Wonder Woman 1984 Review
Wonder Woman 1984 Review (Warning – Spoilers Incoming)
Wonder Woman 1984, initially this movie was to be released
in June 2020 but then something happened in this world that changed everything
I can’t exactly remember what and then they postponed it to TBA. Then Warner
Brother Studios decided to go fully digital because they are betting that most
people won’t be flooding the movie theatres anytime soon and this will be a
great boost to their online streaming service HBO Max. So, Wonder Woman 1984
released worldwide in theatres and online at the same time, this Christmas.
I was excited to see this movie because it had been so
long that a new superhero big budget movie came out. I was also excited to see
one of my favourite comedian Kristen Wiig from SNL in a different role and
Pedro Pascal from the Mandalorian as an evil guy.
The film was shot in IMAX but there are only two scenes
in it. The starting and the end. That is a huge let down. Anyway, the movie
begins with the Olympic Games of Amazon being held and young Diana is
participating with all the grownups. You will like this whole sequence because
of its beautiful cinematography and also because IMAX, this provides a great
start to an otherwise just an okay movie.
I was conflicted of them bringing Chris Pine back as
what possible reason could they have for doing so and I didn’t want it to be a
cliched move where they bring a lead character back from the dead. But turns
out that Patty Jenkins and the team made the whole story around it. So, the
year is 1984 we see Princess Diana who goes by her more subtle civilian name
Diana Prince working as an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Museum. Here she
meets Minerva played by Kristin Wiig, who is just a nobody as nobody wants to
talk to her or know who even she is. Minerva immediately befriends Diana just
because she acknowledged her and soon starts to idolize her.
The museum receives some new artifacts one of which is
the DREAMSTONE made a trickster evil God. It grants people one wish but takes
something from them that they value most. Minerva and Diana don’t believe it is
real yet but make a wish anyway. So, Minerva wishes to be like Diana. Diana
wishes for her love, Steve back. Steve Trevor souls comes back and inhabits
another person’s body, but Diana is the only one who can see Trevor in it. On
the other side we have this billionaire business man named Maxwell Lord, not
even hiding the fact that he is evil going by the name. He manages to get his
hands onto the Dreamstone and makes the ultimate wish. You ever thought to
yourself what will I do if I had 3 wishes and then say the first wish would be
to have unlimited wishes. Yeah, that’s what he did. Max Lord wished to be the
Dreamstone itself. So now he is a walking-talking wish granter.
So, Minerva realizes that she is getting stronger and
sexier, meanwhile Max Lord is going about meeting up with his enemies granting
them their wish but taking what they value most and basically removing any and
all of his competition from the world.
Just like in the previous movie when Princess Diana
first comes into the new world, she is surprised by all the new things she sees
similarly now Steve Trevor is surprised by all the new things he sees after 6
decades of being gone. Things like, trains, escalators, break dancing, a dustbin
cute right.
So, Max Lord goes to Cairo to get a lot of oil for his
company from a billionaire tycoon. So naturally Diana and Steve steal a plan
that was in the backyard of the Smithsonian Museum fuelled up and ready to fly
with no security. Convenient as hell. I never realized stealing a plane was
this easy. On their trip to Cairo Steve gives her lessons on how to FLY WITH
THE WIND and BE ONE WITH IT and Diana makes the Plane invisible by rubbing her
hands and doing some magic. When your superhero character isn’t enough to
appease the audience just make them do magic. Easy on the script and maybe
people will call it COOOOOOOOL.
Now by this point more then an hour has gone by in the
movie and we haven’t seen much action. Till now I was thinking maybe this is a
rom com movie and not a DC movie. But finally, we see some action here when
Wonder Woman is fighting Max Lord’s newly acquired army faction. While eagerly
watching this scene, I started to think that Wonder Woman is supposed to be
almost as powerful as Superman but she seems super weak here. I mean she
started bleeding from a bullet wound. Am I missing something here? Turns out I
was. Her wish to have back Steve was slowly taking her powers away the thing
that she values most.
Now is where the movie goes bat shit crazy. Till this
point the movie was a superhero rom com light hearted adventures in the world.
But now it takes an insane turn. It is chaos everywhere. Max Lord returns to
America. He has this meeting with other rich people and gets even more rich.
