Ah yes, it’s Wonder Woman 1984 baby! I know I’m a week late but I just knew I needed to review this one as Wonder Woman and I have such a great relationship. I really loved her stupid first movie, flaws and all. Especially that climatic battle with the British Devil man, it gets me every time. So I was pumped for WW 1984 all year and glad it came out at Christmas. It felt like DC gifted it just for me because they know I really love Wonder Woman.
If I have to get serious, then I must be the opposite of everyone else who saw this as I enjoyed Wonder Woman 1984 far more than the first one. The first movie is simply overrated, while 1984 is probably more flawed, but it had more positives than the first movie. Before we carry on I’m dropping the spoiler bomb, so there’s the warning.
The Genuine Good
The only good stuff in the first Wonder Woman is Gal Gadot’s and Chris Pine’s chemistry and some of the fish out of the water comedy. 1984 has that return, but I will admit it isn’t as good. Why that is, I’ll get to. The score is very much improved and it did get me pumped for the action scenes. Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal were very good at playing the villains, more so Pascal, which we’ll get to very soon. A lot of critics didn’t like the portion after Wonder Woman’s first action scene where its just a series of scenes of not much happening. I disagree and this was the part of the movie I most enjoyed because I got to know these characters better. The movie actually begins to fall apart when the that stupid magic rock became the focus of the movie.
The Campy Bad
A huge factor as to why I prefer 1984 over the first, is its ironically enjoyable parts. There were some seriously corny parts in that 2017 movie that were completely overlooked by not just the fans, but the creators. I also enjoyed that 1984 embraced more of its cartoonish campy side, especially in Wonder Woman’s first major action scene at the mall, which feels like homage to 70’s Superman and 2000’s Spider-Man. The film is silly, and I like its being complimented with its humour and simplistic characters.
That being said, the movie can also be strangely unaware of how campy it really is. As if the writers got amnesia and now they actually expect you to take this stupid story seriously. The DC writers except me to buy this really really dumb magic rock that makes no sense! Barbara Minerva is another awkward weirdo who admires our hero and Max Lord is a business man who is a fake and a pathetic loser. Both benefit from the magic rock and this turns them into crazy evil psychopaths. We have seen these type of villains in superhero movies before, yet this movie that seems aware of what it is, doesn’t know that tired cliché. Whatever at least Pedro Pascal’s Max Lord merging himself with the magic rock, so he become a power crazed looney tune, is very entertaining to watch.
There are also baffling funny things that happen in WW 1984, like the reason how Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor was able to return from the dead. He inhabits some guy’s body and Diana replaces his face with Chris Pine’s and presumably even people who never met Steve Trevor are seeing that same face! It’s weird that Max the wish lord can make walls, people and nuclear bombs appear from nothing, but Steve Trevor has to manifest onto some random dude, who probably has another life that he’s now missing. This is detail is what ruined all the Diana and Steve scenes! I couldn’t stop thinking that Diana is flirting with some guy she’s never met, but who thinks she looks like her long dead boyfriend. It’s like Robert Downey Jr making animal noises in front of The Queen of England and everyone thinking that’s normal all over again. There’s also Barbara bizarrely telling Max that she wishes to look like an extra from 2019’s Cats. Also in the finale where the whole world collectively agrees to denounce their wishes after hearing Wonder Woman’s awfully corny monologue about truth.
The Real Ugly
What I like least about this movie, aside from that damn rock, is the movie misinforms their audience with the promotional material. We already know the movie isn’t really a self aware comic book movie. The movie also has a very colorful poster looks like if they’re taking inspiration from Guardians of the Galaxy right? Little do you know the actual movie looks so bland it could go for a dazzling colour scheme. With a title that emphasises 1984, you’d expect that to play a big part in the movie, right? You’re a fool to think that, because besides being told this is set in the 80’s the movie pretty much disregards this famous era once the magic rock is rolling. I actually forgot that we’re in the 80’s until someone mentioned the word Soviet. The last might be Barbara cat lady was advertised as the main villain because she’s a recognisable character from the comics. In reality her only purpose is to be a final boss for Wonder Woman. Her role is so inconsequential to the plot you could easily write her out of the script.
Outside of that my biggest negatives are I actually don’t like Wonder Woman’s final message which is as corny as the one from the last movie and of course the MacGuffin rock. This rock has no logic, the rules are introduced on the fly and it seems like the power it can do, is unbound. When it’s all about the rock, the film tanks in quality. Why is that? The movie had previously told us that this is a campy fun movie with a weird rock with unlimited power and because of that tone I overlooked important details like how it works. So when the movie suddenly changes it mind and wants to be another generic superhero movie, I immediately rejected it because that’s not what the movie previously established. If was zany Austin Powers then I would go with it, but if we’re going for every other superhero movie, than its too ridiculous!
The Overall Score
Wonder Woman 1984 is either a movie made by evil geniuses who purposively misled their fans into watching a fun campy movie to hide their run of the mill average superhero movie. The other being its a movie made by clueless hacks who don’t know how to please their fanbase and added in that fun cooky stuff, because they think that’s what people would like. It’s up to you what you believe in, but I’m going with option 2. Based on those previous shameless films and the fact they got James Gunn, a man who knows what’s he doing, working on the Suicide Squad sequel.
I have so much more I could share about Wonder Woman 1984, as it’s quite a fascinating mess-up. I’ll save that for some other time as I should end this review here. Catch you folks later with a Patty Vat Cupcake Update and I’m The Blog Complainer, signing out.
