WONDER WOMAN 1984 (2020)
Tagline: A new era of wonder begins.
(Adventure, Drama, Fantasy) [PG-13]
Nothing good is born from lies. And greatness is not what you think.
So in this one, Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) is now in the year 1984 because she doesn’t age. She works with artifacts and has a co-worker named Barbara Minerva (played by Kristen Wiig most famous for GHOSTBUSTERS). Barbara is quirky and nerdy but super kind-hearted and wants to fit in. Upon discovering a rock that grants its holders wishes both Wonder Woman and Barbara head down different paths that soon converge with a failed oil scam artist Maxwell Lord (played by Pedro Pascal, best known for THE MANDALORIAN) who has obtained a new power of his own. Can you really have your one true wish come true and what will it cost you?
There is a lot to wrap your head around in the 2.5-hour running time of this movie. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I am going to tread carefully in this review. The first thing I want to say is that Gal Gadot to me, is the new Wonder Woman and I have never had an issue with her in the role. She’s freakin fantastic at it and that doesn’t change in this movie. I don’t have a let’s go back and time and pick someone more like Lynda Carter issue here. Kristen Wiig was amazing as Barbara Minerva (Cheetah) and I was blown away by her range. She essentially goes through 3 different phases acting-wise in this movie and does it flawlessly. I loved Wiig in GHOSTBUSTERS, but holy cow, she ruled in this role. Finally, Pedro Pascal also does an amazing job as Maxwell Lord. I honestly didn’t know it was him until the opening credits. The character was modeled after Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street.
Strong points.
1. Both villains are amazing. I loved that both were powerful and intimidating and had some character development. The first fight between one of them and Wonder Woman was epic in the sense that it’s the first time we see Wonder Woman vulnerable. I loved that aspect of this film and how they went about accomplishing that.
2. The opening sequence and final sequence were strong with the exception of one issue I will get to later. It’s also cool to know that Lilly Aspell who played young Diana (aka Wonder Woman) did the required physical work for her role because she outperformed all of her stunt doubles. Lilly was 12 at the time so that’s quite an accomplishment.
3. This thing did not feel pc or overly socially conscious at all. In my opinion, it just told a pretty cool story that ended up being fairly solid.
4. I liked the fact that they brought back Chris Pine as Steve Trevor and he brought a lot to the table in this movie providing both humor and some heartfelt moments.
5. Wonder Woman has been given some signature moves which also show up in this film.
Things that were a little rough for me.
1. We don’t get the cool 80’s sound-track I was really hoping for. In fact, after the first 40 minutes, you kind of forget they are even in the year 1984. For me, that’s a big miss.
2. The “way” they brought Steve back is really shaky and made some of the interaction between him and Diana weird. I almost wished we had gotten more moments with them and less with Maxwell.
3. The motive. With a 2.5 hour running time, you kind of have to give your villains solid motives and direction. It feels like a few scenes going into why Maxwell got so consumed with his goals and what they were direction wise would have been nice.
4. I always try to judge movies by what we got, but there was a missed moment for Barbara’s character that I thought could have been really cool using practical effects. Her final form feels incomplete.
5. The CGI overall feels lackluster compared to the first film. It’s just a bit too soft and “floaty” like nothing weighs anything.
Overall this movie is wonderful in a lot of ways and the complaints are more nitpicky and technical in nature. I actually loved the concepts and it was great to see WONDER WOMAN back on the big screen. I also loved all of the nods to the comic and graphic novel storylines but felt a few fairly simple changes could have put this over the top. Adding more nostalgia for a movie with this title would have been one of them. There is nothing missing performance-wise. The acting in this is fantastic.
For those reasons, I give this movie a solid 5 out of 7. It could have used just a bit more punch and like I said, a better soundtrack would have gone a long way.
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