Wonder Woman 1984 – A Silly Yet Entertaining Follow-Up (Early Review)

The saga behind the release of the sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman was an interesting one, starting December 2019 before being moved up a month and then kicked down the line into 2020, bouncing around a few more times as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, eventually ending up as a simultaneous streaming release on HBO Max and a theatrical release in certain areas ($29.99 PVOD rental/theatrical release in Canada). Whether or not that strategy succeeds remains to be seen but for those looking for a superhero movie fix, Wonder Woman 1984 will definitely do the trick. While the film doesn’t necessarily reach the heights of the original film, it is still an entertaining blockbuster experience though one propped up by a silly premise that not all viewers are sure to get behind. Those who can look past that premise will be treated to a decent time. The film’s running time of just over 2.5 hours may be a contentious point for some, the time still flies by.

Wonder Woman 1984 saw Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gadot) in the 1980s living a normal life while keeping a low profile with humans, curating ancient artifacts while acting as an incognito superhero. Clearly that life wouldn’t last forever as Diana was once again thrust into the spotlight. As the film’s promotional material suggests, Steve Trevor (Pine), also plays a significant role here despite his death at the end of the original film (spoiler alert). Viewers will just have to watch to learn how his reappearance came to be. Suffice it to say that it would play a part in the plot as a whole, taking arguably more time then necessary, but just don’t think about it too much. The film itself is a celebration of the 1980s and all the weird fashions and the general excess that came with the pursuit of the American dream or what was portrayed as such. This made the perfect backdrop as she to essentially had to save the world from itself and its worst tendencies. Leave it to sleazy businessman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) to appeal to those tendencies in order to make a buck. With a means to do so falling in his lap, he took advantage and enriched himself and it wasn’t good.

Meanwhile, Barbara Minerva (Wiig) was an underappreciated colleague of Diana’s who often went unnoticed over the course of her everyday life (compared to Diana of course). Given the chance to turn her fortune around, she obviously went for it while fueled by her jealousy of Diana. The change was a drastic change although the feelings that came with it were never quite enough. Though that change was somewhat compelling to watch, Minerva was on the thin side as a character. Nevertheless, the three (or four if you include Trevor) found themselves on a collision course albeit a drawn out one. That being said, Wonder Woman 1984 wasn’t without its moments. The action and set pieces were there, it just took a while to get there (opening sequence excluded), but even so. there were less than expected as a result. The amount of CGI featured in many of them also gets a little distracting (one particular questionable confrontation from the trailer looked a lot better in the film). Finally, the drawn out nature of the plot coupled with the ending may be a contentious point as well for some. However, its hopeful nature compared to the CGI fest that was the original’s climax plays out better.

In the end, the best part of Wonder Woman 1984 was its performances which helped to overcome some deficiencies in the writing. Gadot once again delivers as Diana. We know she can handle herself with the action but here, she got to show more of her range though it didn’t always work. A speech of hers near the end of the film was sensational. Her chemistry with Pine’s Trevor was still strong as the latter got to put a fun twist on the character (though it did get old pretty quickly). Despite the thin character that maybe another actress could have dug deeper with, Wiig made the best of it and was still fun to watch. Pascal camped it up as the bombastic Lord and was entertaining to watch, distracting from the thinness of a character that was all personality and not much else.

Ultimately, Wonder Woman 1984 is sure to be a divisive. Either it does too much, not enough, or misses the mark altogether. While not perfect, it’s still a good time to be had and maybe that’s enough. Just set your expectations accordingly.

still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.