Wonder Woman 1984

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Wonder Woman 1984 is the sequel to 2017's Wonder Woman, taking a nearly seventy year time jump from where we last left Diana. Picking her story back up in the 80s, Diana chances upon a mystical 'wishing stone' that causes a number of secret desires to come true for any who hold it. When this stone falls into the hands of Maxwell Lord, Diana has to everything in her power to stop him before he brings about the collapse of civilisation. This film is strongest when it doesn't try to construct something that looks like a story; in fact the majority of the action sequences in this feature are the few strengths of the film. While the visual effects aren't always there, the fight choreography and stunt work within this feature blend together nicely to make scenes like the White House fight or vehicle convoy chase/fight enjoyable to watch.

 

Gal Gadot, who played Diana Prince, still entertains as a solid protagonist for these films; Gadot has the calm charisma of Wonder Woman and her ability to deliver impassioned dialogue and speeches really lifts up the quality of some scenes.

 

However, the best performance came from Lilly Aspell, who played Young Diana. In the first film I thought Aspell was a great performer, certainly bringing a lot of charm to the younger depiction of Wonder Woman while accurately retaining traits Gadot brought to the role. This film was a major step up for the young actress as the beginning scene falls squarely onto her shoulders to perform, and to say she does a phenomenal job would be underselling things. Aspell expands on some of the things we saw from her younger Diana in the first film, an extreme level of determination that leads to her barrelling at obstacles much bigger than her head first. This is a time of Diana's life in which she pushes herself to be as great as Amazons fully grown, refusing to be held back by restraints such as her age. Watching Diana celebrate her success and concoct cunning plans to remain ahead in an Amazonian contest is a lot of fun, and seeing that success become failure just as victory is within reach is very powerful. Aspell proves herself at every turn and is sure to be a young performer worth watching out for.

 

While I wasn't a big fan of Wonder Woman what I found worth celebrating in it was a powerful female superhero who was a positive example and set a strong feminist message at the heart of its narrative. Wonder Woman 1984 is a two and a half hour long empty shell with surface level themes around greed, doing the selfless thing and the significance of truth. The film struggles because this time the nature of the story is a lot campier, with some seriously corny scenes, dialogue and characters. The point of antagonism for this film is a magic rock that grants a wish per person, that rock then gets absorbed into the big bad who then can manipulate the wishes however he or the plot desires until Wonder Woman can give a passionate speech that'll save the day right at the very end. This rock allows the writers an easy way to bring back Steve Trevor in what is probably the most boring and poorly thought out sub-plot I could've experienced. In fact the magic wishing stone is right at the root of what is wrong with this movie because it does all the heavy lifting and it is such an easy uninspired plot device; Diana needs to choose between her duty or her dead boyfriend? Magic rock. We need a bad guy that will collapse civilisation? Magic rock. We need to make Cheetah be in this film but Barbara already used her wish? Oh, the magic rock can now grant multiple wishes apparently. This is a film that always takes the easy road whenever it is available and then just cuts corners and crafts inconsistencies in spite of all that. Maxwell Lord can barely be called an antagonist because his motives are so shallow that you don't really understand why he's the one babbling his head off to Wonder Woman at the end. Barbara Minerva is a character who is meek, gains self-empowerment and worth through magical means and is then vilified for this; a choice I thought very counter-intuitive to a Wonder Woman sequel. This is a film that feels too long, it never earns its runtime and you don't really feel like you've learnt anything by the end. The cinematography is initially impressive but the further in you get the more the expansive wide shots feel so starkly empty; while the fight sequences are peppered with quick close ups to skimp on special effects shots. The special effects for the film are more often dismal than they are impressive, Cheetah's design is pretty minimalist and Diana running at super speed looked like it was taking notes from the early 2000s. The score for this feature is rather forgettable and only ever picks up when it draws cues from music used in the first Wonder Woman film.

Chris Pine, who played Steve Trevor, is absolutely unrecognisable from his brilliant performance in the first film; Pine spends a lot of this feature floundering in the comedic relief position and hamming up his role's lack of knowledge about the 'modern' world. Kristen Wiig, who played Barbara Minerva, really found the most monotonous way of presenting her antagonist role; Wiig just felt like a serious miscast for such a stoic and jaded character. Pedro Pascal, who played Maxwell Lord, might have found one of the worst roles of his career; Pascal goes over the top in every scene that he is in and almost seems to lose himself in this exuberant, campy energy as he bumbles his way through very repetitive dialogue. Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen, who played Antiope and Hippolyta respectively, are the only downside to the opening scene for the film; neither actress give particularly inspiring delivery as the mentor figures and their return to this sequel goes by without much notice.

This is to Wonder Woman what Batman Forever is to Batman. I would give Wonder Woman 1984 a 2/10.