Amph "What I do is not up to you." - Wonder Woman 1984

I find it bothersome nowadays when it's said, "it's a comic book movie, don't expect much from it;" especially when a couple of comic book movies have received an Oscar nomination for "Best Picture" and one that received an Oscar for "Best Animated Film." When I read those types of comments, I feel like super hero films still have a stigma attached to them; that they can't be taken as serious cinematic pieces of art nor rise above and beyond the imagery and notions of the 1966 Batman film; that super hero films can't be held to any standards of quality because it can excused and justified as being just a "super hero movie." Not that every super hero has to be Oscar worthy, but that audiences can have a higher expectation from a super hero movie; that you don't have to check you brain at the door in order to enjoy it.

I honestly felt Wonder Woman 1984 would have an Orwellian feel and tones to it with one of the title of the film including "1984" and one of the first teaser image being:



I remember watching the trailer and seeing Wonder Woman taking out cameras because of the increasing "Big Brother" surveillance of the public. That wasn't the case.

I would have thought that Maxwell Lord would have played the Orwellian type of villain that would dispense propaganda and disinformation to obtain a level of power and enact his own form of law and begin to rob society of its own free will. But I'm judging Wonder Woman 1984 on those impressions of the title or promo material. The film as it is didn't deliver much.

The "Monkey Paw" Maxwell Lord really didn't have any rules, end game or satisfying conclusion; very generic bad guy stuff. I felt the defeat (if you can really qualify it as such) of Maxwell Lord, is far more lame that the "Martha scene" in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

To me, Barbara Minerva/Cheetah came off like The Amazing Spider-Man 2's Max Dillion/Electro.


Wonder Woman 1984 started of well enough with a young Diana learning a moral lesson about cheating, but that lesson really doesn't play out in the movie nor is there a nice bookend to it.

Wonder Woman's powers changed to meet the challenge of the moment (magical spells, web slinging on bolts of lighting, flying), challenged my suspension of disbelief and really under cut any tension or drama to be had. There was probably only one moment in the film that I felt Diana was in danger and that wasn't in the final "battle" with Maxwell Lord and therefore anti-climatic and unsatisfying. At the end of the movie, there seemed to be no consequences suffered by Maxwell Lord.

I did not find Wonder Woman 1984 a good film with a few flaws, but rather the opposite; a bad film with a few good moments of action and humor. It's such a shame too because Gal Gadot is a charismatic and attention grabbing Wonder Woman.

 

Patty Jenkins confirms Woner Woman 3

I hope she learned her lesson with that 2nd one.

 

i finally saw Wonder Woman 84 a couple weeks ago and after all the bad reviews i've heard, i didn't think it was bad.

 

I thought it was great.

 

I wanted to like it, the actors did a lot with some crazy material, but the plot was just too nonsensical.

 

Gal Gadot, Kristen Wiig, Chris Pine (Kristoffer Polaha), and Pedro Pascal

It's basically Smokeshow: The Movie

 

I did appreciate that the villains' motivations were clear...you could see where they had come from and why they were doing what they were doing. They weren't just randomly trying to take over the world. And having been in my teens & twenties in the 80s, was laughing as a lot of stuff rang true, though I did think Diana looked a bit more modern in her fashion. Her shoulder pads weren't NEARLY big enough!

 

Fun fact: if the pandemic hadn't happened, every major CBM released in 2020 would have been directed by a woman.

 

Wonder Woman 1984 and Superman Quest for Peace are the only comic book movies that's been available for home viewing once. I've seen Halle Berry's Catwoman a couple of times as well as George Clooney's Batman and Robin. I have never seen Shaq's Steel.

 

#Adorkable

 

This is how I see it, and how I approached it the second time to see if I would enjoy it more. But my issue, in that context, is that it’s not goofy enough. So it’s like an 80s movie without the fun stuff.