Review of Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) by Jr33D — 25 Dec 2020

Yes, it’s a super hero movie, yes it’s PG13, so somewhat aimed at kids. It’s also cheesy (in both eye-rolling and fun ways). It has a terrible, convoluted plot and all the trappings of the super hero blockbuster ilk.

Oh yes and it’s really long. But none of those are the real problems with Wonder Woman 1984. The real problems are in the way the characters and story are written. At the heart of it is the flatness of Wonder Woman as a two dimensional character.

She pines (pun intended) for a single dude she loves but shows absolutely no passion for. Her character expresses virtually no humor. She never seems to get angry or express emotions with much intensity.

By contrast Kristen Wiig’s character is given too much relatability. She’s downtrodden, overlooked and under appreciated. She’s funny, self deprecating and good at her job. She wants to feel empowered and as the viewer you can’t help but hope she succeeds.

You also understand her motives which makes her a simpathetic villain who is much more interesting that the titular heroine. Similarly Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord is a (mostly) relatable villain. He wants to succeed and makes some terrible decisions to do so.

But his character is ultimately redeemed as is Wiig’s when Wonder Woman basically talks them out of being bad. Yeah. No big final showdown - no punitive ass-kicking here. She momentarily talks the world out of being selfish via mass media.

More importantly, in this part of the DC universe there’s the opportunity for strong female super heroes that girls and kids can look up to. In Wonder Woman 1984 the two female leads are either dispassionate and boring or evil and vain.

This is where Chris Pine’s character Steve comes in, making an example of self sacrifice to move the story forward and save the day. That’s right - the game-changers in a movie called Wonder Woman 1984 are both men.

And it’s a shame. The least I was expecting was for the heroine to actually fulfill the role of hero here. I kept hoping that perhaps Barbara Ann Minerva (Wiig) would come to her senses and team up with Wonder Woman to vanquish Lord and set the world straight.

But instead, Chris Pine‘s character sacrifices himself again enabling the world to be saved. And Pedro Pascal’s ”villain”? He comes to his senses and abdicates his evil power (of.......granting.

..wishes?!?) to be a good dad to his kid. Which kind of sucked the wind out of this mess of a movie altogether. The villain turns out to be a huge nothingburger. One can’t help but think moviegoers everywhere deserve a better movie than this.

But women and girls definitely deserve better written characters to believe in. Characters who are fully realized women who can stand and fall on their own. And those characters deserve better plots in which to exist.