Wonder Woman 1984

Wonder Woman 1984 (also known as WW84) is a 2020 American superhero film, directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot in the starring role. It is the sequel to the 2017 film Wonder Woman. The film was simultaneously released in theaters and on the streaming service HBO Max on December 25, 2020.

Plot
Diana Prince lives quietly among mortals in the vibrant, sleek 1980s — an era of excess driven by the pursuit of having it all. Though she's come into her full powers, she maintains a low profile by curating ancient artifacts, and only performing heroic acts incognito. But soon, Diana will have to muster all of her strength, wisdom and courage as she finds herself squaring off against Maxwell Lord and the Cheetah, a villainess who possesses superhuman strength and agility.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Compared to the previous film from DC Extended Universe, the tone of Wonder Woman 1984 is so jarringly campy and lighthearted that it loses all sense of purpose and importance to the point of being downright boring, sort of like the difference between Batman Returns and Batman Forever, or Superman II and Superman III.
 * 2) *Because everything here only serves to exist for fun, nothing here seems to have a purpose in the plot. As a result, all the other scenes lack an established larger purpose for which they exist.
 * 3) Weak and cliched story, at where everything is bizarrely portrayed as fun and games and obstacles that can be resolved as effortlessly as walking through a door. Ultimately, the movie loses all sense of purpose and importance in a way that carries no clear purpose as to what it's even doing or why, culminating in a boring mess. Not helping matters is that a number of men in the film are portrayed as dumb, which some could consider to be sexist.
 * 4) *Whereas the original movie was quick to establish what and why the viewers are fighting, WW84 lacks any clue as to what the story is even at the 40-minute mark. And when those clues finally come and it eventually does the same things as the original, it still doesn't work because it feels so unimportant.
 * 5) ** As an example, here’s the scene where Diana sees Steve Trevor back to life with the fish-out-of-water stuff. But whereas in the original film where it happened in the mission to save the world from Ares, that scene happens in WW84 only for fun, at where there is no actual mission at all.
 * 6) **When it's discovered that the Dreamstone holds dangerous powers that Maxwell Lord plans to utilize, the audience only from there goes on a journey to stop him. It just doesn't help that the viewers are now already halfway into the film and that Maxwell Lord's goals only boil down to assumed evil.
 * 7) The film adds too much plot threads regardless of whether they fit or make any sense within the plot, which kind of breaks the whole cinematic experience. For example:
 * 8) *Wonder Woman and "Steve Trevor" (who is not what was expected) hijack a plane from the Smithsonian, Diana makes a passing reference to the Invisible Plane in the Wonder Woman comics while avoiding being detected by radar, which comes inorganically out of nowhere, as Diana has not learned a single thing about how she can utilize the invisible power.
 * 9) * While in the Smithsonian jet, Diana and "Steve" come across the 4th of July fireworks, which were added just because the filmmakers thought that it was cool when it just makes it more confusing.
 * 10) *There are also moments like the scene of Wonder Woman rescuing the children in Egypt, which was added just because it would be a fun addition that ultimately falls flat because it would break the immersion of the experience. We also go to Egypt without the clue of why they're going there. The movie tries to say it's because the villain Maxwell Lord wants oil, but he never gets any of it and ultimately is never after it and then 10 minutes in, it cuts back home anyway with no reason; as a result, it seems that the filmmakers included Egypt just because it would be a cool setting for a chase scene.
 * 11) At the infamous moment where Wonder Woman learns to fly at the end, this film outright steals a musical cue from the film Sunshine composed by John Murphy so that one could feel the impact of Wonder Woman finally letting go of Steve Trevor and learning to fly from his advice, which ultimately gets in ruined because all it felt there is confusion as is why there's music from Sunshine.
 * 12) The unnecessary parts drag on for longer than they should for the sake of padding out the runtime, making the film boring.
 * 13) The action scenes are so cheap and weak it feels like an 80s cheesy action movie but in a bad way.
 * 14) It only feels like an actual film after minutes of filler sequences, starting from as early as the robbery sequence. But quickly, it more or less becomes the same, with no real stakes, conflict, new central characters and relationships and meaningful choices and actions.
 * 15) For the first twenty minutes, the story feels monotonously fun, leaving it emotionally stale compared to the original film.
 * 16) *Not helping matters is that things still stay the same as they were fifty minutes ago in the film, and for this time (except a select few moments), there are no changes, shifts or evolution in the story in a way that would make it different from before.
