Wonder Woman 84. Not bad, but not great.
In 2016, Gal Gadot first debuted in “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” as Diana Prince and fought the towering beast that was Doomsday. The following year, Wonder Woman returned in her origin film where she fought in the trenches of World War 1 and ran into battle with her sword in hand. In 2020, Wonder Woman returns in “WW84” to fight a… television personality who has located a magic stone that allows him to grant wishes. If you think that seems a little lackluster compared to her previous bouts, you’re not alone.
In “WW84,” Diana Prince finds herself living in Washington D.C., working for a museum. She keeps to herself, and wallows in her loveless, lonely life. When she isn’t in the office, she’s out and about either saving clumsy people from near death, or saving people from being killed by clumsy criminals. Diana’s new coworker, Barbara Minerva, played by the funny and talented Kristen Wiig, gets tasked with researching an ancient crystal stone. Within minutes, Diana realizes that this stone can grant wishes, and soon a corrupt businessman named Maxwell Lord, played by Pedro Pascal, comes looking for the stone as well. As wishes are granted left and right, the world is thrown into chaos, because nothing good comes from taking shortcuts in life.
I’m not going to get into spoilers with this review, but I will say that I liked some things in “WW84” and I disliked some things. In the age of streaming shows with budgets that far outweigh many productions that make it to the big screen, the plot of this 2.5 hour movies felt like it would have worked better as the middle or filler arc in a Wonder Woman television show. With many major tv shows nowadays, you might see a season premiere with a few incredible episodes, then inject some content with lower stakes as filler, and then close out the season with an epic finale. After seeing Wonder Woman do some amazing things in previous films, this film was just “okay.”
Let’s talk first about the 80’s aesthetic of the film. With shows like “Stranger Things” just eating up 80’s culture, you would expect a movie called “Wonder Woman 1984” to be just as packed with 80’s references. While the sets, and cars, and computers were reminiscent of the time period, as well as some cold war references, the majority of the movie didn’t really rely on or need the 1980’s setting at all. There’s barely any 80’s music, which is certainly a trope these days. There aren’t any plot elements that hinge on 80’s events. The film was just set in the 80’s, for no reason, other than to perhaps suggest that we were all a bit more naïve back then.
From the first trailer, fans were desperate to know just how Chris Pine’s iconic Steve Trevor character, Wonder Woman’s pilot love interest who died in 1918, has somehow returned to Wonder Woman in the 80’s. I won’t get into specifics, but the ‘why’ revolves around the wish-granting rock. As for the ‘how,’ well it’s kind of awkward to talk about. In 1978, Warren Beatty starred in “Heaven Can Wait,” in which his character possesses a recently deceased man’s body in order to ‘stay alive’ on Earth a while longer. “WW84,” while likely inspired by that film, took a similar route except without a handsome corpse. While the movie plays it off for laughs, it is something that gets more and more cringy when you consider the consent aspects of it all.
Fans were also wondering whether or not Wiig would be able to pull off Wonder Woman’s comic book nemesis, Cheetah. Well, there’s not much I can say about that. Aside from a two second moment at the beginning where Barbara mentions that she likes animal prints, the film gives little to no development as to why Minerva becomes Cheetah in the last 20 minutes of the film. For a 2.5 hour runtime, the film barely touches on Minerva’s character. In fact, it gives her the same glasses treatment that we’ve seen so many times before. Whether it was Uma Thurman as Dr. Pamela Isley in “Batman & Robin,” Michelle Pfeiffer as Selina Kyle in “Batman Returns,” Jamie Fox as Maxwell Dillon in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” or Jim Carrey as Edward Nygma in “Batman Forever,” we’ve seen the timid, ignored, clumsy, glasses-wearing weakling acquire super-powers to become a glasses-free, confident villain. The story has been done so many times, and “WW84” made no attempt to improve the formula.
Hans Zimmer returns to score “Wonder Woman 1984,” as he has for many other DC superhero properties in the past. While his swelling waves of emotional music did elevate some scenes, there wasn’t much in terms of memorable tracks. In fact, if a composer gets a paycheck for scoring an entire film, I wonder if Hans received half a paycheck for “WW84.” Of course he recycled some previous Wonder Woman themes, but he also took almost complete non-Wonder Woman related tracks from “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” On top of that, during a pivotal scene in “WW84,” I couldn’t help but notice that the music choice was actually composer John Murphy’s famous “Adagio in D Minor.” I mean, why bring on Hans Zimmer, if you’re just going to recycle tracks from previous DCEU scores, as well as use tracks from other famous film composers? While the song from “Sunshine” fit great in the scene, it felt like an odd choice when I considered who was the sole composer credited for this film.
