Wonder Woman 1984 was something else. I would only recommend this movie to kids or adults who can just shut their brain down. Here’s the issue that seems to be at the center of the mess is that they created the film around bringing back Steve Trevor even though he has been dead for many decades. Before I get to much into that lets start from the beginning.
My favorite sequence was the opening scene of her as a child. I thought that was going to payoff eventually, but it really didn’t. Enjoy the scene, but eh not important after all. Then right away we are shown men in the 80s are misogynistic disrespectful douches, especially if they are wearing a suit. Now that wouldn’t be such a big deal in all honesty, but the fact is they ruin the feminist vibe of Wonder Woman they wanted to portray.
We have Barbara a brilliant trope nerd who is actually pretty but let’s pretend she isn’t cause plot. No one “sees” her despite being a brilliant Dr. in her field. Diana is also a brilliant Dr. though is noticed cause she’s sexy. Alrighty then. Barbara is developed to want to be Diana, how original, but it hapens in real life that people want to be someone else I guess. Then out of nowhere we have a magic rock. It just appears from the stolen goods confiscated during a mall heist Wonder Woman stopped. By this point even though it has been since WW1 Steve died. It is now apparently 1984, though you often forget you are in the 80s as it isnt really hammered home. I guess they just wanted that as a back drop. Anyways, it seems the 800 year old Amazonian is still depressed and doesn’t care much about the world because a guy she loved for like a week died forever ago….She acts like it’s the only great moment in her long life. A powerful mythological Amazonian woman is still pining over a dead man she barely knew. Nothing else in her long life compared….without him she just exists going through the motions, hiding from the world….
Of course, this superhero who could wish for anything to make the world better decides to wish for her dead BF back. Yes, she doesn’t realize it, but it comes true, kind of? The wishes in the movie seem pretty straightforward. You get what you wish for though it takes something from you. The problem is the wish only brings back his soul evicting some other guys soul? Steve is only kind of back? Maybe that’s why her powers only degrade slowly because her wish only kind of came true. I am not sure. The worst part is neither her nor Steve care about the man who was essentially killed to steal this body. They even have sex with this man’s body, which is um rape??
Whatever, then we have Steve curious about the world now, ok fine. Then because he was a pilot in WW1 he knows how to fly a modern jet and that jet magically fully fueled and can fly 6000 miles? On top of that while I love Wonder Woman’s invisible plane trick, she straight up says she’s only ever done the trick once on a coffee cup. While slowly losing her powers she can do it on a plane with ease…um ok? The firework scene was cool, so pretty. Then poof into Egypt with stereotypes of Arabs that now have to get beat up by an actress from Israel who believes in apartheid....ouch. Of course with her powers failing she needs studly awesome man Steve to save her ass. Until finally he tells her that she needs to let him go to save the world. She doesn’t come to that conclusion, no she wants to keep her man despite her powers fading putting the world in danger. Good thing we have a man to keep her straight…
The mythological armor that is just in her apartment I thought would be used to help her fight Cheetah while losing her powers, but she waits until her power are back to wear it…which makes it nothing, but a cool costume she doesn’t end up needing to kill cheetah…oh wait nope she is alive actually as electricity doesn’t harm Wonder Woman and only stuns Cheetah …um ok. Barbara aka Cheetahs arc is wonky at best. To turn this nice caring nerdy Dr into a villain she wishes to be like Diana accidently also gets Wonder Woman powers. This slowly takes away her humanity to the point she also gets a 2nd wish to become an apex predator? That came out of nowhere. Their first fight scene in the White House was cool, but their CGI fight at the end was ok I guess. Steve should not have been in this film and more story devoted to Diana and Barbara’s relationship IMO.
Now Pedro Pascal seems like he knew what this movie was going to be, and he just went balls to the wall having fun with it. It is never explained how this bankrupt wannabe oil baron knows about a magical stone really or why he chose to become the stone. Max steals a lot of this movie because Steve steals so much of Diana’s story. Of course, Max’s motivations for doing al this is to not be a loser and so his kid can look up to him. Max was also abused as a kid we find out at the end of the movie. Overall though I am not a fan of wishing movies, especially ones so inconsistent. They can just make anything happen and the rules are never established as they are inconsistent throughout the movie. Its boring.
Outside of the fact traveling in this movie is like instantaneous. People always get to where they need to be with no explanation. I could ignore that, but what makes no sense is how Max is defeated and the world is saved. When Max tricks the President of the USA they just happen to have a top-secret project lying around that is exactly what he needed to broadcast himself around the world. (As a sidenote he does the broadcast in English and apparently everyone in the world knows English.) Then Wonder Woman is stymied by wind, so she uses her lasso to high jack Max’s broadcast to get everyone to recant their wishes. Max recanting made sense because he wanted to save his son. Apparently though, the whole world good or bad are swayed by her emotional speech to them. 100% of the world wont wear masks, but they will recant their wishes. If you wished for your kids’ cancer to go away, you would definitely recant it cause Wonder Woman who keeps her existence a secret asked you too. Not to mention Barbara refusing to give up her wish suddenly does because Wonder Woman almost killed her then gave a nice speech. It would have made much more sense if they had either Max recant his wish which erased all other wishes or if Wonder Woman had to kill him.
Then even though Max almost caused the apocalypse the military flies him back to the White House to see his son who was dodging his way through riots. Then Wonder Woman meets the guy Steve inhabited and used his body for sex, he seems like the only nice guy in this movie outside Steve’s spirit.
While the first Wonder Woman I loved, this one I was so distracted by the nonsense I couldn’t enjoy it. I enjoyed when Gal was being Wonder Woman, but that wasn’t often. I don’t buy her being hung up on some dude for decades and the only thing she wants in life is him back, nothing else. This film felt disorganized and the characters had what they needed when they needed it to get to the next step. It isn’t The Last Jedi bad at ruining Luke Skywalker, but this didn’t feel like the real Wonder Woman I know and love. I cannot really focus on the true message of this movie if there is one. Outside the beginning of her as a kid, the White House fight scene, the other best part was the after-credit scene with Lynda Carter who would not be hung up on no man, tell you that right now.
I was excited about Patty Jenkins doing the next Star Wars movie, but now I hope she is only directing it and not writing it. This movie was the first writing credit she has had since 2003. I am still a fan of her as a director, the movie was visually stunning. The acting was great for the most part. It was just the writing and structure that made no sense. I just question Jenkins ability to help write something and not see all the crazy plot holes in it.
Overall this movie doesn't really make much sense. Especially since Batman had to discover who she is in the future with extreme detective work and no one ever mentions some heroic woman saving the world from the magical wish crisis of 1984. Also the world was a mess, but by Christmas everything was cleaned up and people were happy....sigh....