the comic book lore, and I’m not opposed to the character making an appearance in the DCEU, but I do believe that the movie focused way too much on him, to Cheetah’s detriment. To me, he felt like the epitome of the ’80s sleazeball character, though I believe he’s supposed to be a Lex Luthor equivalent. I would have liked to see less of him – perhaps him effectively stealing the stone back, but not much more than that – in favor of a more developed relationship between Diana and Barbara, and a more gradual transformation from woman to Cheetah, from friends to enemies. They still could have had their showdown in the end. Diana’s speech about truth and honesty would still have been effective had she just been talking to her friend instead of the whole world.

(My bias could be because I’m just not a fan of Pedro Pascal… but I think my point about the writing still stands)

The best part of the movie for me, hands down, was Steve and Diana’s role reversal. This time around, Steve is the naïve one, the fish out of water, and Diana is his mentor. Of course, Gal Gadot and Chris Pine were able to recreate their magical chemistry from the first movie. But that was about the only carryover. I did also appreciate that Steve was able to lead Diana to more of her powers developing, namely the ability to make an invisible jet, and the power of flight. The contest at the beginning was a welcome scene, as we never got a “traditional” contest of Amazons to see who would be worthy to take up the mantle. I was so excited to see the same young actress who played little Diana in the first movie to reprise her role!

I found no issue with the cinematography or editing. It was a nice movie to look at, but in a different way than the first. The look of these movies reflected the times they were set in. The first movie, set in World War I, was more toned down and monochromatic. There was a bit of a sepia tone overall. WW84 was brighter, more vibrant without being as garish as the decade is known for being. Unfortunately, due to all the issues I have with it, I found it to be all beauty and no substance.

Of course, my very favorite part was the mid-credits scene… if you know, you know 😉

I have seen people both love and hate this movie. I can see it both ways. Fans of Wonder Woman the character will always love anything Wonder Woman that comes out. Fans of Wonder Woman comics will always be critical.

I can see it both ways, and I find myself more in the middle. As a fan of Wonder Woman the character, I was entertained enough by the movie. It was nice to look at, the action sequences were adequate, and Hans Zimmer’s score was effective. The message of truth and honesty is much needed in these times. But as a fan of Wonder Woman comics, I was so shocked with the nosedive the quality of the writing took, and Cheetah being cheated out of adequate character development and screentime, that ultimately… this movie was a miss for me. I didn’t love it by any means, but neither do I hate it. I meant to watch it again before reviewing, but I honestly couldn’t bring myself to. Truly, you are not missing anything if you don’t get around to seeing it. I was hoping to see it in theaters later, perhaps a re-release when it’s safer, but now I don’t think I will.

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Kathleen

Jenkins, Patty. Wonder Woman 1984. 2020.