THE STRANGENESS OF 2020
2020 has been an unusual year for the film industry... and everything else for that matter. The last time I was in a movie theater was on Valentine's Day to see SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. I miss going to the movies, the darkened auditorium, and the shared experience of seeing something new for the first time. And I miss the excitement of new films approaching their release dates, starting the week knowing that Thursday I was going to the theaters. It's a relatively small thing missing from my life compared to the grand scheme of things, and compared to what we've all lost this year. 2020 has changed a lot about life as we knew it. And it continues to change.
I watched WONDER WOMAN 84 last night, not in the movie theaters, but at home streaming on HBO MAX. It was strange. I was excited when the movie was starting, that feeling of seeing something new that I had been looking forward to for a long time. But after a while it lost that thrill, when I could turn to my computer, check the internet, discuss the movie aloud, and look around at my home surroundings. It no longer felt special, rather just another choice on another streaming service among an ocean of choices of things to watch. There is so much more to a theatrical experience than that of in your own home. But, you know, COVID is still keeping many of us from the theaters.
ON TO THE MOVIE
I really enjoyed the first Wonder Woman from 2017. Other than the ending I felt the film was solid. So naturally I was really looking forward to WW84 and loved the trailer. The remix of Blue Monday got the blood flowing and ratcheted up the excitement. I can't help but feel like some of that excitement was stunted by the six month Covid delay from June to December. But still, with so many movies still delayed, WW84 being the first to release on this dual Theatrical/HBO MAX method, and the first new movie I've seen since February, there was a lot of pressure on this film and high expectations... which it failed to live up to.
Is it good? Not really. I'd go so far as to say that it's subpar as it's missing several basic elements such as finished CGI effects and basic editing. As much as I dislike the sequel Star Wars trilogy they at least had great special effects. Director Patty Jenkins makes some rather strange choices with the pacing, the action set pieces, and the overall logic of the film. It even fails to capture the feel and style of the 1980's. Overall most of the film just didn't land well with me.
Wonder Woman 84 comes across as mildly entertaining at best. Forgettable at worst.
THE PLOT (spoilers)
A mystic stone that grants wishes is unearthed. An oil tycoon/self-help televangelist named Maxwell Lord assumes the power of the stone, manipulating the wishes of others for his own benefit. But the wishes come with a price, a price that begins tearing the world apart. Diana must stop Maxwell Lord before the world erupts into World War III.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
I was very excited to see this movie. So excited that I started watching it at 10:00 o'clock at night. I realized this was a bad decision fairly soon into the movie by its dawdling pace. The plot feels like its meandering for the first half of the film. There is a lack of urgency to the pace and the characters themselves. What should sound like something fresh compared to the frenetic scatterbrained approach from MARVEL just came across as annoying and frustrating.
The last DC movie I watched was THE JOKER (I skipped Birds of Prey or whatever pretentious title that movie had). The Joker was slow too but it always maintained an uneasiness and tension to keep you interested. There are slow films and then there are boring films. WW84 borders on being the latter.
Since it's a prequel to the other DCEU films the events herein feel inherently inconsequential. Even when Diana loses her powers at one point there's a distinct lack of peril. From the moment Steve Trevor returns its obvious that Diana will have to give him up in order to defeat the villain. Nothing good results from this story nor does anything catastrophic last. Diana's story and the greater world of the DCEU is the same at the end of the movie as it was at the beginning.
If there was one obvious piece missing from the movie it was a lack of an editor. The movie is far too long with many sequences feeling haphazardly assembled. The opening sequence on Themyscira came across annoying in that Diana kept cheating time and time again even though she is physically stronger in every way to the others. The point of the scene was for Diana to learn that there aren't any short cuts in life and cheating isn't the answer, a lesson which doesn't really come back in a poignant way later like it should. Then we enter into a overly long and unnecessarily flamboyant action set piece. The action in this film is bland in general, maybe the weakest of all of Gal Gadot's DCEU fight scenes.
Then there's the new powers. I get the invisible plane reference, but how it becomes invisible, by Diana simply focusing, seemed awfully convenient and contrived. Then there's the varying length of the lasso, seemingly as long as the plot needs it to be (not to mention lassoing nothing and everything). And finally Diana learning to fly seemed to come (once again) all too conveniently. I know she can fly in the comics (she couldn't always fly though), but in addition to everything else she can do the power of flight seemed a step too far. And how did she get the armor from Themyscira? And why, after getting her power back, does she even need armor? It would be like giving the Hulk or Superman armor. And it's armor on top of armor too. The armor also looked terrible too with poorly rendered CGI.
The villains seemed somewhat benign as well. Maxwell Lord certainly drives the plot but he's neither despicable nor sympathetic. Instead he's rather one note and more annoying than anything. Cheetah seems to only be there to keep Diana from getting to Maxwell Lord. I never get the feeling from her that she's going to kill Diana or do anything truly villainous either. She's simply there. There's nothing wrong with a villainous bodyguard for the central antagonist, but the film spends too much time building her up to ultimately amount to very little. And there seems to be a missing piece of plot in regards to her transformation into a cat lady, namely the why and the how (why a cheetah? how does she get a second wish?). And of course there's the, yet again, terribly rendered CGI effects of Cheetah. Taylor Swift in CATS looked better and more like Cheetah from the comics too.
Now for something positive for a change: I love the actors. I enjoyed seeing Gal Gadot and Chris Pine reunited again. I enjoyed seeing Robin Writer and Connie Nielsen again. And it was jarring to see Pedro Pascal in this role after freshly coming off of The Mandolorian. Kristen Wiig was fine as Cheetah too but it would've been nice had both villains been employed better. I feel this extends to all of the characters in the film though. Sadly great actors do not a great movie make.
The plot leaves much to be desired with plot holes galore when one takes into account the greater DCEU. Why in the films set in the future doesn't anyone remember when the world nearly ended in 1984? And Diana didn't exactly keep a low profile in this film when it was previously established that she dropped off the face of the earth after WWI. Then there's the weird plot point in which Steve is in another person's body... and Diana is sleeping with that "other" person's body. Why couldn't Steve just manifest as himself? Especially when nukes and a 100 foot stone wall can all manifest out of thin air anyway. And how did Maxwell Lord get outside of said wall? The list of questions goes on.
Another terribly disappointing aspect of the film was the great composer Hans Zimmer. He scarcely used that AMAZING Wonder Woman theme ("Wonder Woman's Wrath" or "Is She With You?"). His typically noteworthy work merely fades into the background here.
THE VERDICT
I've only watched the movie once so tell me if I missed something or am way off base. But the sad thing is that I have no desire to watch it again. This may be a one and done for me as I don't even feel compelled to buy it when it comes out on video. I struggle to find positives to say about the film. It's subpar on many standards and oh so mediocre. It's trying to be Superman 2 or Spider-Man 2 but ends up being Batman Forever.
I wished I liked the movie. I wanted to so very bad. If you like it, please continue to like it. But for me it felt like a significant drop off from the last film in the series.
Overall Ranking: 4 out of 10
For more of my thoughts on the DC Extended Universe films and super hero cinema in general, check out these other posts below!
