Wonder Woman 1984 Movie| A new Superhero Film

Wonder Woman 1984 is a 2020 American action, adventure, superhero film based on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman.

This movie is 2 hours and  35 minutes long.

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Cast

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Review

Wonder Woman 1984 was once again directed by Patty Jenkins and it was also co-written by her this time around.

She hasn’t had a writing credit since 2003. It is excellent since monster so it’s cool to see her take on a lot more control this time and I was very curious to see how that would go.

Gal Gadot returns once again as Diana Prince and this time around Pedro Pascal plays Maxwell Lord an oil Baron who’s losing all of his money and resources.

And when he comes across the ability to grant a bunch of wishes. He begins to endanger the world.

Meanwhile, Kristen Wiig plays Barbara Minerva. A shy timid woman who wishes to not be shy or timid.

And Chris Pine is back as Steve Trevor even though he died in the last movie and this film takes place many decades later. So something weird is clearly going on.

I loved the first film by Patty Jenkins. I think she brought a lot of heart a lot of energy to that movie.

It was action packed. It was absolutely thrilling. It surprised me so much because I didn’t know for Wonder Woman movie was going to work and she really knocked it out of the park.

I couldn’t wait to see what she would do in the sequel and I fully 100 percent trusted her.

I actually got a screener link for this movie like 4 days ago and I watched it then. I could have reviewed it before Christmas, before it dropped on HBO Max and I just didn’t want to.

Because I realized that I had so much I want to talk about and all of them involve spoilers and I didn’t want to make another surface level review where I try to dance around subjects that I really want to discuss.

Because I have unfortunately quite a bit of issues with Wonder Woman 1984. I found this movie to be a massive let down and extremely disappointing.

Even though there are certainly good things in the film and it’s not by any means a disaster of a terrible movie, but I I just didn’t like it and I ate it pains me to say that.

I really really wanted to love this movie, but I thought it was pretty bad. Since it has dropped on HBO MAX yesterday on Christmas day and since many one with HBO MAX account has access to this movie. I am going to talk about spoilers.

So if you don’t want to know about spoilers. I’ve already expressed my disappointment in the film. If you still want to see the movie and you do, you can come back and watch the rest of this review.

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Spoiler

For all of those who have seen the movie, let’s talk about why this film didn’t work for me.

The film opens with what is my favorite sequence in the entire film, where you see a young Diana infamous Kira training and Olympic Games of sorts.

Hans Zimmer’s music is easily one of the highlights of the whole movie, especially during this sequence. It’s 1 of the few things that I think is actually an improvement on the first film.

In this sequence Diana takes a short cut. She discovers that she slides down this dirt pet, that she can get ahead of all the other competitors.

And when she’s at the finish line Robin Wright stops her and says you cheated you took a short cut that’s not allowed, and Diana’s naturally she’s very upset about this.

I kept expecting that seem to come back into play throughout the movie, that there would be a reason for this opening beyond just introducing the golden warrior that becomes armor that she wears near the end of the film.

But that seem that’s introduced there that Diana might cheat or take a short cut to get to something she wants, is only briefly explored.

And her wish on the dream stone to bring Steve Trevor back to life. That in a way she’s trying to cheat death or take a short cut to having love again and that it’s just not going to work out and it’s not fair.

That’s the best connection that I can make between the opening scene and the rest of the movie and even that feels kind of flimsy. It doesn’t really feel that earned and I feel like I’m reaching to establish that connection.

But that sequence was very thrilling and were immediately thrown into 1984 and we see Wonder Woman stop a heist at a mall.

And this felt very Richard Donner. Very Sam Raimi ask. Extremely light. Very fun and welcoming.

I love how the little girl was so impressed with Wonder Woman and I just was like this is going to be really great, This is gonna be fun, This is going to feel like a movie doesn’t just take place in the eighties but was actually made in the eighties with updated technology.

The first 20 minutes this movie and a really good time. Right around the time where they introduce Kristen Wiig’s character and this is not meant to be a bash at her.  It’s more so the script.

The film just kind of halts. The pacing starts to drag considerably and we’re introduced to a character.

That’s very much like Jim Carey’s the Riddler in Batman forever or Jamie Foxx’s electro in the amazing spider man 2 a bumbling neglected employee of a company that doesn’t yet realize how smart and essential they are.

They bump into people. They have no confidence, but something along the way is going to give them confidence and it might just be super villainy.

I found this to be an extreme cliche intro of some of the more cheesy superhero films we’ve gotten in the past. And I didn’t like it.

But when this dream stone is introduced and Pedro Pascal one sets and Diana Prince one sets and everybody makes a wish on it.