Sadly, the action, or lack thereof, doesn’t hold up in this film either. The film does open with a really fun sequence from Themyscira that features the return of Robin Wright as Antiope, and Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta. That sequence got me hyped for the film, but then I was immediately let down when the film followed it up with a montage of 1980’s criminals who looked like they learned their craft at Three Stooges University. It was so comical, so cartoonish, that I was suddenly faced with a fear that the rest of the action in the film would be the same. There are few action scenes in the movie to begin with, but most of them have some decent moments. The one thing I did notice, however, is that Diana Prince was always playing defense. The Amazon warrior who rode a horse toward the Germans in World War 1, sword in hand, chopping down enemy soldiers left and right, felt like a completely different character when compared to how Wonder Woman seemed to always have been defending herself in the film. Sure, you could say that the hero never seeks out a fight, but a hero that only fights in self-defense gets kind of boring really fast.
I saw this film on Christmas Day in my living room while streaming it on HBOMAX. Americans with an HBOMAX subscription had that option. I also currently live in a Midwest city that has open movie theaters. So, when my mother begged me to take her to the cinemas, and after I confirmed that Covid guidelines were in place and we could get seats apart from any one else, I agreed. The day after Christmas, I watched “WW84” again on an IMAX screen. I will say that, without distractions like taking the dogs out, pausing for a bathroom break, or heating up something from the microwave, the movie didn’t feel as long when I saw it in the theaters. The environment, paired with the size and sound of an IMAX cinema, definitely improved my viewing experience.
After such a rough year, and so many disappointing delays with movies we were all excited about seeing in 2020, I think that “Wonder Woman 1984” was destined for an uphill battle in terms of expectations. The film isn’t bad. I’ve seen people online saying it is utter garbage, or “the worst superhero movie” they’ve ever seen. Those ludicrously over-the-top statements are just that, over-the-top and ludicrous. For the most part, the movie looks good. There are some key scenes and moments that I really did enjoy. It is clear that, instead of introducing the next big bad villain, Patty Jenkins instead wanted Wonder Woman to face a moral quandary. The film set its sights on a heart-warming finale, rather than a dire, intense showdown of muscles. It was a choice of direction that I think most viewers, after seeing villains like Thanos destroy galaxies in “Endgame,” weren’t prepared for. It threw me off, for sure.
Does that mean it was a bad film, though? No. I believe this was a fun-filled, family film that people can enjoy. It does not live up to 2017’s “Wonder Woman” by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn’t mean it was horrible. Again, I feel like this 2.5 hour film could have worked better as four 40 minute filler episodes in a Wonder Woman series. I can only say that after shows like “The Mandalorian” and “The Expanse” have shown us just how amazing television can be nowadays. In a television series setting, this plot would have been seen as a light-hearted Wonder Woman adventure, and likely wouldn’t have been bashed so harshly by people who expected more.
At the end of the day, Gal Gadot still shines as Wonder Woman. Fans of her and the character will appreciate the struggles she faces in “WW84.” The film doesn’t deliver an epic battle finale that most of us have grown accustomed to, but it does present an interesting journey. Sadly, I think the delays over the years, including release date changes well before Covid-19 was a thing, didn’t help. You can only hype a film so much. In retrospect, I should have seen this direction coming when the trailers were so vague about the film’s actual plot. Nonetheless, I do not hate this film. I think it is a good film, just not a great film. Sadly, in too many people’s eyes, if it isn’t great, it must be trash. I don’t believe in that line of thinking. Then again, I don’t believe in rating a film higher than it should be.
RORSCHACH RATING:
Mental Health Moment: I mentioned the glasses treatment that Barbara Minerva’s character was given in this film. It is definitely a film trope, and I’m surprised that Patty Jenkins allowed it to be in this movie. Whether or not you are a fan of Kristen Wiig’s brand of comedy, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to suggest that she’s ugly. The film, however, suggests that if she simply removed her glasses and started wearing more skin-tight clothing, men would bow down to her. Her character, while having likable traits, was presented as a weak, clumsy, nervous, nerdy wreck. Then, when she gets her powers, she suddenly has all the confidence in the world. She begins to stand up for herself. She goes after the things that she wants, and she refuses to let other people walk all over her anymore.
You don’t need superpowers to be confident. In fact, if you’re a nerdy introvert, there’s nothing wrong with that. The people that shamed her were obviously presented in a bad light, but when she was hot, and sexy, and confident, she apparently didn’t mind when they fawned over her. There’s nothing wrong with wearing glasses. There’s nothing wrong with being shy. There’s nothing wrong with wearing clothes that you enjoy. There’s certainly nothing wrong with being a nerd. It is a trope that I was tired of in the 90’s, and I groaned when it occurred in this movie. Don’t let anyone treat you as subpar, and don’t ever feel like you have to conform to their standards in order to fit in. You be you. That’s all I have to say about that.
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Victims and Villains is written (and produced) by Josh "Captain Nostalgia" Burkey and others and edited by Cam Smith. Music by Mallory Johnson and others. Wonder Woman 84 is property of Warner Bros Pictures. We do not own nor claim any rights. Wonder Woman 84 is now playing in theaters & streaming exclusively on HBO Max.
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