Nineteen-Eighty-Chore
Introduction
Wonder Woman 1984 is not only a direct sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman, but also the ninth entry in the DC Extended Universe.
The DCEU is a fascinating specimen; if I were to compare it to a person, it would be to a youth trying to find himself as he stumbles through adolescence and young adulthood. He went through a somewhat dark and edgy phase (Man of Steel) before cranking it even higher, which didn’t work out (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). There was also that incident of explosive diarrhoea that we try to pretend never happened (Suicide Squad). In recent years, the DCEU has mellowed out a little and found success by being more balanced with its action and humour (Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam!).
Aside from the mishandled Justice League in 2017, the DCEU has kept up a steady rhythm. The franchise seems to know what it wants and is no longer trying to one-up the longer-running and more popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. That is what I thought until I watched Wonder Woman 1984 anyway.
After several delays, WW84 was released for streaming on the 25th of December on HBO Max shortly after its cinema debut, enabling us to watch it safely at home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, without waiting months for a Blu-ray release. Considering how rampant internet piracy is, this is a daring move by Warner Bros. Pictures, which plans to employ the same treatment for all its movies coming out in 2021. If you intend to stream this movie like a good law-abiding citizen, know that it will only be available on HBO Max for a month after December 25th before it goes to premium video on demand.
Plot and Tone
The plot revolves around the Dreamstone, an artifact with the power to grant wishes, and Wonder Woman’s attempts to deal with its calamitous effects when it falls into the wrong hands.
Set mostly in Washington DC in the year 1984, this film is campy as heck compared to its gritty World War I era predecessor (or at least at the start). However, even setting aside the Great War comparison, the level of corniness in this movie may be too much for most people’s liking. I understand that returning director Patty Jenkins was aiming for a more ‘80s era cheesy comic book feel, perhaps as a homage to the classic Superman films of yore, but the execution is clumsy and the cheesiness level would rival a fully stocked deli. I like corniness, but this was just banal. I constantly found myself rolling my eyes, yawning, and even cringing, especially during the earlier parts of the film like the mall fight scene. There was something about this film’s tone that screamed “too much”. Call me a cynic, but the cheesiness of the past was not properly adapted for contemporary audiences.
Your mileage may vary, depending on your appetite for campiness. Just know that there is a huge mood dissonance if you’re just coming out of Wonder Woman 2017 so, if you were hoping for more gritty realism with a smidge of Blue Monday, you’re in for a disappointment, because you will get neither of those.
The hardest part to watch was the opening scene. We are treated to (or rather inflicted with) a painfully long flashback of Diana’s childhood. We witness child-Diana compete with several adult fellow Amazonians in a sort of triathlon and, by the gods, is it LONG. What’s worse is that it seems to serve little purpose – was this scene written just to shoehorn in a couple of cameos from Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen as fellow Amazonians, Antiope and Hippolyta, respectively?
The opening scene may be the hardest to watch, but the rest isn’t much better. After the awkward flashback and mall scene, the film’s campy tone mellows somewhat and the plot trudges along at an uneven pace, talking a lot but having little to say.
It is difficult to articulate what exactly is wrong with WW84, but its biggest issue is that it never fully utilises the tools in its toolbox. It’s set in the ‘80s, but almost completely forgets about it in the first twenty minutes, it has skilled actors but gives them no direction, and it’s part of a cinematic universe but adds nothing new to it.
Characters and Performances
Wonder Woman
Gal Gadot returns as the ageless Wonder Woman (aka Diana Prince) and I struggle to write anything about her. Although the film centres around her, I was unable to connect with her as I did in the first film. In 1984, she is laying low, working at the Smithsonian, having yet to move on from losing her love interest the better part of a century ago, despite being thousands of years old and having known him for only a fraction of her lengthy life. She is then pulled back into action and we are inundated with Gadot’s narrow range as she wears the same facial expression while she fights bad guys and races against time to save the world from total mayhem.
Gadot occasionally shows some range during romantic scenes with Steve Trevor, but they are not enough to carry her performance or the film. Sadly, next to the deuteragonist and two antagonists, it turns out that the least memorable character is the protagonist herself.
Furthermore, without wishing to reveal too much, Wonder Woman’s powers receive an update. While that’s fine in a vacuum, it ultimately makes no sense because we never saw these updated powers being used in her previous films with Batman and Superman that are set after 1984—and they would have definitely been useful! Because of this lack of consistency, one is left to wonder why and how Diana forgot about her new powers. This is what happens when your franchise is not planned properly, people! It might be addressed in the now greenlit sequel, but I doubt there’s a snowball’s chance in Hades of that happening.
Steve Trevor
Steve Trevor is a fanny pack-toting charmer. Chris Pine won me over in 2017’s Wonder Woman, providing a human balance to Diana’s otherworldly grace, and he continues to captivate in its sequel. Notwithstanding, I immediately raised an eyebrow when I learned Steve would be returning from the dead in WW84 after dying in the Great War (can’t these heroes stay dead?), however, his inclusion in the movie is one of the film’s few positives and is one of the film’s stronger points—it is Steve Trevor that provides the film its humanity and the most enjoyable and heartfelt moments.
Without wishing to spoil anything, I will say, however, that way Steve is brought back to life is overly complicated and would have benefitted from simplification. It also raises a few ethical questions if you think about it long enough.
