Review: Wonder Woman 1984

In 1984, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is working at the Smithsonian. She leads somewhat of a lonely night, and meets a new colleague Barbara (Kristen Wiig) on her first day. Barbara is asked to identify some artifacts stolen during a robbery, and one of them happens to be a stone that grants wishes. But it falls into the hands of a smarmy business man, Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) and Diana once again needs to save humanity.

When it comes to the 80's on film/TV right now, I think the market is completely oversaturated and I'm over watching content featuring it aside from Stranger Things, but Wonder Woman 1984 absolutely commits to being an 80's action movie and I admire Patty Jenkins for that. Plenty of other filmmakers sprinkle it in to scream "look at me!" but she goes all in. Even the annoying tropes, like a woman removing her glasses and instantly becoming hot work here.

I get it, the premise *is* silly. It's a bit of a stretch to bring Steve (Chris Pine) back but he's the character that makes the movie aside from Gadot herself. I'd even argue that their chemistry is even better this time around, and Steve reacting to the new world was so precious and hilarious. When they inevitably have to say goodbye again (I don't think that's a spoiler, we all know where Diana is currently in the DCEU) I almost cried. They're perfect together.

Pedro Pascal is great as Max Lord. I was expecting him to be over the top and goofy, and he is at times but he ended up being a lot more layered than that. Less successful is Kristen Wiig as Barbara/Cheetah. She started out fine, but when the film needed her to be more edgy, she failed. I'm not a fan of Wiig's, so likely that's some of me projecting, but I didn't care for her character at all. I'm also really bothered by one facet of her story, where they treat her getting revenge on someone who tries to sexually assault her earlier in the film as her big move from good to evil. That was an awful choice. That offended me more than the terrible CGI when she becomes full Cheetah. (which they thankfully use a lot of quick cuts so we don't have time to focus on it.)

Of course, the stare is Gadot as Diana. I just adore her in this role. I was never someone who was interested in Wonder Woman growing up but I have been since meeting this version. I like that Diana isn't perfect, that she deals with being lonely even though she's so powerful and has so much. She really flourished once she got away from Snyder's direction.

While Wonder Woman 1984 might not have a groundbreaking No Man's Land type sequence like it's predecessor, it's more consistent tone wise throughout and I enjoyed it.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "Well shit, Diana!" - Steve (Chris Pine)

Comments

  1. Merry Christmas!! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas despite COVID19. I like Wiig in Bridesmaids but I don’t think she can carry a picture where the character is to be more well rounded. I saw clips and actually giggled a little when I found out she is Cheetah. Why her? There are others that could have played that role better and I haven’t even seen the film yet. You are right about why someone turns to evil for something that happened to them. It seems a bit contrived besides, Cheetahs are gentle cats for the most part.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I hope you did as well. Yeah, I think someone else definitely would've made a better Cheetah, but no one could save the CGI lol

      Delete
  2. I didn't think I was going to watch the film as I spent much of Xmas day with my mom and a few family friends of ours and later that night. I had the film downloaded and only expected to watch 20-30 minutes of it. I ended up watching the whole film all the way through nearly 7 AM.

    I liked it and it didn't feel long with me. Man, I enjoy watching Gal and Chris together as I just love seeing them together and I so felt the pain of what Diana had to do to let Steve go. I think there's elements of the film that was inspired by Superman II.

    I do like Kristen Wiig but I agree with you on her development as I thought they didn't enough with that. I too had some issues with the look of Cheetah as well though it could've been worse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm honestly surprised with some of the reactions to this. You'd think we got served another Suicide Squad or BVS.

      Delete
  3. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about WW84 yet. On the one hand, I did enjoy the action scenes and Gal Gadot never disappoints as Wonder Woman (she was perfectly cast for the role). But on the other hand, I feel like it is missing a little something. And that little missing something keeps it from even comparing to the first film for me. Although I will agree that Steve reacting to everything in the 80s was adorable! Great review, Brittani!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I get it, it's not perfect, but I think it's fine. Definitely not as bad as some people are making it out to be.

      Delete
  4. Glad you enjoyed this one. It didn’t really work for me, but I will agree that the stuff with Diana and Steve was pretty consistently great throughout, and that their parting, and her subsequent flying through the clouds sequence, was probably the most powerful stuff in the film. I also agree that I never really cared too greatly one way or the other about the Wonder Woman character prior to Gal Gadot‘s take, starting with Batman v Superman. But she’s been wonderful in the role, and has made a fan out of me for sure. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! I think she's perfect for Diana. I know people go after her because she's a bit limited as an actress but she's made everything about Diana work, so I don't get it.

      Delete
  5. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I didn't hate it but it sure was disappointing. The storyline was dumb. The evil Middle Eat is so clichéd. And I hated every single thing about Wiig's character. From the "removes glasses and becomes hot" cliché to using that moment to make her become evil. And I didn't like Wiig's performance either. Pedro was great though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Middle East thing was so short sighted. I thought we were past that at this point. Wiig was awful, I'm glad Pedro made up for her.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Batman

Thursday Movie Picks: Wedding Movies

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum