Wonder Woman 1984: Film Review
We have been starved of blockbusters for the majority of this year but Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and co. are here to feed our appetites this holiday season.
As the title suggests, the action has moved to the ’80s and we’re in Washington D.C., where Diana (Gadot) works at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History while fighting crime around the city. One day, her colleague Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) receives an ancient artefact recovered from a robbery – a stone which can make wishes come true, but the wishes come with a price, as Barbara, Diana, and oil businessman Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) come to discover.
Just like the 2017 original, Wonder Woman 1984 is good but it didn’t blow me away with its amazingness. It was entertaining, has some fun moments, and provided some much-need escapism, but I didn’t come away like “that was incredible!” I think the biggest reasons for that are the long runtime – two and a half hours! – the significant amount of plot it needs to get through, and that it fails to stick the landing and give us a rip-roaring finale.
There were many elements I loved about it though. There’s plenty of action, a lot of time is given to character building (some people may not love that), and it’s got a great message. There are also some very cool shots and setpieces, everyone looks amazing, and it was more heartfelt than the first one.
Gadot’s performance is a step up from her previous turns as Wonder Woman. She brings more emotion and humanity to the role this time in a way I found rather moving and it was uplifting to see her reunited with Pine, they have great chemistry. I loved seeing him back as Steve Trevor and the ’80s culture shock gags were very entertaining. In fact, he was the only actor who made me laugh during this.
Wiig and Pascal were excellent villains. DC sometimes struggles with their antagonists but this wasn’t the case here. Wiig was the MVP of the movie and I want to see her playing more baddies from now on – she was incredible and I wish we had seen more of her as the Cheetah. Pascal throws his all into the role but hams it up quite a bit towards the end.
It’s a real shame cinemas in most parts of the U.K. will now be closed on opening day as this movie is epic and stunning and should be seen on a big screen.
In cinemas from Wednesday 16th December and on premium video-on-demand platforms in the UK from 13th January