Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) – A Movie A Day 2021 #16
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) – A Movie A Day 2021 #16
I really don’t know what people want from movies sometimes. I waited a few weeks after its release to see Wonder Woman 1984, and in the meantime I’ve seen mixed reviews for the film at best. It’s currently at 60% on Rotten Tomatoes and hovering around 5.5 on IMDB. There is a fair amount of review bombing going on (which has to be one of the absolute dumbest forms of protest), and some of the nastier reviews seem like they’re just looking for stuff to complain about. Don’t get me wrong, opinions are fine and great, but some opinions are better (and more well reasoned) than others. By all means, have your own opinion and defend it with whatever reasoning you think you should, but Wonder Woman 1984 definitely better than the impression a casual glance at any collection of online reviews might give you. It’s certainly not the best movie ever made (nor is it trying to be), and it’s probably not even as good was Wonder Woman (2017), but it is a fun superhero movie with some touching moments, campy laughs, and admirable performances. I’m not trying to by cynical here though, so I’m just going to leave the rest of the online chatter behind and talk about the movie from the only perspective I really can: my own.
Wonder Woman 1984 picks up Diana Prince’s (Gal Gadot) story about 65 years after her adventures with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) during World War I. The year is, obviously, 1984, and Diana is living a relatively quiet life working at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. while staying out of the spotlight as best as she can. She’s still helping people by performing heroic deeds as Wonder Woman, but she’s trying to keep that part of her life a secret. Her lives as Diana and Wonder Woman start to cross over when an artifact ends up at the Smithsonian and a newly hired gemologist, Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), is tasked with finding out exactly what it is. It ends up being something imbued with great power, and local celebrity/con-man Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) has been searching for it for a very long time. Long story short, Diana, Barbara, and Maxwell all end up receiving certain benefits from the artifact, and those benefits effect them each in different ways. Maxwell, however, is driven to take more and more power, and as he gets what he wants, the entire world starts to pay a heavy price for it. Diana has to stop him, but her own desires and the actions of Barbara stand in her way emotionally and physically.
The first thing I really love about Wonder Woman 1984 is the fantastic cast. Gal Gadot is just as perfect for Diana Prince now as she was back in the first Wonder Woman movie. She’s always the strongest presence on the screen, and Diana’s character arc is touching and significant. Kristin Wiig is also great as Barbara Minerva. The character of Barbara can come off as somewhat of a stereotypical nerd who just wants to be popular, but Wiig’s performance kept me invested even when it was abundantly clear where her character arc was headed. And Pedro Pascal is fantastic as Maxwell Lord. Max comes across as a cheesy TV personality when we first meet him, but when his sinister side comes out, Pascal manages to balance humor with a kind of manic desperation and danger. Max also has a tender side that humanizes him, and that makes his fall as he succumbs to his darker tendencies all the more tragic. Maxwell Lord is easily one of the more interesting villains in any superhero movie.
Plus, yes, as you’ve probably seen in the trailer, Chris Pine is back as Steve Trevor, and he adds a ton of heart and humor through his performance. How is Steve Trevor back? You can maybe piece some things together from what I’ve said so far, but I won’t say any more about it. It’s fun finding out how Steve manages to be alive after having died 65 years prior, so I won’t spoil it here.
Beyond the performances, I just think Wonder Woman 1984 is just a fun superhero movie. The action set pieces are memorable, and even though some of the jumping and swinging feels a bit floaty to me, that didn’t distract me from the overall enjoyment of seeing Wonder Woman in battle. Many action movies these days have that kind of floaty feel to any CGI aerial action, so I think the effects here are at the very least on par with most other superhero blockbusters. Some of the best moments can be seen in the trailer (like Wonder Woman flipping a truck and leaping above it), but there a bunch of fun fight scenes on both large and small scales.
As much as I enjoy the action in Wonder Woman 1984, it does take a while for it all to really get going. Except for a brief sequence where Wonder Woman stops some robbers in a mall at the very beginning of the film, the first half of the movie is all about character building and setup. There’s a lot of talking and drama, but there’s not a lot of action during this time. So if you want wall to wall fighting, you’re going to have to wait a bit. For me though, I enjoy the characters enough that I wanted to follow them and learn more about them and their relationships before they inevitably start fighting and falling apart. The first half of the movie didn’t feel like a drag to me, but I could see where others might want to see a bit more punching and kicking.
I do think the character building in the first half of the movie is important though, because it helps make the final few scenes more emotionally resonant. Even though, yeah, certain things can come across in a heavy-handed way towards the end of the movie, I am totally fine with a bit of comic book cheese in my comic book movie. I enjoyed all of the resolutions, and I even got a little teary one or two times. Maybe I’m just a soft touch when it comes to these things.
The story in Wonder Woman 1984 is good in a very comic-booky way. Getting from point A to point B and beyond can often take a lot of logical leaps, but I’m fine with that. This is a movie about a world filled with gods and magic, so I can buy into more than a few convenient coincidences and reality-bending scenarios as I’m enjoying my bright and colorful entertainment. I have certain expectations when I go to see a superhero movie like this, and Citizen-Kane-level storytelling isn’t one of them. I’d like to have good action, interesting characters, and some nice emotional beats. Wonder Woman 1984 has all of those things and more. I was very entertained for the two and a half hours I spent watching it, and I’m looking forward to watching it again sometime soon.