Wonder Woman 1984 Review

Wonder Woman 1984 is the last major blockbuster to be released in 2020. Considering how horrible a year 2020 has been the second Wonder Woman cinematic adventure is a nice well to close the year for film fans.

In 1984 Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) works as an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institute and does superheroics on the side in Washington DC. A new threat emerges when a magical stone is discovered that grants people wish for and it comes to the attention of the egomaniacal businessman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal). The Dreamstone also crosses paths with geomorphologist Barbara Ann Minerva (Kristen Wiig) and she starts to feel a remarkable change. Whilst Diana experiences a miracle when Steve Rogers (Chris Pine) comes back from the dead.

Since the release of the first Wonder Woman movie, the DCEU has course-corrected. The franchise has gone from trying to be a dark and edgier version of the MCU to having lighter, standalone adventures.  This course correction paid dividends because Aquaman was the highest-grossing film in the franchise and Shazam! was one of the most heartfelt superhero films in years. Wonder Woman 1984 continued with this lighter approach.

This fun tone was shown from the outset when a prologue focuses a young Diana compete in the Themysciran version of Total Wipeout. This continued with the first scene involving Wonder Woman when she stops a robbery at a mall. It was delightful fun to see Wonder Woman saving small children and tying up bad guys with her lasso.

The visuals were where the change in tone was imminently clear. The first film was set during the First World War, so the colours were drained from the world – the sequel was set in the booming ’80s so it was a more colourful affair.

The first half of the film had a Spielbergian feel to it. This was due to the film having a wish fulfilment story. Diana has a second chance with Steve and got to show him the wonders the 1980s has to offer, whilst Barbara has a metamorphosis storyline that was popular in the ‘80s. Jenkins was able to replicate Spielberg’s sense of comedy, awe, and sentimentality and some of the scenes like when Diana and Steve fly a plane the score had a John Williams sound to it.

Jenkins started her career making Monster, a biopic about the serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Jenkins shows how talented a director she is because Monster was a dark indie drama and Wonder Woman 1984 was a mainstream superhero flick. Jenkins followed the direction Matthew Vaughn took with his comic book films – making films that mostly had a light tone but ensure there was drama and world-ending danger. Wonder Woman 1984 does have a lot of X-Men: First Class in it because of the period setting, the bright colour pallet, and tone.

Wonder Woman 1984 also had elements of X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse in it. Both Wonder Woman 1984 and X-Men: Apocalypse were set in the 1980s and had world-ending threats, although Wonder Woman 1984 handled the geo-political implications a lot better. Wonder Woman 1984 and Days of Future of Past seemingly retconned a major event from their previous films: Charles Xavier became wheelchair-bound in X-Men: First Class and Steve sacrificed himself in Wonder Woman. Both these events were used to creator major dilemmas in the sequels.

In the film Wonder Woman uses her lasso as a method of transport which made her look Spider-man or Batman. When Wonder Woman did save children there was a wholesomeness to it like when Spider-man saved two kids in Spider-man 2. When Wonder Woman discovered she had a new power it was treated as a moment of wonder. Warner Brothers should use Wonder Woman 1984 as a template on how to revitalise Superman.

One of the biggest issues of Wonder Woman (2017) was the villains. They were one-dimensional, cartoony characters in a mostly serious film. Wonder Woman 1984 rectified this by having more complex, sympathetic villains. Pascal as Maxwell Lord was a man who seems to be living the American Dream, but his image was a lie. He was on the verge of bankruptcy, running a Ponza scheme, and wanted to prove to his son he wasn’t a loser. He was like many businessmen who have to maintain a false image of wealth and success. Lord took the Dreamstone because he was desperate and he ended up having an absolute power corrupts absolutely storyline.

Whilst Lord was the big bad of the film, Barbara was the more interesting villain. Barbara was essentially Selina Kyle from Batman Returns, a dowdy woman who got used or was ignored by those around her. She wanted to be noticed and respected and be like Diana – not realising who Diana really was. Barbara went from saintly good to letting out her dark side. One of Barbara best moments was when she came across a man who accosted her earlier in the film.

The idea that the Dreamstone granting cursed wishes was hardly an original idea. The film even lampshades it with a character mentioning The Monkey Paw and one of the first wishes in the film had an immediate consequence. The point of this film was making was to tap into the ‘80s themes of greed and capitalism. Lord keeps saying ‘don’t you want more’ and he required people to continue to make wishes. The other reason was to show the powerful draw of the wishes that meant some characters just couldn’t let go. Finally, it ties into the film’s message that people shouldn’t take shortcuts or cheat to success.

Wonder Woman 1984 was a delightful superhero experience, having the right mix of drama, humour, and action.