Wonder Woman 1984
HBO Max
Pupule rating 3.5 (out of 4)
Unlike 2020 or its preceding decade of superhero filmology, WW84 is willing to strip everything down. No multiple plot lines. No snarky lead character. Even the villain played by Kristin Wiig loses all semblance of humor and low self-esteem, replacing it with… evil?
In WW84, Pedro Pascal plays the supervillain who steals a relic of the past that turns out to be a tool of destruction to anyone who possesses it. Pascal is effective enough, but is he truly evil as Max Lord? Not quite enough, for my taste.
With the plot simplified to one basic question, one that is elemental to all human beings of any age, the film is relying on an extreme level of theatrical suspension of reality. It is at its best when Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are on screen, and when Diana finally unearths the truth of truths to him — “I will never love again” — I got a chill.
I wanted more from WW84, but it served its purpose. It entertained a global audience on Christmas Day of the worst year in the past century for much of planet earth. I take solace in that. Hopefully, the next Wonder Woman script has a few layers for us to nestle in.
I could watch Gadot as Wonder Woman forever. She takes the original on-screen star power of Lynda Carter — who shows up in a neat scene during the post-credits — and elevates it. Certainly helpful is the blueprint of co-producers Patty Jenkins and Gadot. Unlike the first Gadot-Wonder Woman of 2017, which had a distracting number of "requisite" booty shots of the superheroine, WW84 allows the action and script do the maneuvering.
Wonder Woman isn't quite as single-minded and puritan as Silver Surfer, but her purity as a warrior and as a woman dedicated to her soulmate are both admirable and, at times, hmm, predictable. I'm not a great fan of Deadpool and Harley Quinn, both too irreverent and repetitive by nature for my liking. But Gadot's WW could use a little more of a supporting group — maybe I've been brainwashed by Marvel's flicks. Maybe it doesn't seem to cut through the middle when it comes to humor and Marvel's silver-screen superheroes. They either make fun of the world, or they get as bland as the aforementioned Silver Surfer. Or maybe it just isn't fair to compare DC and Marvel in any way.
Somewhere in between, Wonder Woman could have a niche. Looking forward to that day. In the end, Gadot and Jenkins ask: what is the difference between a wish for ourselves, and a wish for humanity? Can they co-exist, or is one wish fated to destroy the other? It is a fair question, and an eternal one to consider in a world that grew much, much smaller in 2020.
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