A well-intentioned and sincere movie that unfortunately loses some of itself to questionable storytelling that needed to be more potent.
After three years, and audiences rejuvenated by the news of Zack Snyder’s Justice League actually existing, audiences were eager to dip their toes back into the divisive DCEU with Wonder Woman 1984. A sequel that sees director Patty Jenkins return with Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, alongside Pedro Pascal (Max Lord) and Kristen Wiig (Barbara/Cheetah) in the beloved mid-80s. After the first film took audiences by storm and showed that the DC films could deliver in ways people wanted them to, the sequel being better, or as equal, was always going to be a tough task. Unfortunately, it is an organized mess that isn’t without it’s fair share of genuine sincerity this sub-genre desperately needs.
This film begins and ends with Gal Gadot, and depending on how you feel about her as an actress, your mileage with this film will vary. Thankfully, Gal shows tremendous growth in a leading role, and when you look at where she was just a few years ago, she’s almost unrecognizable in terms of talent. There are a few rough line reads, but her physicality has become her biggest strength as a performer. For all of the crying the Internet did about her not having enough “muscle” to be in the role, Gal has transformed herself into being a convincing Diana Prince. She, as well as the various other talents involved, recognize that Diana is more than just muscle, and that her battles can be fought with wisdom. Gal delivers these moments with genuine emotion and rigid screen presence to transform Diana into the character many of us saw growing up throughout our favorite comic-book arcs.
Despite other various elements that seem to be frustrating most audience members, I think that Patty Jenkins’ direction is as good as it could have been. Much of this film is littered with potholes and tedious speed bumps, all byproducts of a script that doesn’t really work at being the best version of itself. Jenkins saves this by understanding how themes, motivation, and conflict can evolve through patient storytelling techniques. Unlike most sequels, Wonder Woman 84, takes a step back and observes the templates of selfishness, pride, and power. This isn’t accentuated through explosive setpieces designed to thrill audiences into a mindless lull, it is rather utilized in the moments between characters to amplify the seeds of something more. This doesn’t always work, but when it matters the most, it certainly does. WW84 uses the opening flashback to lay the groundwork for how Diana learns to face consequences in light of how and why she “cheats”. This is a thread that is tied on this end of this film, and Patty finds a way to intertwine that through three central characters.
As I mentioned earlier, WW84 juggles the template of power, as well as selfishness and pride. In many ways selfishness is very much working in tandem with power when it’s abused for personal gain. Thankfully, this movie understands that the hero is just as guilty of falling prey to selfishness as the villains. What the script chooses to do, is make Diana passive and live with the consequences of her choices, instead of the choices of someone else. This allows Diana to have to grapple with herself, as well as the people who begin to abuse the same powers she had at her disposal. Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig are admirable in their respective roles as the film’s antagonists. Unlike the hero, these two succumb to the power of selfishness and what it grants them in light of what they never had. This mystical plot mechanism imbues them with tremendous power and they react to it abusively en route to taking their villainous turn required for the third act set piece. What’s most fascinating about how it affects Max Lord, is that he becomes everything that plagued him growing up. This works well in comparison to Diana. Someone who was born with it all, and still resorted to a part of her selfishness to recapture something she once lost. This gives both the hero and villain a mutual interest, tying them to the mechanisms of power and selfishness, but showing Diana as the one who never fully succumbs to the temptation. Which allows the final confrontation between the two to be a battle of mental strength, instead of a (typical) brutish slugfest.
With all of this being said, and being personally invested in the sincere approach to Diana taking on the suffocating grips of power, WW84 has some issues. It’s clear that Geoff Johns should no longer be involved in the screenwriting process for these movies. He essentially became a token for DC’s biggest fans to push him into these movies because he has a recent history with DC comics. In this movie there are a lot of parallels to comic-books in terms of structure, tone, and well… dated material. So much so that it feels like the script for this only went through a first draft, and even then, it feels like it was skimmed through. None of these elements break the movie, but they leave the audience wondering, “What the hell were they thinking?” Most of this revolves around the resurrection of Steve Trevor, and having Chris Pine back is admittedly great, but the presentation in which they brought him back raises various questions. Some of them within the context of the film, as well as morally questionable. This, as well as how the film chooses to represent Egyptian leaders as clichéd Nationalists. It’s something that has been in blockbuster movies for a long time, and for a movie that is made with billions of dollars, in hoping to make multi-millions, it’s a shame they can’t offer up the proper representation for people who haven’t been for so long. These are a few examples that inadvertently contradict much of the film’s messages and themes. In many ways, one could say that WW84 is a great representation of well-intentioned film-makers and stubborn studio heads clashing over the messages of the film in the modern era.
So I ask; What do we want out of these movies?
For many years the status quo seemed to be whatever mundane and familiar film came out of the MCU’s slate. When Man of Steel came along, many people made it clear they wanted some deviations from the MCU. Now, seven years removed from MOS, and the MCU still in their prime, WW84 bursts onto TV and theater screens simultaneously, and it’s “abhorrently silly”? There isn’t anything wrong with someone subjectively being upset or bothered by WW84, but I think the conversation of what we want out of these movies has to start here. For many years people were vocal about staying true to the roots of the comic-book material. Some disagreed and wanted film-makers to be inspired by them, instead of directly replicating what we already love. The dialogue over CBMs and their appeal has grown tiresome, but just when I thought we needed a ridiculous, conceptually silly movie where the McGuffin is a wishing rock, and it’s, “way too silly”. Different strokes for different folks; but what does this subgenre have to do to be, “the Westerns of the modern era”? For myself, there is enough variety for me to analyze what I clearly gravitate to, what I don’t, and what does a little bit of both just right. I feel as if there’s a bit more frustration leaning into this film because we value our time so greatly under the circumstances (and when the movie is rough, we want to live tweet how we feel in the moment instead of letting the movie sit with us), but at the heart of these movies, all of ‘em, they’re completely silly.
WW84 is really an emblem for comic-books and their inherent flaws, as well as their glorious charm. Is there a world in which we’ll get a proper transfer between mediums? Maybe, but this isn’t it, and I feel, in a broader sense, that we need to reevaluate how these movies exist, to allow this to be that world. Because the sincerity and execution of the themes is genuinely thoughtful, and thought provoking. The themes diagnosis the titular hero and her flaws, allows her to embrace them, to overcome them, and to preach to people who need to hear it. It’s a movie that is captivated by the values that the truth holds over lies. How cheating our way to what we want will do more harm to us (and consequently those around us), than holding ourselves to the facts of the matter, and living with telling ourselves what we need to hear, rather than what we want to. In a domestic world ravaged by a political lunatic who creates an avalanche of lies to create a reality that doesn’t exist because he is mentally incapable of holding power, and cheats other people of their power so he can harness it, WW84 kind of nailed it. Diana may be passive until the plot begins to ask more of her, but she exists as a conduit into experiencing a 35 year-old reality that hasn’t aged a bit.
We’re so beholden to the past. The feelings and emotions of a previous era that make us feel alive again, as if it was some better reality completely unrecognizable from our own. When in actuality, holding onto the past doesn’t allow us to grow and evolve into people who need to feel some semblance of letting go to get to where we need to be for the betterment of ourselves. That is clear as day when Diana makes her toughest choice in the film, and it is executed so well that it makes every confusing, baffling, bizarre decision up to that point seem not so bad. I get it, WW84 isn’t the movie we dreamt it would be, nor did it match or replicate the heights of the film that came before, but for the first time since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and even some of Joel Schumacher’s (wildly underrated) Batman Forever, has a superhero movie understood that embracing the inherent camp allows sincerity to flourish, and that it outweighs having to make complete sense. With that in mind, this movie constantly holds itself to the truth of what it is, and never once lies to itself to be something it isn’t, and in the current superhero climate… that is wonderful.