A Review of ‘Wonder Woman 1984'
Overall, I enjoyed WW84. It excelled at showing Diana and Steve’s love which ended up being timeless and tugged at the heartstrings — while I do think it diminished Diana’s individual growth at some points. Steve going from unimpressed to bewildered at ’80s technology was incredibly fun and well-portrayed by Chris Pine. The film showed Diana caring about every life and being a uniter of the people — a bridge between civilizations as she intended in the first film. It had plenty of comic book Easter eggs like the mention of the Bialyan Empire, the inclusion of Simon Stagg, the introduction of the invisible jet, and then also references for fans of other WW material, like the inclusion of Lynda Carter as Asteria. Carter was Wonder Woman in the series from the 80s, and having her be the preceding wearer of the Amazonian armor was a smart inclusion.
The effects were actually very good, barring the continuous disregard for physics. I see criticism for the CGI not being up to par, but if you take into consideration all the scenes where effects were used and people didn’t notice, then one would realize that the effects were not the issue, but the directing of certain scenes. For example: I could see most of the cityscapes — especially the scenes taking place in Egypt — being completely CGI but people will not criticize that because to the average viewer, it looks completely real. Wonder Woman’s lasso and fighting style were both very fluid, moreso than we are used to seeing any real-life object move. That, exemplified with the use of slow-motion, creates a jarring “floating” effect that we see as not being correct, based on the laws of physics as we know them and are accustomed to. This makes the effects seem wonky because we have no real-life reference for how a superhuman or magical lasso would actually move, but in truth the effects were great, and the laws of physics being broken is what we are noticing.
My criticism with the movie lies mostly with the writing. A magical artifact with no prior introduction, no substantial backstory, and MacGuffin-like qualities being the plot device the entire film hinges on is lazy. A “monkey’s paw” type artifact that is referred to by this cliché term in the movie itself is almost laughing at the convenience of the item. Acknowledging a cliché in-film does not make it any less cliché. Magic when done right can be a great addition to a fantasy movie — but there must be limitations to what is possible, or at the very least, why it’s possible. The artifact had power simply because it did. And it drove the story of the entire movie. The first movie also fell victim to this, in that Wonder Woman almost had the gripping realization that Ares is not the cause for mankind being bad, that mankind themselves are to blame, but then the movie took a 180 and ended up blaming Ares anyway, when this could have been a true learning moment for Diana. Her acknowledging that mankind is flawed, but still worth protecting, would have been more powerful than defeating Ares and ending the war outright, as the film did. The magical artifact cliché is very reminiscent of ‘The Mummy’ (an intentionally campy film) and I think diminishes any sense of consequence of the actions of the characters in the movie. How does Barbara learn from this? How does Max Lord continue forward his own life, being that the Monkey’s Paw artifact has been renounced from his body? What is the state of the world after a potential nuclear fallout that magically stopped? If we are to believe that WW84 is part of the canonical DCEU, then what were the implications in the present day of the timeline of what happened in 1984? The world would never have been the same after something at such a grand scale. Everything happened, and then everything disappeared, but how aware is the populace? Thematically, Wonder Woman is very intertwined with the ‘power of love’ and this idea is frequently restated. But from a realistic perspective, how does love solve all the world’s problems when everything fell into disarray? The magical MacGuffin and lack of consequence are my main criticisms for this film, but that doesn’t stop it from simply being entertaining. Wonder Woman 1984 became a Hallmark Christmas movie because it overlooked so much for the sake of a story that appealed to emotion over logic.
Criticisms taken into account, there were a great deal of standout scenes that I think deserve to be highlighted. Young Diana performing in the Olympics-esque competition against other Amazon warriors was a great opening scene and served well to distinguish the gifted child Diana is vs the honed and trained adult Amazonians. She is a cut above the rest from the get-go and that’s why she wears the armor. The opening scene leading into the mall robbery is a great showcase of the new aesthetic of this film and gives a taste of “what to expect” from the film. The color grading is bright and jovial, and the fights with the robbers show Diana at her best. She is intelligent, calculating, and quick as a [lasso] all while rescuing civilians along the way. I wish that this is the Diana we saw instead of the one that is still dependent on Steve to be her guiding light. Additionally, the fight scene in the White House had some of the best choreography between two powered individuals that I have seen in the film. Two fluid fighters that use their own weight rather than sheer force makes for an almost ninja-like battle that bounces all over the place while bystanders that try and get involved are not-so-gently set aside while Wonder Woman and Barbara face off.
At the end of the day, as a lifelong comicbook fan I’ll look past shortcomings if the movie was an enjoyable experience (see: Venom (2018)), though the canon-breaking leaves some concerns unaddressed. People that will harshly compare this to a Marvel movie have not yet realized that ‘superhero’ is not a genre of film. Ant-Man is a heist comedy, Avengers: Endgame is a sci-fi time travel flick, and Wonder Woman 1984 ends up being a Hallmark-style Christmas action-romance. I don’t think that faults 1984 for being a terrible movie and anyone that says so is going in with the wrong expectations. While comparison to other movies in general is valid, this film is no ‘Catwoman’ or ‘Howard the Duck’ and is still worthy of a watch for the aesthetic and action alone, despite “not being as good as Marvel.” I won’t give a numerical rating but I will say that I liked and enjoyed the movie, but it’s not immune from critiques and points for improvement. Watch this movie while you can — it’s no additional cost to HBOMax subscribers for 30 days and I’m sure you’ve “wasted” more time on TikTok than watching a movie.
