I feel the best way to think about "Wonder Woman 1984" or "WW 1984" is to imagine that it was actually made in 1984, the year that brought us "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Romancing the Stone," "Conan the Destroyer," and "Supergirl." Lots of cheese, lots of winking at the camera, lots of bright colors, and lots of excess. The usual DC fanboys are up in arms because "Wonder Woman 1984" has very messy plotting, and leaps in logic that often defy gravity, much like its heroine. As escapist action-adventure fare, however, it works just fine.
Being set in the '80s gives Patty Jenkins and her crew the opportunity to poke some fun at the age of parachute pants and video game arcades. More importantly, the '80s embrace of shopping mall consumerism and mass media provides some nice thematic context to the story, which involves the discovery of a magic rock that grants wishes. Diana (Gal Godot) works for the Smithsonian at her day job, and still fights crime in secret. She comes across the magic rock when her colleague, a nerdy nebbish named Dr. Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), receives it from the FBI as part of a lot of stolen goods that need identifying. Soon the Gordon Gekko-like entrepreneur Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) shows up, looking for the rock, which he intends to use for his own greedy ends. The rock's powers soon bring Diana's lost love Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) back from the dead, and set Barbara on a path toward empowerment and supervillainy.
Like most recent superhero films, "WW 1984" is built around its fancy action set pieces, loosely connected with a semblance of a story. So Diana gets a big sequence in Egypt, beating up a convoy of trucks and tanks, a brawl with Barbara in the White House, and a big climactic clash at a mountain stronghold wearing a new set of shiny golden armor. How we get from point A to point B to point C is not particularly elegant. However, what "WW 1984" does manage fairly well are its character arcs, and using the action scenes to emphasize character progression, even if the plot is full of obvious holes. We open with a pricey-looking flashback scene to Diana as a child, competing with the Amazon warriors on Themyscira and getting an early lesson in why cheaters never prosper. There's also a fun bit involving Wonder Woman's famous invisible jet - though it's best not to think too hard about how she got the jet or how Steve figured out how to fly it.
I came away from "WW 1984" satisfied, because I felt that it did right by its four major characters - Diana, Steve Trevor, Maxwell Lord, and Barbara Minerva. None of the actors are very especially good in the movie, with Chris Pine's WWI vet discovering the '80s schtick easily the best performance of the lot, but everyone is trying very earnestly to good effect. Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal both have flimsy, evildoer characters who they nonetheless manage to imbue some genuine pathos into. Gal Gadot, unfortunately, is less successful this time around at making Diana interesting to follow, but she still handily delivers on the action and spectacle scenes. As for Chris Pine, it may have been an outrageous cheat to bring him back, but the movie benefits significantly from his comic timing and charm.
Moreover, I liked what the movie wanted to say and wanted to be, even if the execution was often awkward and clunky. The twist on the monkey's paw scenario is interesting. The messages about upholding truth against wishful thinking and self-delusion are timely and well-considered. There are some tonal issues, and the two and a half hour runtime is excessive, but when the movie is leaning into the camp and the humor, it's as good as anything DC has made in the last few years. It's not remotely as good as the first "Wonder Woman," despite the heftier price tag, but it's perfectly suitable for all your superhero blockbuster needs.
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