“Wonder Woman 1984” – An HONEST Review

“Wonder Woman 1984” was directed by Patty Jenkins, written by Jenkins alongside Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, and stars Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, and Pedro Pascal costar in this highly anticipated sequel to one of DC’s best films. However, this sequel was very disappointing to me, considering that the first “Wonder Woman” was so great.

I’ll start with the positives. Pedro Pascal’s performance as Maxwell Lord, one of the film’s two villains, was great. He was charismatic and cheesy while still feeling relatable. The movie also tried to make its other villain, Barbara Minerva/the Cheetah sympathetic, but she didn’t work nearly as well. I also liked how colorful and beautiful the film was; the cinematography and visual effects were fantastic. And of course, Gal Gadot was once again perfect as the title character.

The film’s main problem is its abysmal script. For example (NOT a spoiler), the film revolves around a magic stone that can grant incredible wishes. The amount of times I rolled my eyes at scenes with this stone was ridiculous. It is explained with only a few lines of dialogue and with references to the short story, “The Monkey’s Paw,” but if you’re going to have a magic stone in your movie, you need a lot more explanation than that to justify it.

Another problem with the script was that it sidelined Wonder Woman. Cheetah and Maxwell Lord had much more screen time and development than her, and it seemed like Wonder Woman was forgotten in her own movie. It’s really a shame. Plus, Cheetah did not work for me at all. Kristen Wiig gave a fine performance as the character, but she was written so poorly. Barbara Minerva was super underdeveloped, and her turn to evil was way too fast and jarring. She barely had any moments that would indicate her becoming the villain before she eventually did. She just sort of appeared and quickly decided to be evil at one point, and her reasoning to turn from a human to a cat was almost non-existent.

The action scenes were another disappointment to me. The original film had super enthralling and stylish action set pieces, while the ones that are in this film are honestly just lame and goofy. There is nothing memorable about the action scenes at all, and the way Wonder Woman used her lasso was so campy that it made me chuckle more than a few times. This film felt like it was made by people who were burnt out and was shot with an unfinished script.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but I don’t recommend “Wonder Woman 1984.” I just don’t know what happened; this film had the same talented director as the first, passionate actors, and a huge budget. It’s really a shame. I appreciate that the movie has a hopeful tone that fits the holiday spirit and could uplift people who have struggled during the disaster that is 2020, but the movie was not nearly as good as its themes. Unfortunately, I’ll probably never watch this again.

Grade: D

My review of “JOKER,” DC’s best film in a long time: https://reelopinion.com/2020/06/30/review-of-joker/