Sean Marshall Wonder Woman 1984 is the follow-up to the 2018 film Gal Gadot ‘Wonder Woman’ that was a slam dunk in many fans’ eyes due to Gadot & Chris Pine’s performance & Patty Jinkens helmsmanship. With the Snyder Cut being announced for March 2021 on HBO Max, most fans looked at Wonder Woman 1984 as a soft reboot that will kick off the new direction for this cinematic universe, but does it feel that way & if it does, did it do it successfully?
Wonder Woman 1984 focuses on Diana in 1984, who has made her home in Washington, D.C. Diana is still saving citizens without revealing herself to the world, holding down a job as a curator of ancient artifacts while still trying to cope with the loss of Steve Trevor. Along the way, she comes across the quirky Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), who later becomes Cheetah & the over-the-top Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), who is willing to lose it all to gain everything he has wished for from an ancient power.
Wonder Woman 1984 is a bore-fest. Not only is the story unplugged from the plethora of memorable stories the character has in the comics, but Gadot, Wiig & Pascal either did too much or way too little in their overall dry scenes. Pine’s performance outshined Gadot’s just as much as it did in the first film, which is why I believe WB & Jenkins had him return for this one. Pascal was doing way too much & didn’t feel like his comic book counterpart. In fact, this version of Maxwell Lord felt like a wacky villain straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon. I couldn’t take him seriously & every time he appeared on the screen, I roll my eyes. On top of that, Jenkins said that this version of Maxwell Lord was inspired by Trump, which was obvious and mainly damaged the character. Wiig’s version of Barbara/Cheetah was also a miss for me. The character’s transition from Barbara to Cheetah was nothing we haven’t seen before &, at times, felt rushed. Cheetah was wasted in this film & it’s a shame because Barbara & Diana’s rivalry in the comics is so much more impactful than what was represented here.
Another major distraction in the film was the bad CG used in a lot of the scenes. The night scenes that used CG weren’t that bad & could be overlooked, but the scenes that took place in the day were horrible & took me out of the film. The film also skipped over story details that would’ve been interesting to see fleshed out. One of these story details was how Diana got the suit of Asteria. We saw her in her youth fail at obtaining the suit because she cheated, but she has it in her home as an adult? Why skip over how she obtained it? No flashback? Not even a moment where Diana reminisces over her victory of getting the suit with Steve? Come on. For the suit having such a pivotal piece of the beginning & end of this story & not getting a wrap-up of its story made the film feel rushed.
Despite its shortcomings, Pine kept this film moving forward & his scenes with Gadot were deep & full of humor. However, whenever the two were in a scene together, you can tell Pine was carrying those scenes on his shoulder. At times, it feels like a lousy pairing because of Gadot’s lack of emotions.
Wonder Woman 1984 shows moviegoers clearly that Jenkins doesn’t know how to handle this character & the overall world she exists in. This film ironically comes off as a bad 80s comedy with a few genuine laughs & horrendous CG. I’d say if you have access to HBO Max, view it there because paying the theater price for this sequel doesn’t pay off.
Wonder Woman 1984 Review
Pros
- Chris Pine does a solid job again
Cons
- Bad & over the top acting
- Bad CG
- The story was unfulfilling
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