Pine plays the man out of time well. His wonderment at the advances in technology and changes in fashion is just endearing to watch and leads to some of the film’s lighter scenes. It’s also entertaining to observe the reversal of roles, as it is now Diana who is teaching Steve about the new world. Despite being a normal human, he provides great support to Wonder Woman during the action sequences, even saving her Amazonian hide from certain death once or twice.
Maxwell Lord
Pedro Pascal brings his A-game as primary antagonist Maxwell Lord, TV personality-slash-business man-slash-snake oil salesmen. Pascal shows off his range, shifting between charming and unhinged as he delivers a performance packed with sleazy charisma, before taking it up a notch and chewing the scenery once his true dastardly colours are revealed.
The film attempts to humanise Lord with his one weakness—his son, Alastair (a name the audience will not forget, I promise you). Not only is the mother never mentioned or even alluded to, but Alastair proves feeble in providing sympathy to the villain and would have benefitted from some expansion. Otherwise, Alastair could have been excluded from the film altogether and it would have made no difference.
Maxwell Lord is ultimately a one-note generic villain with egomania. His goal is power for its own sake, which is beyond passé and brings nothing fresh to the villainy table, after all the superhero films of the last twenty-plus years. Despite the poor writing, this villain is one of the film’s positive qualities, thanks to an animated and flamboyant performance by Pascal.
Cheetah
The secondary villain is Cheetah. Kristen Wiig does what she can with the role of Barbara Minerva, a role that is clumsily written at best and just plain extra at worst. The flaws are easy to spot. From the start, the film claws Barbara’s characterization straight from Jamie Foxx’s Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
She’s an awkward nerdy loser with a horrible case of Hollywood homely. I found myself saying, “you’ve got to be kitten me,” when the film expected me to accept Barbara, played by an attractive Kristen Wiig with messy hair and big glasses, as a dork who everyone treats as invisible. The only attention she receives is when she is catcalled by every man she passes on the street.
Her character inevitably develops into something more sinister as the film progresses. However, Barbara being a wallflower turned sexy and confident supervillain felt too on the nose and lacking in nuance. To her benefit, Wiig, who is no stranger to playing awkward characters, plays the role of adorkable nerd well. As for her performance as the villain, again, she does what she can with the script and costume she is given.
You barely see Cheetah in all her big cat glory and when you do it’s mostly in a paw-kwardly choreographed fight scene, complete with substandard CGI and dim lighting to hide said substandard CGI. Also, there are some storytelling gaps in how Barbara Minerva assumes her final form as Cheetah. Perhaps, this explanation was cut for time, but it’s not completely clear and comes across as sloppy.
I’ll be fair (or fur) and say that, though it’s not purr-fect, Cheetah does look better than the abominations in 2019’s Cats, though that’s like saying it’s better if Zeus zaps you in the face instead of the crotch.
It’s just paw-ful that this character feels so unnecessary and underutilized, considering she is one of Wonder Woman’s most well-known villains. The interpretations of Cheetah I’ve seen have always portrayed her as an elite mook with some sort of grudge against Wondy that doesn’t get much exposition, so it would have been a great opportunity to see it adapted here.
I did some research on the various Cheetahs in the comics, and all I can say is you don’t have to adapt things to the letter but, for the love of Hera, there was so much more that could have been done! Ares, the god of war, had business being in the first Wonder Woman and his schtick was integrated with the setting perfectly. Cheetah had next to no business being in this movie.
Action and Special Effects
On to the action. There’s no war to fight (or at least not one that Hollywood is willing to touch with a barge pole), since this movie is set in a time when global superpowers were mostly playing nuclear chicken instead of gassing dudes in the trenches. Being a superhero film, there’s obviously action and it’s decently entertaining; the punches and kicks have impact and Gadot’s long-legged leg sweeps look convincing. The camera angles are adequate, allowing the audience to clearly see who’s fighting who. Overall, the fights are mostly fun and satisfying to watch.
Conversely, the same moves are used repeatedly; I lost count of the number of times someone was picked up and thrown across a room in slow-motion like Hera tossing a new-born Hephaestus off Mount Olympus.
Wonder Woman herself looks stiff and uncomfortable when she leaps great distances; it was excruciatingly obvious that it’s Gal Gadot in a harness. The same also applies to when she runs; it looks like Gal Gadot was (panto)miming running while suspended by wires. The CGI is distractingly disconnected from reality at times, most apparent during the final fight with Cheetah. Furthermore, her Lasso of Truth returns, and its capabilities have expanded to the point where it can do pretty much anything the plot requires, like wrapping around a bullet in mid-air before it hits its target.
Conclusion
Wonder Woman 1984 is a risk-averse flick with talented actors and some fun action sequences that are overshadowed by a cumbersome narrative, inconsistent tone, and underdeveloped protagonist. It fails to build on its predecessor or add anything meaningful to the cinematic universe it is part of.
Following up from my introduction, the DCEU continues to meander as it struggles with building its franchise of connected superhero films, still obviously trying to recover from the disasters that were Batman v. Superman and the pre-Snyder cut Justice League. Despite Wonder Woman having now appeared in four films, only one has done her proper justice so far.
