Wonder Woman 1984
Year: 2020
Director: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Gal Gadot, Pedro Pascal & Chris Pine
Runtime: 151 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 12/10/21
Director: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Gal Gadot, Pedro Pascal & Chris Pine
Runtime: 151 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 12/10/21
2017’s Wonder Woman was fantastic, and I think there’s very little debate around that. Firstly, and most importantly, the film was a champion for female led action films (particularly in the superhero sub-genre) with a truly incredible performance from Gal Gadot in the leading role but also some fantastic direction from Patty Jenkins. Secondly, Wonder Woman was also the first truly good film in the DC Extended Universe, with its predecessors being bloated, moody, CGI clusterfucks. So, a lot was riding on Jenkins to knock it out of the park again with the sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, but could she bottle lightning twice in a row, or was the weight of expectation always going to crush whatever was produced?
Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) works at the Smithsonian Institution whilst moonlighting as Wonder Woman, keeping her identity secret living amongst humans for the last seventy years. When some ancient artefacts are the subject of a robbery that Wonder Woman foils, the FBI recover the treasures and ask for them to be researched. One item is identified to be the Dreamstone, a crystal that grants the holder one wish.
Unknowingly Diana wishes for Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) to be alive, resurrecting him in another man’s body; and her colleague Barbara (Kristen Wiig) wishes to be more like Diana granting her all of Diana’s powers.
Oil tycoon Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) is bankrupt and steals the stone to save his business…but instead of wishing for the business to be saved he wishes for the stone to become a part of him. Max uses this ability to get other people to make wishes to not only save his company, but eventually begin manipulating world leaders.
Diana must track down the stone with the help of Steve before she totally loses her powers, and before Max starts World War III.
Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) works at the Smithsonian Institution whilst moonlighting as Wonder Woman, keeping her identity secret living amongst humans for the last seventy years. When some ancient artefacts are the subject of a robbery that Wonder Woman foils, the FBI recover the treasures and ask for them to be researched. One item is identified to be the Dreamstone, a crystal that grants the holder one wish.
Unknowingly Diana wishes for Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) to be alive, resurrecting him in another man’s body; and her colleague Barbara (Kristen Wiig) wishes to be more like Diana granting her all of Diana’s powers.
Oil tycoon Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) is bankrupt and steals the stone to save his business…but instead of wishing for the business to be saved he wishes for the stone to become a part of him. Max uses this ability to get other people to make wishes to not only save his company, but eventually begin manipulating world leaders.
Diana must track down the stone with the help of Steve before she totally loses her powers, and before Max starts World War III.
I heard a lot of negative criticism directed at WW84 around the time of release because the sequel is to many inferior to the original. Whilst I certainly agree that the original film was better, WW84 is far from a bad film, and is still one of the more enjoyable entries to the DCEU.
The story is fun and has some great action scenes peppered throughout, and Gadot once again provides a stellar performance as Diana. I would say the real star of the show this time round though is Pedro Pascal. Max is probably the best villain in the DCEU so far with the most amount of time spent establishing who he is and what he wants. He’s funny, ruthless, and sympathetic; but I do have an issue with the fact that he and Diana don’t spend much time with each other. They’re always in different places and it feels like Diana is just playing catch up for the majority of the film.
Whilst I liked the sub-plot of Diana losing her powers and Barbara gaining them, I feel like Barbara wasn’t a particularly interesting character, and her transition into villain towards the end of the film felt a little tacked on for me. I would have loved for this to have had a slightly more Shazam feel to it with Barbara learning how to use the powers, and as such becoming the person she wants to be through her own training.
The thing that frustrated me the most about WW84 was the length. The majority of DCEU films have been too long and this film is no exception. Clocking in at two and a half hours, I feel like a lot of WW84 could have been trimmed down significantly or cut out entirely. There’s not an awful lot of story here, so I feel maybe somewhere between an hour and forty five minutes to two hours would have been perfectly sufficient.
I didn’t mention it in my original Wonder Woman review but the score to these films is incredible, and Wonder Woman’s theme is likely one of my favourite pieces of composer Hans Zimmer’s work ever. The score really gives the film momentum and gravitas where it counts, something many of the other DCEU films also lack.
Wonder Woman 1984 may not be as good as the original, but I still had a fun time with it and is a film I would watch again. Whilst an underwhelming sequel is never a good thing, the film isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps people had their expectations too high, or maybe some men couldn’t deal with the fact that the female led superhero films in the DCEU tend to be better than the male ones. Either way, I’d say you could certainly do much worse than WW84 for your next film night.
The story is fun and has some great action scenes peppered throughout, and Gadot once again provides a stellar performance as Diana. I would say the real star of the show this time round though is Pedro Pascal. Max is probably the best villain in the DCEU so far with the most amount of time spent establishing who he is and what he wants. He’s funny, ruthless, and sympathetic; but I do have an issue with the fact that he and Diana don’t spend much time with each other. They’re always in different places and it feels like Diana is just playing catch up for the majority of the film.
Whilst I liked the sub-plot of Diana losing her powers and Barbara gaining them, I feel like Barbara wasn’t a particularly interesting character, and her transition into villain towards the end of the film felt a little tacked on for me. I would have loved for this to have had a slightly more Shazam feel to it with Barbara learning how to use the powers, and as such becoming the person she wants to be through her own training.
The thing that frustrated me the most about WW84 was the length. The majority of DCEU films have been too long and this film is no exception. Clocking in at two and a half hours, I feel like a lot of WW84 could have been trimmed down significantly or cut out entirely. There’s not an awful lot of story here, so I feel maybe somewhere between an hour and forty five minutes to two hours would have been perfectly sufficient.
I didn’t mention it in my original Wonder Woman review but the score to these films is incredible, and Wonder Woman’s theme is likely one of my favourite pieces of composer Hans Zimmer’s work ever. The score really gives the film momentum and gravitas where it counts, something many of the other DCEU films also lack.
Wonder Woman 1984 may not be as good as the original, but I still had a fun time with it and is a film I would watch again. Whilst an underwhelming sequel is never a good thing, the film isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps people had their expectations too high, or maybe some men couldn’t deal with the fact that the female led superhero films in the DCEU tend to be better than the male ones. Either way, I’d say you could certainly do much worse than WW84 for your next film night.