Though DC’s film universe has mostly moved on from the dark and gritty Zack Snyder-led era (finding its footing instead in fun lighter movies or standalone projects, both looser with the continuity), the franchise has kept intact the things most agree the so-called “Snyderverse” got right. The most obvious of which is its Wonder Woman, impeccably brought to life by Gal Gadot, and whose initial picture was easily the best DC universe movie, a lone light in that dark age. Sadly, the promise of that first feature evaporates pretty quickly in this sequel, which seems to be overcompensating in look and tone for the dark era that spawned it, and yet despite its opposite aesthetic is every bit as bad a film as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Maybe even worse, in fact. I’ll
say this much for BvS: it had an ambitious and clear vision, and failed because it
juggled too many plots and subplots. Wonder Woman 1984 is an overstretched,
confused movie with no handle on what it wants to be. All at once, it tries to be a modern superhero blockbuster, a strange
and goofy Silver Age comics story, an 80s nostalgia
fest, an 80s parody, a straight-up middling 80s comedy, a fable-cum-PSA about everyday moral issues, a treatise
about bigger issues, and several more things. None done particularly well, and all held
together by a story that would barely hold together if the film just picked one
of these elements and went with it.
That story finds our Amazon hero—alias
Diana Prince—in the titular mid-80s, appraising artifacts for the Smithsonian
by day, saving the day at her local mall by night. In her day job, she comes
across a rare amulet that appears to grant wishes…at a price. In her hero
capacity, she must stop shady tycoon Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) from using the
amulet’s power to take over the world. Also, her deceased lover Steve Trevor
(Chris Pine) somehow reappears in her life.
The film's barebones plot pitch has the
makings of a silly and zany old school comics story, which could have made for a
very different and refreshingly original superhero film if explored the right
way. The picture itself, however, makes of this a narrative that's convoluted and weird in all the wrong ways, and makes matters worse by burying it under a mound of undercooked subplot points. There are around a dozen irrelevant threads that feel like the
screenwriters either got bored with them but forgot to cut them from the
script, or couldn’t decide whether they should be a substantial subplot or merely a
background element or gag and sloppily split the difference by having them all just sit there, adding minutes to the runtime but not going anywhere. The film’s
release on streaming is almost a blessing for the audience, for they can rewind
to try to make some sense of what's happening. But, it’s not really worth it, because within the muddle, the standard superhero stuff is nothing to write home about.
It's too bad, because the cast is quite
apparently so much better than this movie, and do what they can. Pascal
and Kristen Wiig aren’t very good villains—in fact, they’re totally out of
their depth when the villainous schemes come to fruition (and despite the promotional materials centering him as such, Pascal is less an imitation of the outgoing President than a general sleazy corporate 80s trope). But they at least likably chew
the scenery early in the movie, and even a handful of times after everything goes south. And Pine and Gadot carry some
scenes they share superbly, as does Gadot on her own. Whether in the heat of
battle, giving a triumphant speech, or in her quieter moments, she’s so earnest
and sincere that she at times invites comparison to Christopher Reeve’s
still-immaculate performance as Superman.
Unfortunately, Wonder Woman
1984 is more like the later Reeve Superman sequels than the good
ones remembered fondly today. And while Superman III and IV were
so insubstantial that Reeve’s charm almost made them mildly watchable, this
movie is so bloated that even if it were possible, it's doubtful that even the combined efforts of
Reeve and Gadot would be able to get a handle on it.
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