Delayed Reaction: Wonder Woman 1984

Premise: It's 1984 and Diana finds a stone that grants wishes...at a cost.

 

It's going to be so easy to miss the forest for the trees with this movie. It's at the center of a larger discussion about how movies will be released going forward. For months, I've been more intrigued by when and how this movie would be released than if I was even excited for the movie. That's sad, because in a non-COVID world, Wonder Woman 1984 would've been the event film of the year and possibly the highest grossing. The first Wonder Woman was a massive hit and it's pretty much the only indisputable success of DC's in the last few years.

Personally, I was a little colder on Wonder Woman than the average person. I still really enjoyed it, but there were some definitely problems I had with it that didn't seem to bother other people. So, the big question for me going into WW84 was if it would clean those up and make and even better sequel.

 

I'm happy to say that WW84 is a really fun movie. There are certain things in the DNA of this franchise that just plain work. Gal Gadot is again terrific in the role. They come up with a way to bring Chris Pine back as well, which is nice. Gadot and Pine's chemistry is definitely a big part of why the first movie works so well. The film adds Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal as the new villains and shades them enough to be really interesting. The way all the cast members interact is great.

 

I was thoroughly impressed too with how the movie soaks in all the 1980's nostalgia without getting lost in it. The look and feel of the movie screams 1984, but it's not beating the audience over the head with references and winks. Also, the type of action movie was a nice throwback. Weirdly, the movie I thought the most about to compare the tone of this to was
the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie. Or maybe the Schumacher Batman movies. There was a comic book scale to it. Not campy. Perhaps earnest. It's like it's reveling in the freedom of knowing that it doesn't belong in a shared cinematic universe with anything now.

Sadly, I did have some of the same problems with this movie as with the first. Again, I didn't care for the last act at all. The turning point is when Diana utters the line "I'll never love again". Before that, I was loving virtually everything about the movie. After that, I didn't care for almost any of the decisions, which is a shame, because that's supposed to be the start of the high point of the movie. So far, I've been able to break down my problems to two points.

 

1) Too much feels reverse engineered. They decided going in that Chris Pine needed to come back, so they manufactured a way for it to happen. And the solution is literally the same as an episode of Big Bad Bettleborgs that I've been making fun of for 20 years. You see, Pine is actually in another man's body, but as soon as Diana knows it's him, she sees him as Pine so the audience sees Pine. That's...insane. Or, take Kristen Wiig's character. There is no reason for her to turn into a cat person at the end. It makes no sense, but I'm guessing there's a DC villain from the comics they wanted to turn her into*. Then there's the invisible plane. Was there any foregrounding before this that she had the power to turn things invisible? That fully felt like someone told the writers "we need the invisible plane. Figure it out". Or there's the shiny suit from the poster. It looks undeniably bitchin'. I get why they wanted to include it, but there is no reason for it. It reminded me of Michael Keaton's Batman costume in that I don't know how she could move in it. Like, I guess is helps to have the extra defense to fight Wiig's character, but it's not designed for natural-looking movement. And movement is sort of Gadot's thing as Wonder Woman.

 

*I looked it up. Yes, she's playing Cheetah. This is no reason she needs to be playing Cheetah. She was plenty fine as a villain before the digital fur.

 

2) This feels a little petty, but I don't love the way Patty Jenkins depicts all of Diana's powers. When the movie requires Diana to just be a badass warrior with a whip, it's great. There's a fight against a convoy in this that's wonderful. The fight against Wiig in the White House is terrific. When she's really showing off the superhero powers though, it just looks weird. The flying looks silly. The crazy jumping and sliding don’t look natural. For whatever reason, my inability to buy into the physics of this really takes me out of the action sequences in these movies.

 

I'm really torn on WW84. The first 2/3rds or so of the movie is as much fun as I've had watching a superhero movie in a while. I was really digging it. Then it just falls so dramatically at the end. I was not prepared for how quickly I fell out of love with it. Perhaps someone needs to explain the end for me. Did everyone in the world have to renounce their wish? Am I supposed to believe that everyone in the world really did that? And, am I supposed to believe that Pascal's love for his son, who has only been presented as a nuisance to him until that point, is what ultimately gets him to reverse his wish? Am I a bad person for thinking that merely having a child isn't enough evidence to believe that a character cares about their child above everything else? And how are all the wishes able to be reversed without causing severe long-term damage for years if not decades? That's economy-defining destruction. Sorry, I'm nitpicking. I just really don't get so much of the end of this movie. Perhaps, like with the first movie, after some time and a second viewing, it won't bother me as much. But I sure am coming out of this movie on a strikingly low note given how high I was on it 90 minutes in.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend