Pictured Above: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ brought a resurgence to movie theaters. It stars Gal Gadot as the title character, along with Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal and Chris Pine.
Courtesy of IMDB
As movie theaters reopened in the fall, there was one thing on the mind of every theater manager, usher and box office attendee — Wonder Woman 1984. In their minds, it would provide a much needed resurrection of the movie theater experience.
When it finally hit theaters (and, unfortunately, HBOMax), theaters did see a slight uptick in attendance rates.
While I regard WW84 highly for its business, I think there were weak points in the writing and production.
Patty Jenkins’ sequel to her own Wonder Woman brought back Gal Gadot and Chris Pine from the first film to reprise their roles as Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. It also brought in new stars in Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live) as Cheetah and Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) as Maxwell Lord.
The cast all delivered amazing performances — particularly Pedro Pascal, who has recently come into the celebrity limelight in projects like The Mandalorian and Triple Frontier. Pascal’s Lord is a complex character with thoughts and emotion, and Pascal portrays a descent into pseudo-madness perfectly.
Wiig, who had gotten heat for her subpar acting before, also seemed to step up in this film to deliver a convincing character.
Where the film fell short was in its writing and directing. Overall, it felt too focused on getting a message across to viewers instead of delivering a solid superhero-movie action plot line. There were montages devoted to cinematography and defining good and evil, but little development in terms of real stakes or struggle. The final conflict in the story felt too easy for Wonder Woman to win, and the past setting added to the reduced stakes. If everything is semi-fine when it comes time for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, then what’s the real threat of this film?
My rating of Wonder Woman 1984 is a 5/10. I think casual fans of superhero movies or Wonder Woman would enjoy the film, but those more in touch with the DCEU or MCU may find it bland.
