Wonder Woman 1984 Review

Director: Patty Jenkins
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen

I was so looking forward to watching Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984. When it was revealed that the movie would finally be released on Christmas day, I thought that Warner Bros. Pictures had given us a brilliant gift for the holiday season. However, after having watched it, I couldn’t help but think that we were given a box with nothing in it – or Santa Claus gave us a lump of coal for Christmas.

Patty Jenkins is one of the directors working on Hollywood today that I really do love. I thought that Wonder Woman was brilliant. I still believe that she’s made the best DC Comics movie in recent years. Monster is also terrific. I couldn’t wait to see her Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie. But after watching Wonder Woman 1984, I can’t help but worry about her future projects.

OK, before I got into why I’m worried, let’s go over the film’s plot. Wonder Woman 1984 is set in the ’80s (duh), and Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince is working as a senior anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., specializing in ancient Mediterranean civilizations. However, even though this film is set 66 years after the first film, Diana still hasn’t gotten over her first (ever) boyfriend, Steve Trevor.

Wonder Woman 1984 has issues

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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Diana ends up meeting Barbara Ann Minerva (played by Kristen Wiig)  who’s working on identifying a stone later revealed to be the “Dreamstone”, which grants the holder a wish, but it also takes something from you in return. Enter Pedro Pascal’s Max Lord, who knows about the Dreamstone and ends up stealing and uses it for his own nefarious means.

That’s a very brief overview of the film’s plot, and one of the big problems that I had with the film was that things happen in this movie that makes no sense. The first thing is Max Lord himself. What are his motives? What is his actual plan? How did he actually find out about the Dreamstone? Is he actually a bad guy? These questions kept on going round and round my head when watching it.

I also had pretty big issues with Kristen Wiig’s character, Barabara, who’s basically the same as Jamie Foxx’s Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. She starts off the film being a dorky woman who no one takes notice of. She then makes a wish, and suddenly turns into a super-strong villain and a very sexy one. I mean, it’s that classic Hollywood movie trope of putting a good-looking woman in glasses, say she’s ‘dorky’ and then have her take off her glasses, et voilà, she’s super hot and ‘interesting’ all of a sudden.

Good performances, not-so-good writing

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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I also do not really get why she ended up turning herself into a Cheetah. It’s not a very good origins story for the iconic comic book villain. There’s also the fact that this is yet another DC Comics movie that ends with a dark fight in between the hero and villain in a non-descript location where no innocent civilians will get hurt. I would also add that there are some very janky CGI moments in this movie, which given how many times the film was delayed, I really can’t excuse.

That said, I really do think that both Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal are doing their very best with the material provided. This film was written by Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, and I really don’t think it’s very well written (a bit like this review). It just felt disjointed, and the overall plot was convoluted.

That said, there’s a lot in this movie that I think works well. I think Gal Gadot is perfect as Wonder Woman and I love the interactions between her and Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor. They both work really well together, although, I do find the way they brought him back to be a bit ‘plotty’.

Wonder Woman 1984 needed to be better

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

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The overarching feeling I had with Wonder Woman 1984 was one of disappointment, which I was surprised by. I was all prepared to love this movie, but in the end, I found the plot to be a bit all over the place and the CGI was poor in places. I felt that the characterisation was also pretty bad and there was an over-reliance on superhero movie clichés, which I wasn’t really expecting.

It’s basically a movie about a magic wishing stone, and a Donald Trump-esque character, who’s not really as bad as Trump, gets his hands on it. Then there’s a dorky Cheetah put in there for good measure. Oh yeah, and the movie’s set in the ’80s.

What do you make of this review? Did you enjoy Wonder Woman 1984? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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