It became clear to me that the film’s narrative is going to be surrounding this object and that’s pretty much anything that could happen what happened.

Which is basically how things go. Which is one of the laziest ways to tell stories. You have a device that just grants anything.

It’s not like a genie that gives you 3 wishes. It’s like a rock that any one case who is John and it’s so convoluted and so messy that things build to a point of order chaos, which obviously was the point.

Be careful what you wish for is a theme that has been explored for a very long time and this is no different.

Because all of the characters want something and for each and everyone of them it goes in a negative path and that was obvious from the start.

So Barbara wishes to be like Diana. She doesn’t realize that’s going to give her a lot of powers and abilities.

Diana wishes to have Steve Trevor back and Maxwell lord wishes to become the dream stone the thing evaporates and now anyone who touches him can make a wish through him so he tries to go around the world to people of power and politics and business and create this empire for himself in which he has control over the populace.

Even though his young son just wants to hang out with him. So his son gets thrown to the side and he’s also deteriorating, his health is deteriorating his body. So they discover that you can get your wish granted but it takes something away from you.

So let’s talk about Steve Trevor because this is easily one of the strangest story lines in the film.

He’s brought back because Diana made this wish, but he’s not brought back in his own body. He’s brought back in the body of a random man who lives near Diana.

He just approaches her at a party and she’s like I don’t have any idea who you are why you talking you creep and he’s like no it’s me Steve.

Many magically turns into Chris pine and I was so  confused. I felt nothing. There was no emotional connection I had so many questions. Later on I realize that the film is simply showing a us Chris Pine, like for our benefit.

Even though to everyone else including Diana, he looks like someone credited as handsome man. This actor is commonly seen in a lot of hallmark Christmas movies.

Which is probably why there is a cheesy hallmark Christmas ending with him and that’s beautiful I guess. If your hallmark Christmas movie fan nothing against you, but I certainly haven’t seen any of them.

I just thought that that was a funny comparison and I wanted to bring it up in this review of Wonder Woman 1984. 

So throughout the whole movie whenever Diana and Steve were doing things including sleeping together. I couldn’t help but think this random guy has just been plucked out of his life, does he have a family?, does he have kids?, does he have significant other?. Is he losing his job right now?  is about to get fired because he hasn’t showed up to work in like a week? what’s going on with this?

Because it’s just been snatched out of existence and made into Steve Trevor that was so strange to me and I could not stop thinking about it.

And even weirder is that the things that Maxwell lord wishes for our insane. Walls appear out of nowhere. Nuclear weapons are fired. People are killed by heart attacks instantly.

Why can’t Steve Trevor just come back as Steve Trevor? why does he have to be put into a random guy?

This just make no sense man. Now I Love Me some horror films but they really went ahead and had an expert come in for a scene explain the backstory.

And then he was like bye I’m done I’ve served my purpose.

I think about the film that was strange to me is the action or should I say lack of action. A 100 minutes into the movie I paused it and I realized that there had been 2 scenes with Wonder Woman. Like in her outfit fighting crime kicking ass.

Two scenes and 100 minutes. There’s nothing in this film as thrilling as the training sequence in the first film, or the no man’s land scene or that incredible seeds on that village with the sniper.

Nothing in the film ever reaches those thrilling heights. There’s the mall sequence early on where she foils a robbery which half of that has been officially released online as a clip.

And then there’s a pretty cool chase scene involving a bunch of trucks on the road and Wonder Woman is just crazily throwing those things everywhere and that’s really exciting.

But for the most part the pacing of the film is awful. Now one of the things that Diana loses because of her wish being granted is some of her abilities.

So bullets start to have an effect on her. She feels weaker in battle. She can’t do the things that she normally can do.

It’s not like her powers are completely gone though. they’re kind of like at half or something. She can still kick a truck in the air and use her lasso of truth.

Which never really makes anyone tell the truth in this movie. It’s sort of just use for other things throughout the whole film and it kind of just became like a magical do everything rope.

But I was thinking about Superman too and that film Clark gives up his powers so that he can be with Lois.

And I was thinking about spider man 2 and that film Peter starts to lose his abilities because he’s just too stressed in life. And he’s not doing what he wants to do is not with the woman he loves. His powers are leaving him because he doesn’t feel like spider man.

So even though this film exploring those themes felt familiar. I understood the end goal then. The goal is the scene where they get their powers back and it’s really exciting.

Like that seen in Superman 2 worry kicks the guy’s ass at the bar who is being a Dick or in spider man 2 where he goes to face stock leading to one of the best amazing action scenes ever in a comic book movie.

And this one has a similar moment, where Wonder Woman figures out how to fly. After finally giving up and Steve like relinquishes the fact that he’s there and she says I revoke my wish or whatever and now she can fly.

So that’s cool. She learned how to fly and it’s inspiring and stuff.

But like I just I didn’t feel anything. I felt nothing because the narrative didn’t make senseز There’s so many wishes constantly happening throughout the movie. And nothing builds to anything that really make sense.

Meanwhile Kristen Wiig is turning into a  cat. Barbara’s arc is accentuated by the fact that at one point she could not walk in heels and now she she can’t walk in heels. So that’s visual storytelling I guess. She can walk in heels now so she is Ishida.

So let’s talk about cheetah for a second. Her first close up was hilarious. I actually went oh my god like to my friend it was distressing.

This fight was atrocious. It was ugly looking. It was made to look low lights. I’m assuming to mask the CGI to make it look a little more realistic, but it looked very bad.

And you could tell that she did was put in this film so Wonder Woman could have a physical fight was something.

Because she’s not gonna fight Maxwell lord unless he manifests a robot arms or something stupid and so like the finale with him was all emotional.

She lassoed his leg and was able to reach out to the populace and tell all of these people that had begun to make wishes through Maxwell.

Because he finds out that using the particles that are coming out of these god damn TV’s will touch people. Touching him and then they can ask for anything they want.

So she pulls a Mister Satan at the end of dragon ball Z convincing the entire populace to give Goku spirit energy. It keeps everybody from doing the unthinkable.

Somehow everyone I guess revoked their wish and there were like nuclear weapons in the air. Like every country was about to nuke each other and you see the politicians and the people who are working in the military bases who are like freaking the out and then all of the missiles disappear as the people revoke their wishes and all the bad stuff goes away.

And then you see in this was very concerning to me plot wise. You see these politicians, they actually say like the nuclear missiles are disappearing.

Indicating that their memories are wiped of these events. It’s not like relinquishing the wish took away the physical wish. It did not take away everyone’s memory of the event.

Meaning that does everyone in 1984 remember that weird day work $10000000 manifested in people’s living rooms and nuclear warheads were in the sky and Russia was about to nuke America and America was about to nuke Russia.

Does everyone just remember this?. Because it seems like that’s like a major thing that might have happened.

Now I’m willing to buy what occurs at the end of Superman because his ability to interfere with human history is established early on as a rule he cannot break.

And because the memories of those involved are wiped and because it was 1978 to Maxwell is now running on the streets looking for his son who he magically finds coming out of the trees and they can have like a movie moment where they hug and it’s heartwarming.

And the film isn’t exactly concrete on whether or not Maxwell suffers any consequences for nearly destroying the entire planet.

Despite Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal being excellent actors. Their characters are very reminiscent of what you might have seen in a Batman forever amazing spider man 2.

It just feels so over the top and hand me an under earned. It doesn’t feel lovingly hammy. It feels accidentally cheesy, you know I mean.

And the film’s pacing is just bad. It’s a boring movie for a good chunk of the second act. If Diana wasn’t Wonder Woman for all that time, but the film was compelling in the narrative was interesting to be completely different.

It’s why I love watching spider man 2, even though he’s not spider man for a large chunk of the second act, or look at a film like dark knight rises. He’s not Batman that much in that movie but it had compelling things it. It was investing as a narrative.

A movie like this needs to have more than just a magic rock that disappears inside an oil tycoon guy.

Also the after credits scene introduces Lynda Carter as a Styria, I guess. And she looks into the lands and breaks the fourth wall. I can’t remember if she winked, but she looks right at us and says like I’ve been doing this for a long time or something along those lines.

And you know I smiled I used to watch the Wonder Woman show when I was a kid, but I just couldn’t help but think about like what this would have been like a hawk movie.

Remember the first incredible hawk when Lou Ferrigno and Stanley walked by and I was like oh look sleuth ringtone Stanley. But they were just like in the background they just kind of walked by.

Like imagine if the end credit scene of the incredible hulk was like Lou Ferrigno saves somebody’s life by like lifting up a car and then looks at the screen goes I’ve been doing this for a long time. 

That was a bad idea. Look I get that some will enjoy this movie. I really wanted to be one of those people, but I just don’t think it’s good.

I think that if you like this movie I really really am happy for you, but I didn’t. I think it could have been a lot better and I’m still very excited to see that Patty Jenkins does.

I think she’s a phenomenal filmmaker. She so so talented. She such an excellent director, but the script for this movie really need a lot more work.

I’m gonna give Wonder Woman 1984 a C-minus.

Guys thank you so much as always for reading my reviews. See you next time.

Movie Trailer

You can take a look at the wonder woman 1984 movie trailer before watching it.