 * 17) *The film starts with a retread of the first film's prologue involving a young Diana taking part in an athletic event. While the opening of the original film is intended to introduce the viewers to the setting and culture of Themyscira, show Diana growing up, establish the main villain there, Ares, as well as the main point of the movie. However, all of which does not happen in WW84.
 * 18) *There's a tiny setup involving the theme of lies, which doesn't quite work because Diana never specifically lies in that scene and the fun and games turn out to be minutes of padding that can be omitted from the movie with no plot difference.
 * 19) **In conclusion, the audience neither learns anything new of value, nor set up new relationships, stakes, conflict or growth or meaning; as a result, the prologue rarely even plays a part in whatever that comes later in the film.
 * 20) *Apparently, Warner Bros. wanted to have the opening shortened, knowing that it carried little point or purpose, but the filmmakers wish to keep it in just for kicks.
 * 21) Mediocre visuals, particularly the scene where Diana rescues the children in Egypt and the final battle between Cheetah and Wonder Woman (the latter was shot in low lighting so audiences would be less likely to notice).
 * 22) The other main problem with the film is that when the characters need to be simple and lighthearted enough to be understood at face value, it easily ruins them by making them too shallow.
 * 23) *For example, the pairing of Wonder Woman and Cheetah is fantastic on a conceptual level; Diana's experiences have made her a recluse who pushes everyone away while Barbara has always been a recluse who gets pushed away by everyone. This feels like a powerful basis for a relationship because it essentially means that Diana's character flaw forces her to push Barbara away whereas Barbara's character flaw forces her to take the plunge as well, resulting in a deeply personal and multilayered conflict. But because a relationship like this does not match with the lighthearted theme of the film, the story blows it all up by having Diana go against her characterization and become best buddies with Barbara because that's what the role model heroes like Diana do, essentially turning their relationship into another two-dimensional be-back-soon rivalry where the ultimate conflict is not personal and instead motivated purely through the existence of a third-party character.
 * 24) *Cheetah and Maxwell Lord are a bit over-the-top and hard to take seriously, feeling like filler.
 * 25) **The character of Barbara Minerva/Cheetah feels kind of extraneous to the plot; she seemingly exists solely to get some action scenes and has little-to-no other plot relevance. She feels like a rehash of Syndrome from The Incredibles and Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 considering that they have almost similar motives. Also, this incarnation of Cheetah is portrayed as American instead of being British.
 * 26) ***The main flaw of Barbara is that she envies Diana because she is popular, but when it later comes to exploring this envy, the movie plays it too safe by not wanting to go too deep in it. For example, they aren't moments where Diana gets male attention that she does not and they aren't any scenes where a man Barbara is getting close with ultimately turns her down to chase Diana instead or even anything else to solidify Barbara's envy, because it will put Diana in a not-so positive light and so, Barbara simply assumes that Diana is popular for the sake of it.
 * 27) ***And when Barbara makes her wish to be like Diana, the movie handles the topic of feminine appeal by only making Barbara wear tighter dresses and no glassess. Because of that wish, Barbara gets confidence to let out her funny personality and anything. She just comes out as hot and gets loved by others for it.
 * 28) ***The movie handles Barbara's reclusiveness by contradicting the film's "women don't need male attention" moral completely by showcasing her state of being mistreated by others in a scene where she gets randomly harassed while walking out; having a man disrespect her the first time she's out alone like it can't delve into why and what ways Barbara might get mistreated. From all that, one could only think about the mentality of being mistreated by men is the only challenge women have to face, which doesn't make sense. Afterward, Barbara gets complimented by the same guy mentioned earlier with no difference. And the icing on the cake is that the writers have successfully turned a three-dimensional character basis into a Saturday morning cartoon caricature just because it had to be lighthearted and simple enough to appeal to all audiences at face value.
 * 29) ** What's worse is that this literally explains almost every major character in the film; Maxwell Lord for example has a son, then his ultimate motivations is to just become rich with oil and afterwards to get everybody's life force for some reason. The things that might have actually worked is that if Maxwell's motives were established prior, which would have logically justified his need for the life force. One could argue that it contradicts the lighthearted tone of the film but he can at least be more than a generic cartoon villain doing generic things because that's what characters at face value supposedly do.
