Where to begin? Wonder Woman 1984 gets as much wrong as it gets right. Movies like this tend to be polarizing. Many people are going to find themselves either jumping completely on board and blindly ignoring its shortcomings, or turning away and blindly ignoring its strengths. Helmed again by Patty Jenkins, starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristin Wiig, and Pedro Pascal, Wonder Woman 1984 takes its turn telling the classic tale of ‘be careful what you wish for’.
The Good
So what’s to like? First off, all of the acting in this movie is on point. Kristin Wiig and Gal Gadot have a wonderful dynamic, and I found myself constantly wanting more of them on the screen. While Kristin Wiig’s character arc may not work for everyone, I personally found it had the perfect subtle nuances and never left me feeling like the character was out of place. Her transformation throughout the movie is masterfully handled and honestly should have been more prominent. Even though Pedro Pascal’s character is one of the weaker points of this movie, he does an incredible job selling it. And of course, Chris Pine is always a delight and while I couldn’t fathom a way for his character to return and have any involvement, after watching the movie it makes total sense and it was nice to see him returning to the role.
Of course, as you can expect from this movie, the aesthetics, character designs, and set pieces are all on point. The movie looks gorgeous from start to finish. It does a fantastic job of capturing the mood and feel of the 80s even if a little cliche. The story flows quite well, and for it being a two and a half hour movie it really doesn’t feel like it. The action scenes are gripping, largely because they did a wonderful job at making Wonder Woman vulnerable. Oh, and let us not forget, Lynda Carter’s cameo was an absolute delight!
The bad
There are a lot of wonderful things in this movie that I don’t want to spoil. All that said, there are some things that really just missed the mark for me. This is a very ambitious movie, and in my mind, it pushes itself a little too far. There are a lot of wonderful concepts and themes going on in this movie, but the execution of everything was where the movie stumbled. One of the biggest problems I have with this movie is the lack of consequence. The entire point of this movie is everything has consequences, yet by the end, it’s as happy and fluffy as it can possibly be. Rather than being resourceful to find solutions to problems, the solutions seem to become new superpowers for our character. While this often leads to stunning imagery, it really doesn’t make much sense from a storytelling point of view.
They have definitely taken the lasso of truth too far. And I mean that in every way it can be taken. Gal Gadot has done a wonderful job as an action hero so far, yet the movie does surprisingly little with her abilities which really left me wanting more.
The biggest issue I personally have with this film is that it takes the stakes too high. Pedro Pascal’s character should have had a much deeper more meaningful arc without such high global stakes. Since he didn’t, he never really makes sense as a character. Honestly, they should have scrapped his whole arc and just focused more on Kristin Wiig.
Our Wonder Woman 1984 Score
All this said it’s not a bad movie. Personally, I hoped for so much more but by no means do I think this will determine the fate of DC. Let’s be honest there are some Marvel movies that are worse. Looking at you Iron Man 3. Overall I think it was a serviceable installment even if it left more to be desired and was slightly underwhelming. Personally, I am giving this movie a 6 out of 10. Maybe I’m jaded because I hoped for more, maybe I’m forgiving too much because I want it to succeed. What do you guys think?
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