Wonder Woman 1984 movie review

MOVIE TITLE: WONDER WOMAN 1984

Opened Christmas Day 2020 only on HBO MAX and in theaters

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 2 hours 31 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C+

IN A NUTSHELL:

This superhero movie is directed by Patty Jenkins and she also has a writing credit to her name, something she hasn’t done since her 2003 movie Monster. I thought Patty Jenkins did a really great job on the first Wonder Woman movie and so I was really excited to see the sequel. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a disappointment with clunky storytelling and missed opportunities.

Keep reading and I’ll explain why.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

You see an unmarried couple in bed.
Some profanity
You need to read some English subtitles when a foreign language is spoken
Violence and deaths
People in perilous situations

THEMES:

“Sometimes you can’t see what you’re learning until you come out the other side.” – Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot)
More is not always better
Wishes. If you only had ONE wish, what would it be? Be careful what you wish for.
Greed
Power
“Everything has a price.” – Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot)
“What is it costing you? Do you see the truth?” – Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot)
Sacrifice
Humanity
Choice and accountability. Our choices have a cost.

THINGS I LIKED:

Gal Gadot is the perfect Wonder Woman in every way. I’m such a fan. She’s a bit stiff in some scenes in the beginning of the film, but otherwise, she’s awesome and gorgeous. She handled emotional moments especially well and is believable in the action sequences. Her real-life family shows up in the scene with the snowball and carousel at the end of the movie. Yeah, sorry guys. She’s taken. Fun fact: Gal Gadot also produced this movie and was paid $10 million for it, 33 times more than what she made on the first one.
Fans of DALY The Mandalorian Season 1 will love seeing Pedro Pascal.
Kristin Wiig’s appearance in the movie had been kept a secret for a long time. Many people were worried that her comedic chops would get in the way of the drama, but I thought she did a great job balancing both.
Robin Wright looks amazing.
I adore Chris Pine and was happy to see him again even if the plot point was a bit of a stretch. I loved the sequences that showed the 1980s through his character’s eyes. Fanny pack. ha ha There were some cute references to the time differences that provided the humor in the movie.
Hans Zimmer provided an excellent musical score for the movie. He had previously said he wouldn’t do any more superhero movies, but luckily for us, he changed his mind. It was especially effective during the opening scenes of the movie when we get to see a young Diana compete in some athletic games of skill in her homeland of Themyscira.
And by the way, the actress who played the young Diana, Lilly Aspell, did a really great job. I’d like to see more of her in future movies. She ended up doing all of her own stunts because it was determined that she did them better than any of her stunt doubles anyway!
You get to see some of the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C.
It’s fun to go back to the 1980s, complete with costume design and believable set pieces.
Keep watching during the closing credits for another scene with a wonderful cameo performance you’ll love if you’re a true Wonder Woman fan!
I thought the sequence of making the airplane invisible was cute because I remember watching scenes of Wonder Woman flying an invisible plane in the animated TV show back when I was a little girl.
I love little details and Easter eggs in movies and this movie had a few. For example, we see one of the characters approach a homeless man who is reading a book called Waiting for Godot since people mix up Gal Gadot’s name with Godot. Another is when Diana takes Steve to the Space Museum in Washington, D.C. where one of the exhibits hanging from the ceiling is the craft that Major Steve Austen crashed, which is what caused him to become The Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Series

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Unfortunately, the storytelling is not well crafted. In fact, a lot of it is very lazy writing, full of tropes and plot holes that don’t make any sense.
There are some fun action scenes, but not nearly enough in quantity, nor frequency. In fact, we have to wait an hour between two of the action sequences. And speaking of action, most of the stunts looked super fake. Come on DC!
The opening sequence was fantastic. Sadly, the energy and fun that it created didn’t match with the rest of the movie’s slow pacing.
The music is great but kind of gives away who the bad guy is before it’s officially revealed.
I adore Chris Pine and loved seeing his character with Diana again but it kind of felt like a forced choice by Hollywood to keep him in the franchise because everyone loves him so much. Plus, why did his character have to be disguised? It made that part of the story unnecessarily complicated and nonsensical.
It’s kind of tiresome watching so many guys try to hit on Diana.
Lots of overacting by Pedro Pascal. I really like him in DALY The Mandalorian Season 1 though. His villainous character did do a good job of representing the greed and quest for success at all costs in the 1980s.
The pacing of the movie is terrible. For a large chunk of the movie, not much happens and it’s kind of boring.
The Cheetah costume design and makeup looked like a costume from a high school play or the terrible movie version of the Broadway Cats (2019). Why a cat? There wasn’t any explanation at all as to why the human character turned into a cheetah. Totally random. Missed opportunity. The only connection I could find was that the human character is seen wearing a fur coat before she turns into Cheetah.
One of the big fight sequences was at night, making it really difficult to see what was going on. I wonder if they knew the CGI would be terrible so they were trying to disguise it under darkness. Another missed opportunity.
There have been many versions of the movie poster, none of which I really liked. They changed the design each time a new release date was scheduled.
Young Diana learns to act with integrity by not taking shortcuts in the opening scenes of the movie, so I assumed that lesson was going to really be highlighted later on in the movie. I was surprised when it really wasn’t. Another missed opportunity.
The movie felt fun and light for the first 20 minutes or so but then took a very different twist of tone.
There are absolutely no references to any of the other DC Comics characters. They should have tried to make some connections as Marvel does in their movies. Ah DC. Another missed opportunity. The only thing I could find was maybe the symbol of Nuclear Man on the floor of the mall from the movie Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
Wonder Woman’s ancient armor looked cool but she didn’t do that much with it. I loved learning about its history, although I was disappointed that the most powerful warrior who originally wore it basically folded up into a little ball rather than fight.
The president of the United States was Ronald Reagan, but Stuart Milligan who plays POTUS in the movie looked nothing like him.

INTERESTING LINES:

“Greatness is not what you think.” – Antiope (Robin Wright)
“Truth is all there is.” – Antiope (Robin Wright)
“No true hero is born from lies.” – Antiope (Robin Wright)
“You can not be the winner because you are not ready to win and there is no shame in that.” – Antiope (Robin Wright)
“If you can dream it, you can have it.” – Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal)