Wonder Woman 1984 (a.k.a. WW84)

Overall rating:  Don't Bother

Well then. It's been a long while since we've put up a review. Life has been busy for us, and the COVID Pandemic hasn't helped things at all.

That said, we were able to view WW84 over its opening weekend. As Maryanne put it:  "I'm glad we didn't pay for that." We were able to get a short trial of HBOMAX at no cost, and that allowed us to see this film at no cost to us. We did watch it beginning to end, and had a short discussion afterwards. Below is the general summary of that conversation.

Initially, I was a bit perplexed at some of the content in this film when compared to the previous/first film and other Wonder Woman appearances in things like Justice League. One of the first things that struck me odd is that WW had a job, lived in a nice apartment in town, went out and did things in this film. Previously (Justice League), she had said at one point that she withdrew from the world for about 100 years having lost faith in humanity. So if she withdrew, how is it that she's working at a museum and entertaining dates and relationships, going out and doing the hero thing week after week somewhere in the middle of that 100 years? 

Regardless of that, within this film itself there are issues. Diana wishes for Steve to come back, and he does so (unknown to her initially because of the McGuffin plot device) but is inhabiting some other guys body. I'm pretty sure that isn't what she wished for, and I say that because at other points in the film people make wishes on this oddball crystalline plot device and the wording of the wish is followed very specifically. She wished for Steve, not his soul or essence or whatever in another body. So its not consistent (and stays that way), and we noticed this very early on.

As the film progresses, we find that the Convenient Story is very convenient to the various characters' needs. The big bad guy is in the Oval Office at one point taking power from the President, and it just so happens there are poster boards on display about a satellite system that can take control of any TV or screen across the planet. Just what the big bad guy needs to do what he wants to do with the world, and rather conveniently on display for him at just the right time.

WW learns to fly. WW learns to make thing invisible, so we can easily get the Invisible Jet just when the characters need it. Before WW learns to fly, we see that her magic lasso apparently has enough mass in itself to pull her off the ground when she throws the end of it out into the air. Physics might have something to say about that. She can also apparently lasso lightning to swing around, which I guess maybe could be explained away as possible by her being a daughter of Zeus I guess. 

Steve Trevor, the love interest, is just about wasted in this film. Other than piloting the jet once and helping out in a fight as WW has slowly been loosing her strength, he doesn't do anything else and doesn't actually help the story along.

Our other bad guy, or bad girl really, is also essentially wasted. Minerva does several thing to help Diana and Steve move the story along just like any other background character would, but she is also supposed to be an antagonist in this story and she and WW have a fight at the end. That fight was almost laughable really, and something of a waste of film in our minds. 

The real antagonist, after almost destroying the world ends up suffering no ill consequence for his actions. None. This guy brought the world from a reasonably stable place to a near-holocaust in a matter of hours. And when the McGuffin plot-device is finally destroyed (which I'm also not sure about) everything (things, not people) goes back to normal. The crystal thing which had been abused by the big bad guy, doesn't reappear after he goes back on his wish (and we're pretty sure it should have). 

This movie was very long, and it felt that way. It was tedious, boring in several places, and overall not very engaging. We could go on for several paragraphs or pages about the problems with this film, and knowing that I'm not going to bore you with a the problems that exist in just about every scene of this film. They had a good premise, and with a few tweaks it would've been a good story that could've been turned into a great screenplay. None of that happened though, and instead we got this film. There were a lot of possibilities with this film, and I was hopeful at the beginning that it would actually go places and make sense. I was hoping that the initial online reviews were being overly critical and extremely picky over every single little flaw. Turns out many of those reviews were actually being somewhat gentle to this film.

I think I can sum-up our feelings on this movie in a simple statement:  2020 was a near-complete dumpster fire because of the pandemic, and reviewing this film gives me the same feelings that this year has been giving me. Boring, tedious, lacking any real direction or plan, with everyone hoping that next day (or in this case the next scene) will have some redeeming quality and improve things overall. 

I agree with Maryanne in that I'm glad this ended up not costing us any money to see. The Director (who was also a writer on this) either lost direction during the writing and shooting of this film (which could also be why there were so many callbacks for reshoots) or somehow lost control of the process early on in shooting, resulting a lackluster, boring, waste of time and money.

That's WW84. Not a film that we'll be buying on disc when (if) it comes out. Characters are either poorly fleshed out, poorly explained, or otherwise wasted over the course of the film. The plot itself makes some sense, but the story around that plot is precarious and relies heavily on people not understanding the plot (the whole 'suspension of disbelief' thing) and just going with it for the duration. We found several spots where the story and/or characters contradict themselves (back and forth in a couple cases) and it just destroyed any sliver of believability in the plot or story behind it.

The trailers for the film related the best bits of the this movie, and there weren't really any more good bits. Things happen or can be done in the film because they need to in order for the story to happen. WW discovers new powers and abilities within herself and things she carries. New props/items/things introduced in the film and up being near useless to the film i.e. the amazon armor she's been holding onto that was explained as being impenetrable ends up coming apart during the weak and uninteresting fight between the good girl and the bad girl near the end of the film. If the armor is that strong and capable, then why does the story destroy it? And inversely if the big bad girl is just that powerful, then why spend precious film time earlier explaining about how it was made and how strong it was? Simply confusing, and that is what most of this film breeds: confusion. 

The first WW film wasn't without some issues, but it had a solid story driving a good plot that resulted in an overall good film that served as a good origin story for the character. This film did nothing to service that, and I daresay it detracted from it in no small degree. 

And before folks start attacking me because I'm a guy and fear powerful women, you need to keep in mind that many above words came from Maryanne and I echo them as I feel the same about this film as she does. This review is about the film and story, not that actors or their politics.

Having said the above, I should note that I'm happy to see a mid-credits scene with Lynda Carter. It was a nice nod to the actress herself and the years she put in playing this same character, and I was happy to see it.