Because as one wise man once said, the answer is always more. Then he goes to
the White House and meets with the President and asks him what does he desire
most? And if you are thinking that the President is a sensible person and will
say something like peace or more resources or diplomacy just throw your garbage
ideas in the garbage because he goes straight for more nuclear weapons near to
their enemy’s site. Ultimate destruction leading to mutually assured destruction.
This as you can imagine starts a world war of nukes. No pressure.
Max Lord takes all the powers that a president has and
then basically declares himself the leader of the world and demands a worldwide
telecast to have all the wishes of all the people granted. Oh, and all these
wish granting is destroying his body but he knows that he can just take the health
of all the people. The only way to reverse the damage caused by the DREAMSTONE
is to Renounce your wish. Killing him might be an option but since when do
superheroes KILL their main villains? How did the first one end?
Finally, Steve convinces Diana to renounce her wish.
Here is a sad scene in which she cries says that she can’t say goodbye. Can’t she
have just this one thing for all the good she does and has been doing since
forever. I guess that is what being a superhero means. She renounces her wish,
regains her strength, learns how to fly, returns home and dons the armor of the legendary Amazon warrior Asteria.
Oh and remember that awesome scene from the trailer where she is lassoing her
way through thunder strikes. Very cool right, so be prepared for a whole 4
seconds worth of it in the movie.
She goes to the secret
hideout where Max Lord has his live telecast to the world. She meets with
Minerva who is now an apex predator like a Cheetah. And thus, begins an intense
CGI battle. It is here for the first time we hear the theme music from the previous
Wonder Woman film that everyone loves. By using the oldest trick in the book of
CGI shooting in the dark, Patty Jenkins manages to get away with some bad press
but what is really evident here is just the standard of CGI in many scenes especially
involving the Lasso of Truth. It almost feels like fake or cartoonish
sometimes. It really should have been better and plus should have been shot in
IMAX. A missed opportunity for the big final fight scene. Yes, that is right
this is the 2nd and the last fight scene. No final boss battle
today. I really hoped there was more action in a superhero movie but I guess
bad CGI would have let me down so I guess it was for the better. Wonder Woman
defeats Cheetah not killing her she goes inside the bunker.
So how did Wonder Woman
defeat Max Lord? By having a conversation with him and awakening the humanity
in him. As Maxwell Lord is telecasting himself to the rest of the world,
granting all their wishes Wonder Woman attaches her lasso to him without him
realizing because she is unable to get close to him. Then she speaks to the
people of earth and with some positive reinforcement that everything is good in
this earth as long as you have each other she convinces everyone to renounce
their wish, even the rich billionaires and dictators, jee science fiction much.
Finally, Maxwell Lord also renounces his wish to save his son. And all the
chaos ends and the movie has a happy ending. Don’t know exactly whether Maxwell
Lord was sent to prison or not.
Now the last scene is
shot in IMAX I don’t know why because it’s just Diana meeting the person whose
body Steve Trevor was in and its Christmas time.
My Thoughts
If you are looking for
an action-packed superhero film you must not watch this. This movie is an
uplifting light hearted movie with a deep message for the people and less about
fighting. It is not a classic DC movie. It is unlike most of the superhero
movies that you may have seen. You may not like this one because of it taking a
different turn. You wait and wait for some action but there is none. The acting
by the leading casts is good. Direction should have been better. Locations and
the theme of 1980’s is captured well. The 2 best things about this movie are
Gal Gadot and the music by legendary Hans Zimmer. Seriously go listen to this
soundtrack THEMYSCIRA (link in the desorption) If you thought the previous
soundtrack was catchy, you won’t be disappointed here. There should have been
more scenes in IMAX format and better CGI. Fighting scenes are surely missed. I
did not get any goosebumps in this movie.
Post Credit scene -
Lynda Carter appears as Asteria saving a kid in a busy city street.
Wonder Woman part 3 has
been confirmed by Warner Brothers but before that there is going to be the Zack
Snyder cut release of Justice League in 2021 where we will see Wonder Woman
again.
Must Watch
Should Watch
Can Watch - Yes maybe.
Don’t Watch
Review on my website click here
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Part 2
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