First, let’s look at Wonder Woman the movie (2017). This movie came out of nowhere. I don’t think that anybody thought that the movie was gonna be good. I remember going to the movie theater and having little or no expectations. The casting was magnificent. From Gal Gadot to Christopher Pine, to Robin Wright to Denny Huston, the casting was just perfect. As the movie unfolds, you have this wonderful landscape of the Amazon island of Themyscira. Connie Nielsen plays the Amazon Queen and the mother of Diana. As with most of the superhero movies, the initial 15 to 30 minutes is sucked up by telling the back story. Here, we see Diana grow up. We see her become more and more competitive. We see her become stronger.
Let’s fast-forward to the trenches of World War I. There is a scene where Diana understands what she must do. She takes control of the merry band (Charlie, Samir, the Chief and Steve). Later on in the scene where Diana runs out of the trench into no man’s land – is one of the best scenes that I’ve seen in the past 10 or 15 years. It’s about grit and determination. It’s about understanding who you are and what you can do. It’s also about trying to do the most for your fellow man. Besides that, it was visually stunning. Next, we see Diana almost single-handedly taking out a German garrison that is nestled into a village. After the fighting settles down, he returned to the humanity. Charlie, for all of his bluster, really cannot shoot. Or at least, he can’t shoot anymore. Diane is a warrior. She could’ve trashed Charlie. Yet she did not. This movie was about friendships. It was about humanity. It was about a superhero being more human than the rest of us.
I’m not sure what WW 84 was about. I don’t have any idea why they decided to make a movie in 1984? Why didn’t they make a movie in World War II? Why did they make a movie about the Cold War? Instead, they pick an obscure year that seems to have no particular meaning.
Do you remember the old short story the Monkey’s Paw? Remember you to get three wishes from the monkey’s paw but there would be something odd or tragic with the wish. Like you would wish for million dollars and you find out that your wife, who you love dearly, died and her insurance policy was worth $1 million. So, only something awful to accompany your wish. Basically, that’s what this movie was about. There was some ancient artifact which could grant you one wish. Diana wishes for her beloved Steve to return. Diana’s officemate, Barbara, wishes that she could be Diana. Soon, Barbara begins to develop Diana’s strength that her speed. Unfortunately, Barbara begins to lose her humanity. She becomes cruel and mean. For Diana, we find out throughout the movie is that she begins to lose her powers. The exact reason is unclear. It is only towards the end of the movie we figure out that she is losing her powers because she wanted Steve to return. For some time, in the middle of the movie, I thought she was losing her powers because Barbara was gaining her powers. I was wrong.
There are lots of things in this movie that makes absolutely no sense. Let’s fast-forward to the final scene in which Maxwell Lord, the bad guy, played by Pedro Pascal, is using some sort of fancy satellite contraption to touch the TVs of millions upon millions of people around the world. He is granting their wishes. I have no idea why this type of incantation causes a windstorm so powerful that Diana, Wonder Woman, is stopped in her tracks. She is unable to make any headway. She tries to throw her magic lasso and that doesn’t make any headway either against the fierce winds. What?
There are several of these head scratching moments throughout the movie. Diana and Steve Trevor steal or borrow a jet from the Smithsonian. Remember that Steve Trevor was a pilot in World War I. These were single-engine prop planes basically. Yet, he is able to jump into the cockpit of a jet and with no instruction, he figures everything out. He is able to fly it without a problem. What? To make matters worse, he is flying from the United States to Cairo, Egypt.. He knows nothing about radar. He knows nothing about advanced navigation. Prof he is there. What? (He does fly back from Cairo without a problem.)
This movie did not have any of the great camaraderie that we saw in the first movie. It did not have the humanity that we saw on the first movie. It just simply doesn’t hold together as well as the first movie. I would give the first movie 9/10 stars. WW 84 gets 4/10 stars.
