There is a question that comes up in some way shape or form throughout Wonder Woman 1984: What do you want? That question is what ultimately sets the plot in motion, giving all the major players in the film something they wanted, or at least, something they thought they wanted, and dealing with the price that they may not have seen coming. It’s interesting having this take place in the 80s, a decade in America that is defined by excess, the era of the “greed is good” mantra. In a moment when 80s nostalgia has reached a peak, it’s refreshing to see a film actively engage with the time period as opposed to simply using it as a backdrop, no matter how cartoonish the aesthetics may be.
As far as the plot goes, that’s where the film suffers the most. Basically, we find Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) now working at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, and often saving people in secret as Wonder Woman. She prevents a robbery of a jewelry store at a mall, not realizing that the store has a stash of antiquities that they sell on the black market. The FBI soon confiscate the items, and send them over to the Smithsonian for identification. One item soon stands out, an ancient stone, one that claims to grant wishes to anyone who possesses it.
Naturally, she doesn’t believe it, nor does her co-worker, the awkward and soft-spoken Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), though they both end up speaking their greatest wish to the stone. Diana asks for the return of Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) while Barbara asks to be like Diana, powerful, confident, walks in heels without tripping over herself. Both wishes are granted. In comes Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), a seemingly affluent business tycoon and TV personality who is in reality a con-man whose oil company is nowhere near as lucrative as he suggests – gee, I wonder who he’s a stand-in for. Maxwell steals the stone for his own nefarious purposes, thus setting the plot in motion.
I really enjoyed the first Wonder Woman, and while I didn’t have as much of an issue with its final act as some, it is the one less than stellar aspect of that film that really stands out, and Patty Jenkins coming out to say she was forced to add the CG-fest by the studio is somewhat validating. With her returning to Wonder Woman 1984 as director and co-writer with Geoff Johns and David Callaham, she gets the chance to double down on her own style and sensibilities, which shine through quite a bit. From the beginning, it is significantly more colorful and joyous than the previous film, sometimes bordering on camp, and these indulgences into very classical superhero moments is when the film is at its absolute best.
When it falters, it comes close to overpowering those joyous elements, and more often than not, the sloppiness of its plotting comes at the expense of character. Both Barbara and Maxwell start from a solid place, but as things keep going, the reason behind their actions become less clear, especially as it hits the final act. Barbara, aka Cheetah from the comics, essentially gets the Two-Face from The Dark Knight treatment. With the stone operating like a monkey’s paw, Barbara gets her powers and grows fond of them, but she loses more and more of her humanity. Although, her confrontations with Diana come across like they came from a personal place, often mentioning Diana’s condescension, that never came across in their previous encounters.
Meanwhile, you have Maxwell, who – apologies if you count this as a spoiler, it happens fairly early and it’s necessary to describe the context – wishes himself to become the stone itself. It makes sense that he initially spends quite a bit of time having people wish things through him that would benefit him and his pocket. However, after that, he just starts granting wishes willy-nilly, which naturally causes absolute chaos, and I couldn’t fathom why he keeps doing this. Is the stone somehow alive, and feeding off everyone’s wishes? Does it possess him, since it affects him physically? I’m not entirely sure as the film doesn’t provide a concrete answer. He just wants “more,” which is thematically relevant, I suppose, but something got lost on the way there.
That aside, the film has a couple memorable action set-pieces, most of which overcome some awkward staging through sheer verve and enthusiasm. Jenkins, her cinematographer Matthew Jenkins, and composer Hans Zimmer know how to make things look and feel spectacular and wondrous. There’s an awe to how Wonder Woman is presented here that is missing from so much superhero media these days. We’ve become so desensitized to these kinds of images, and I love that Jenkins aims to bring back that sense of wonder, evoking the Richard Donner Superman film.
The performances here are pretty strong across the board. Gal Gadot is terrific here, really taking this character and owning it, and I feel she gets to show a bit more range this time around as well, and her chemistry with Chris Pine is just as electric, though less sensuous as it was the first time. I will say that the method in bringing back Steve Trevor is flimsy at best, and raised some uncomfortable questions that I could not stop thinking about. Though I eventually let it go when Steve does an outfit montage. Pine is just so endlessly endearing in this role. Pascal and Wiig go the most broad here, which works well for the tone that the film sets up, but it detracts in really selling the emotional underpinnings behind the characters. The CG for Cheetah is not great, but prior to that, Wiig proves to be more than capable in action scenes. It made me wonder how much more interesting things would be if she wasn’t stuck playing second fiddle to Maxwell, instead building a dynamic that’s closer to the comics.
Wonder Woman 1984 is an entertaining experience, one that is certainly flawed, but also one that remains engaging despite them. It’s an ambitious sequel that follows an already ambitious and trailblazing origin film, and sadly, it doesn’t surpass that first film in most respects. That isn’t to say there isn’t any value aside from its desire to entertain an audience, I love that the film can be boiled down to a fairly simple morality tale, which makes sense considering how this one skews a bit younger in terms of demographic. It’s a story about coming to terms with what you have, that getting what you want often requires work and sacrifice, and while past mistakes and losses might be hard to deal with, trying to undo them won’t allow you to grow. I wish the film took that simple idea, and explored it in a way that was more straightforward and efficient, though I do think it ends on a wonderful note, I loved how the conflict was ultimately resolved. However, as unwieldy as it gets, not to mention its inclusion of a deeply questionable and regressive sequence set in Egypt, it never forgets that Wonder Woman’s greatest strength is her compassion, and I think that’s important, and it’s an approach that we could always use more of in these movies.
Wonder Woman 1984 is now out in theaters and HBO Max