Wonder Woman 1984: A little weird, a little boring, a little good

Yes, can you believe it yourself? Wonder Woman (aka Diana Prince) appeared in this second movie in 1984, amid leg warmers and other horror styles of the era, and still emulates her boyfriend Steve, whom she met for a week during World War I and who fell like a record. Before dying sad. Well, these two nearly ended that historic war together in the first movie, and the short love that comes under heavy pressure also creates a close bond of course. But this abilities, looks, hairdresser and stylist in Wonder Woman has sat alone on her ass for seventy years since World War I (!) Is too much to ask from the naivety of the viewer. It doesn’t make any sense, and while hitting anything isn’t totally forgiving in superhero movies, Marvel is a lot better at hitting anywhere than DC, again it turns out. The script makes some mysterious attempts to make Wonder Woman’s bachelorette more reasonable, but they are completely stranded by her undeniable amazement.

That the rest of Wonder Woman 1984 hangs on an old crystal that makes all people’s desires come true in an ancient (yet so vulgar and ugly) way that it’s instantly thrown in the trash in Between Art and Kitsch. Totally soft and funny. The brutal oil baron with failed father Maxwell Lord (played by Pedro Pascal of Narcos with great merit) snatches the crystal and makes sure that all people’s desires are fulfilled, with predictable consequences: Ultimately, it comes through the desires of ordinary people like “I want to be famous.” With it “and” I want a Porsche “from the President of the United States (” I want a hundred additional atomic bombs “) and thus it is likely in World War III. In the (long) period leading up to the movie, it turns out that Maxwell is turning the personal lives of many people upside down with his crystal wish, even with eventual geopolitical consequences. It’s up to Diana to contain Maxwell Lord’s gripping, sinister ambitions of James Bond. To Diana and Steve.

Because Wonder Woman has now also fulfilled a wish, which is to live Steve again. As a result, we get back a bit of the dynamics between these two from the first movie. But just a little bit: Because director and screenwriter Patty Jenkins didn’t dare remember Steve – who died unforgettably and starred in one movie – from the dead, Steve returns in the skin of another man, through a kind of soul transformation Steve also says he doesn’t understand. Nor are we, because Diana is now supposed to love a guy with a soul but not Steve’s looks. She does so instantly and without reservations, which is what we as viewers see very strange.

Fortunately, though, we see Steve as actor Chris Pine – a strange choice that continues to get annoyed throughout the movie, as Diana sees Steve’s soul passed on to him but we see Steve himself; It’s almost unfair if it’s not such nonsense – and in the best action scenes in Wonder Woman 1984, they sometimes shine just as they did in the first movie’s best scenes. But the fire between the two is missing and replaced by some of the most successful blues: The love between Diana and Steve, doomed to death up front, shows he’s really getting a lot of screen time, but it belongs to another movie.

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Plus to rise from Steve’s death – Screenwriters’ first lesson: Never kill your friend in the first movie while building a franchise! – and the introduction of Kristen Wiig – a great actress in her own right – is completely lost. She plays the female opposite of Wonder Woman, in the somewhat sexually charged role of non-brunette, tall bombshell, known as anti-Diana. Desiring to be like Diana transforms into a superhero, Wiig is a creepy crossover between 1980s icon Kim Wilde and Cruella de Vil, who has the powers but not Diana’s spirits and confronts Diana in the final. The moral of this long, blurry story (151 minutes full of trustworthy CGI resources): Be careful what you wish for, with World War III appearing in the background.

Why Wonder Woman 1984 actually played in the 1980s remains unclear, too. Aside from the dress-up session in which Chris Pine wore horrible jackets in the 1980s, it was a costly decision mainly by director Jenkins, who got the freedom to use cars and vintage clothes without adding anything to the story. Of course it will get to the USSR in the 80’s, and it’s making good use of it.

All in all, it’s a disappointing story, especially since Gal Gadot and Chris Pine were so cute in the first part. Now they get down a little bit into this incredibly unbelievable movie together, while through these gaps you can see what kind of movie they could have made together, with better script. We’re curious to know which hat Steve will invoke in the third installment, if ever there is. Wonder Woman and Actress Gal Gadot deserve this movie, but without Steve and World Wars, please.

Wonder Woman 1984 is available from March 31st through Pathé Thuis, iTunes, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft Xbox and Rakuten TV.

Starting April 7, the movie can also be rented through the aforementioned service providers and through Ziggo, KPN, T-Mobile and Tele2.