 * 30) ** Maxwell Lord's goals are so nonexistent that it isn't clear on why he wouldn't just talk to the viewers that all of it is based on nothing but lighthearted verbally assumed evil.
 * 31) The rules of how the Dreamstone works is very inconsistent throughout the film, such as Diana's wish for Steve to come back to life that has him inhabiting another man's body that's never explained, how it could be able to generate nuclear missiles from thin air, or how the user of the Dreamstone is able to grant their attributes lost from wishing to others like how Maxwell Lord gave the masses' strength and prowess to Barbara. The wishers also being able to easily renounce their wishes by simply saying "I renounce my wish" seems like an easy way for the writers of the film to resolve problems caused by Maxwell Lord and for Diana to be able to fully use her powers again.
 * 32) There's a scene that can be considered a rape scene, where Diana and Steve have sex even though Steve is in someone else's body.
 * 33) Lots of plot holes:
 * 34) * How is there conveniently a jet fighter behind the Smithsonian that's all fueled up and ready to go?
 * 35) *How does Steve fly a modern (80s) jet fighter when he only has experience flying World War I-era planes?
 * 36) *How do Wonder Woman and Steve end up in Egypt to look for Maxwell Lord only to return back home after ten minutes there?
 * 37) *How did Wonder Woman keep a low profile without having to disguise herself (e.g., wearing glasses) if she's fighting crime in front of people?
 * 38) *Why was Cheetah unable to renounce her wish? It's still possible that its either due to the fact that she's drunk of power and is living the life she always dreamed of, or the Dream Stone's cost, which is implied to be Barbara's empathy, make her incapable of being anything but cruel and selfish.
 * 39) ** And while we’re on this subject, how exactly did Cheetah turn back to human by the end of the film if she never renounced her wish?
 * 40) There's a severe lack of action scenes compared to the previous film.
 * 41) Some of the acting comes off as pretty wooden, mostly due to the terrible script.
 * 42) False advertising: Wonder Woman herself is seen wearing her golden Armor, implying that would be outfit throughout the film, When in the actual film, she only wears it during her battle with Cheetah once she turned from Human to a Cheetah for 10 minutes towards the latter half of the film. Also, many of the trailers showed Wonder Woman in a Mall, implying that the film would take place at a mall when in the actual film, Wonder Woman was only at a mall in the beginning. And once that scene ended, the mall was never seen again.
 * 43) Despite some scenes being set in 1984 and the film being set in the '80s, there is absolutely not a lot of '80s music in the movie, making the film's title partially misleading.
 * 44) While the score by Hans Zimmer is solid, it doesn't really sell this film being in the 80's and would've benefited having a composer who specializes in 80's-style electronic music such as Mark Mothersbaugh or Henry Jackman.
 * 45) The film overall adds nothing new to the DCEU nor Wonder Woman franchise, as the ending has everything go back to normal as if nothing has happened.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The cinematography is decent.
 * 2) Gal Gadot still gives a good performance as Wonder Woman.
 * 3) Great soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, even if it didn't really sell it.
 * 4) Good chemistry between Gal Gadot and Chris Pine's characters when there are scenes with them.
 * 5) *And speaking of which the acting, particularly from Pedro Pascal and Chris Pine, is great.
 * 6) It was nice seeing Lynda Carter (who portrayed Wonder Woman from her 1975 TV series of the same name)'s cameo at the end of the film.
 * 7) The Life is good, but it can be better. and Well shit, Diana! lines never get old.
 * 8) Maxwell Lord has a very touching backstory.
 * 9) Although misleading, the film's posters look colorful, even for 2020s standards.
 * 10) This sequel has been in development for 3 years, so it's not too late to make another Wonder Woman film.
 * 11) Even if there's a lack of action (as mentioned on BQ#12), the action is still good.
 * 12) Decent direction by Patty Jenkins.

Reception
Wonder Woman 1984 received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a 59% critic rating (based on 423 reviews) and a 74% audience rating with a consensus that reads, "Wonder Woman 1984 struggles with sequel overload, but still offers enough vibrant escapism to satisfy fans of the franchise and its classic central character." On Metacritic, it has a 60/100 critic score (based on 57 critics) indicating "mixed or average reviews". Criticism focused on its plot, screenplay, runtime and poor visual effects.

Accolades
Wonder Woman 1984 was nominated for 2 Razzie Awards for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel and Worst Supporting Actress, however, they actually lost to both Dolittle and Maddie Ziegler as Music Gamble from Music. However, it won a Kids Choice Award blimp for favorite movie.

Trivia

 * It is Warner Bros' first theatrical movie to be streamed on HBO Max for 31 days from in-theater release on the streaming service.

Videos
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