The original Wonder Woman was a triumph of a motion picture. It was the first superhero movie to feature a woman in the lead and it felt special. It was the antithesis to the slate of DC Universe films that had come out. Whereas Man Of Steel and Batman V. Superman were dark and dreary, Wonder Woman was filled with life and wonderment. Gal Gadot shined as the titular character in a bit of a fish out of water story set during the first World War. Chris Pine was fantastic as her love interest. The film didn't cut any corners in terms of storytelling for the sake of special effects. It's for these reasons that I was so excited for the follow-up, now set in the 1980s (because when in doubt, set it in the 80s). After setting through the 150-minute retro trip and having the evening to think it over, I can say that I'm mostly disappointed. With few exceptions WW84 doesn't capture any of the original film's magic. It seems to exist only because the first film made eleventy-billion dollars and a sequel was necessary. That's not to say that it's an outright terrible movie. I actually enjoyed the wacky nature of the film. But overall, it was a letdown.
Through the first half of the film, I kept asking myself why they bothered to call it "Wonder Woman 1984" since it's relatively Wonder Woman free. It was an odd choice, for sure. Gadot's character is apparently miserable living on her own, having lost Pine's character in World War I. She works for the Smithsonian Institution (NOT Institute like it was listed in the credits... My sister works for them and wanted me to point this out) as an investigator of supernatural relics from the past. Kristin Wiig, who appears as a dorky assistant who everyone looks over, comes across a mysterious stone that appears to grant wishes. Not soon after this discovery does she not so surprisingly turn into an 80s vixen. Her transformation seems a little disappointing as she basically loses her glasses and starts wearing high heels. This transformation feels like it was written by a man, so it's a little disappointing to realize that the director, Patty Jenkins, had a hand in crafting this story. She also gets a bit of Wonder Woman's strength, which confusingly leads her down a path towards becoming the "Cheetah," one of the villains in the film. She was wasted in this role. Her comedic talents weren't used enough and her heel turn wasn't strong enough to live on its own. She seemed to be going through the motions too much in this one. The other villain in this film is played in sweaty glory by The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal, complete with Donald Trump haircut. He's a wannabe oil tycoon who uses the stone to take grant wishes and gain power (confused? Yeah, me too). What results from this is a somewhat disjointed story around the globe as Wonder Woman (though mostly in her civilian clothes) is trying to chase down the stone to overturn its powers. It's a 2 and a half hour story that probably could have been 90 minutes and one villain less.
That's not to say that the movie was a complete wash. I rather enjoyed the inarguable chemistry between Gadot and Chris Pine (who is inexplicably brought back from the dead for this one). There's a couple fun scenes where Pine is getting used to being in the 80s (though Marvel did it better with Captain America), and an almost too long montage of him trying on 80s clothing. There's also a beautiful scene where they fly through fireworks in an invisible plane. There's also a couple excellent action sequences, but those are too few and far between.
I'm not quite sure why this film was set in the 1980s other than to cash in on the Stranger Things nostalgia train. We've already seen Wonder Woman in the present day with the other DC Universe films and I found her more convincing in those. If they were using this to give her more back story then I guess it worked. Overall, Wonder Woman 1984 seemed far too close to the other DC Universe films instead of a positive follow-up to the stellar original film. It wasn't zany enough for it to work that way (Aquaman did WTF better than this one) and it wasn't serious enough to work that way either. It was a well-intentioned swing and miss.
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