Directed by: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal
Wonder Woman 1984 is full of chaotic action, things being blown up real good, and yet has no impact. It wants to be Deep, but in doing so its villains seem almost reluctant to engage in real villainy. I wanted the baddies to be defeated. Not because I wanted to see them get their comeuppance, but so the movie could be over. Superhero movies are by nature preposterous, and there is a certain level I can accept, but Wonder Woman 1984 strains credulity to its limits.
It is 1984 and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gadot) now lives in Washington, DC working as a cultural anthropologist at the Smithsonian. She wants to keep a low profile, but makes occasional appearances as Wonder Woman fighting crime and wears dresses to parties which would shame a Kardashian. Diana's apartment is full of photos of herself through the years. It's unlikely she has guests, because they would wonder aloud why Diana is featured in various period photographs and hasn't aged a day.
Diana is still missing Steve Trevor (Pine), the World War I pilot who supposedly perished at the end of the first movie. After a mysterious stone is transported to the Smithsonian and Diana unintentionally unlocks its powers to grant wishes, Steve Trevor shows up again in 1984 and reunites with his love. It is Steve Trevor, yes, but he is inhabiting someone else's body. But Diana only sees Steve, and so do we, so why bother bringing him back as another person? Since the stone grants wishes, let's go all the way and just bring Steve back in full.
Two other major characters are also transformed by the stone: Diana's mousy, unconfident, worshipful co-worker Barbara (Wiig) and wannabe tycoon/con artist Maxwell Lord (Pascal), who appears on television infomercials promising the world to unsuspecting suckers and is a fraud in almost every way. Once he is transformed by the stone, he wishes for money and power and gets both. But there is a price. In return for the granting of your wish, the stone takes something from you which you cherish. For Diana, she loses some of her powers. (Some, not all). Maxwell undergoes frequent nosebleeds and stress which threatens to crush him, and Barbara goes from mouse to cat, or Cheetah, who dresses like a member of the cast of Cats and is now a predator who wants to destroy Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman 1984 drags on for 150 minutes, far longer than it needs to, and the story is thin soup for how long the movie takes to tell it. If you want to see Gadot in the Wonder Woman getup wielding her truth lasso, you have to endure long stretches in between Wonder Woman sightings. Her rekindled romance with Steve Trevor fizzles and Maxwell and Barbara/Cheetah turn up as less than worthy adversaries. One of the better visual tricks in Wonder Woman 1984 is pretending Wonder Woman versus Cheetah is somehow a fair fight.
It is discovered, far too late I'm afraid, that one way to negate the effects of the stone is to verbally renounce your wish. Wonder Woman 1984 wants to be a commentary on human greed and its negative effects, but it's handled in such an ungainly, ludicrous manner that it feels like just another movie taking potshots at the decade of excess and questionable fashion. This Wonder Woman didn't have to occur in the 1980's, since all we do is witness more references to Miami Vice or breakdancing. I wished to see Wonder Woman 1984 because I enjoyed the first movie, but about halfway through, I found myself renouncing my wish. Unlike the instantaneous reversals which occur in the movie, it would still take another seventy-five minutes for the wish to be granted
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