After a year free of superhero movies (save the ignominious release of ‘The New Mutants’) Warner Brothers finally released Wonder Woman '84 into theaters and, for the first month of release – on HBOMax. To get the obvious joke out of the way, NO, this is not the 84th Wonder Woman movie. Instead, the titular number refers to the timeline, because our hero is about to take on the greatest threat yet to hope, justice and good will - The 80's.
In 1984 we return to the life of Diana of Themyscira, otherwise known as Diana Prince, otherwise known as Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). She works as an archaeologist for the Smithsonian in a time of big hair, flashy fashion and lots and lots of sexism. The friends who she fought beside through World War 1 have been all left behind in cemeteries, leaving Diana alone and still pining for the one loss that haunts her the most – her first love – Steve Trevor (Chris Pine).
Following a thrilling opening action sequence that eagerly jogs free memories of the classic Donner Superman films, a mysterious artifact arrives at the museum, attracting the attention of both Diana and her clumsy and perpetually over-looked co-worker, Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig). Seemingly worthless, the stone in fact possesses the power to grant wishes that quickly upend both women’s lives and attract the attention of desperate television personality Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal).
Before long, Max is on a path to power that threatens the entire world, Barbara is discovering the unexpected perks of wishing to ‘be like Diana’ and Diana herself is face to face once more with Steve Trevor, plucked from the cosmos and placed into a body and time he does not know just in time for the adventure to begin.
Pine and Gadot’s chemistry was the highlight of the original movie, and that remains the case here, so much so that all of the hoops jumped through to stick Diana’s dead lover back on the big screen are made easily agreeable. Pine hasn’t gotten many chances to do comedy in his career, but he pulls off the “fish out of water” gags expertly, an added layer to the earnest hero/lover archetype we already know he plays so well.
Gadot continues to shine with all the charisma and screen presence required by the daughter of Zeus and dazzles even more-so thanks to costume designers that have both her supersuits and en-vogue civilian fashion looking better than ever. (And bonus points for Pine's rocking fanny-pack aesthetic.)
The lead duo lives up to everything we already knew to be great about their roles. Looking to the newcomers, Wiig and Pascal move by leaps and bounds to make Barbara and Max far more memorable than the supporting cast of the first movie. Wiig is endearing and likable, before shifting wildly against type to transform into a menacing foe (who, again, has some killer outfits passed her way). I definitely want to see more Wiig villain roles after this.
Pascal meanwhile throws everything into his performance as Max Lord. Sure, its hammy, which some critics and fans took issue with, but the man is an 80’s television personality. You don’t get random people sitting at home to buy into your dubious populist oil drilling scheme without throwing some cheese their way. Pascal gives it his all in the surprisingly nuanced role, serving as both a global threat, a walking critique of 80’s culture and a sympathetic character in way over his head that you can’t help but wish to find a way for it to all work out in the end.
Our characters are thrust into a rollicking, globe-trotting adventure filled with exciting action sequences reminiscent of another 80's action icon - the 'Indiana Jones' franchise. The plot, however, suffers from many flaws that will be all too familiar to long term fans of Diana. Rather than get bogged down in her own mythos, writer/director Patty Jenkins has opted to go light on exposition, which can be refreshing, but here leaves too many questions unanswered surrounding the central threat at hand. There is a fine balance between over-explaining and leaving the audience confused. That was a line the Jones movies treaded well, but here we’ve missed the tightrope.
My biggest issue with the first Wonder Woman film was the third act. And while the sequel improves on Diana’s showdown with Ares, pulling off not one but two resonating emotional climaxes, the action, pulled off so well earlier in the film, leaves a lot to be desired. Since Max is not a physical threat, the final fight comes down to Diana vs. Barbara/Cheetah in her final “Apex Predator” form.
It looks… better than Cats. But still not so good that they avoid defaulting to the classic “fight at night in a rainstorm” tactic to avoid close examination of the CGI. In a world where Planet of the Apes debuted photorealistic animal years ago, somehow Hollywood has yet to figure out how to convincingly render furry humanoids. And it amounts to an awkwardly shot & paced final duel that feels like a dozen showdowns we’ve seen before.
Wonder Woman ’84 is exactly the right sort of movie to kick off the slowly limping return of blockbuster cinema to the pandemic landscape. I for one hope it’s still hanging around in theaters by the time it’s safe to return. And perhaps that drought of new content put too much pressure on it – many of the reviews and social media commentary would have you thinking it’s far worse off than it really is. If you get a chance to safely view it, definitely take it, and for an hour or two you too can lasso a bolt of lightning and swing away from the storm of the world. Because for all its flaws, it is undeniably fun. And sometimes fun is exactly what we need.
In short, to paraphrase Max in his most memed moment – “This movie is good. But it could be better!”
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