Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) Review

Wonder Woman 1984? More Like Wonder Woman 198-No Thank You

Let’s Start By Showing Y’all The Trailers Shall We?

Hands down, this was the movie that destroyed the DCEU in my opinion.

When the trailers for Wonder Woman 1984 first came out, I remember thinking this movie had potential. The colors looked bright, the 80s setting looked fun, the music was doing its job, Gal Gadot was back as Wonder Woman, Chris Pine was somehow returning, Kristen Wiig was playing Cheetah, and Pedro Pascal looked like he was about to chew every piece of scenery in the building as Maxwell Lord. After the first Wonder Woman movie, I was willing to give this one a chance because that first movie, while not perfect, at least had a strong emotional center and gave Diana a story that felt meaningful.

Then the movie came out.

And good grief.

This was awful.

Not disappointing in a small way. Not “eh, it had problems.” No, this movie felt like someone took everything that worked about the first Wonder Woman, threw it out the window, then replaced it with a bloated magic-wish plot, awkward comedy, bizarre morality, bad pacing, weird character choices, and one of the strangest uses of Steve Trevor they possibly could have done. I went into this expecting a colorful superhero adventure. I left wondering how a movie with this much money, this much talent, and this much goodwill managed to become such a mess.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

The movie takes place decades after the first film, with Diana now living in 1984 and quietly protecting people while still mourning Steve Trevor. She works at the Smithsonian, keeps to herself, and continues doing heroic things in secret. Everything changes when an ancient artifact known as the Dreamstone appears, granting people their deepest wishes but taking something from them in return. Diana wishes for Steve to come back, Barbara Minerva wishes to become more like Diana, and Maxwell Lord sees the stone as his chance to gain everything he has ever wanted.

That setup could have worked. A superhero movie about the danger of wish fulfillment is not a bad idea. The idea that everyone wants something, but getting that thing comes with a price, has potential. Diana wanting Steve back makes emotional sense, Barbara wanting confidence and power makes sense, and Maxwell Lord being consumed by greed and insecurity could have been a strong villain arc. The problem is the movie stretches this idea way past its breaking point and keeps making choices that are either confusing, uncomfortable, or just plain boring.

Character Rundown

Gal Gadot is still trying as Diana, and I do think she brings warmth to the role. The problem is the writing gives her one of the most frustrating arcs imaginable. Diana’s entire emotional conflict revolves around Steve coming back, which sounds fine until you remember that Steve’s return happens in one of the weirdest ways possible. He does not simply come back in his own body. His soul or spirit or whatever the movie wants to call it takes over another man’s body, and the movie somehow acts like this is romantic instead of deeply uncomfortable. I genuinely do not know how nobody during production stopped and said, “Hey, wait a minute, this is kind of messed up.”

Chris Pine is still charming as Steve Trevor, and honestly, his chemistry with Gal Gadot remains one of the better parts of both movies. The issue is not Chris Pine. The issue is the way the story brings him back. His return feels like the movie desperately wanted the emotional connection from the first film again but did not know how to do it cleanly. So instead, we get this bizarre body-swap situation that makes the entire romance feel wrong the second you think about it for more than five seconds.

Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva is one of those performances where I can see what they were going for, but the movie does not fully pull it off. She starts as the awkward, overlooked woman who wants to be confident, beautiful, strong, and noticed. That is a classic villain origin. The problem is the transformation into Cheetah feels rushed, visually strange, and not nearly as impactful as it should have been. By the time she fully becomes Cheetah, I was less excited and more exhausted.

Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord is easily the most entertaining performance in the movie, but even that comes with an asterisk. He is acting like he knows he is in an insane movie, and sometimes that energy is fun. He is sweaty, desperate, loud, theatrical, and constantly looks like he is seconds away from either conquering the world or having a complete emotional breakdown. But the movie gives him such a messy plot that even his performance cannot save it. He is fun to watch, but the story around him is nonsense.

Pacing / Episode Flow

This movie is way too long, and it feels even longer than it is. That is probably one of its biggest sins. A superhero movie can be messy and still entertaining if it moves well. This movie drags. It takes forever to get going, then when it finally does get going, it keeps stopping itself. The opening mall sequence feels like it belongs in a completely different movie, the 80s comedy bits are awkward, the Steve fish-out-of-water material goes on longer than it needs to, and the middle section feels like the movie is walking in circles trying to convince itself the plot makes sense.

The movie has this weird issue where it is both overstuffed and empty. There are a lot of things happening, technically. Wishes are being made, powers are changing, villains are transforming, Steve is back, Diana is losing strength, Maxwell Lord is causing chaos, Barbara is becoming dangerous. Yet somehow the movie still feels slow because none of these pieces come together with enough urgency. It is a movie about the world falling apart, but it somehow feels weirdly low-energy for long stretches.

Pros

If I am being fair, the movie does have a few things that work. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine still have chemistry, and that chemistry carries some scenes that would otherwise be even more painful. Pedro Pascal gives the movie a jolt of energy whenever he shows up, even if the writing around him is ridiculous. The colorful 80s aesthetic is nice in places, and the idea of a magical object granting wishes at a cost is not automatically bad. There is a version of this movie that could have been a tragic superhero story about grief, desire, and letting go.

There are also a few action moments that are decent. Diana learning to fly could have been a beautiful emotional scene, and the idea of her using Steve’s memory to push forward has potential. The problem is the movie surrounding those moments is so clunky that even the good ideas get buried. That is the frustrating thing about Wonder Woman 1984. It is not completely empty of good ideas. It has ideas. It just executes so many of them badly.

Cons

The Steve Trevor body situation is probably the biggest problem, and I still cannot believe the movie handled it this way. Steve comes back by taking over another man’s body, and the movie treats this like a romantic miracle instead of an ethical nightmare. This random man loses control of his own life while Steve is inside him, and Diana just goes along with it because she gets Steve back. That is not romantic. That is horrifying. The movie wants this to be emotional, but the second you realize there is another person involved, the whole thing becomes deeply uncomfortable.

The wish plot also becomes ridiculous the longer it goes on. At first, the rules seem simple enough. You get what you want, but you lose something in return. Fine. But as the movie continues, the rules start feeling more and more convenient. Maxwell Lord becomes the stone, wishes start affecting the whole world, people are making wishes everywhere, nuclear chaos starts happening, and suddenly the movie has become this giant magical disaster that somehow still feels emotionally flat.

Cheetah is another huge letdown. Kristen Wiig is not the problem. The problem is that Barbara’s arc feels underdeveloped and visually disappointing. Cheetah should have been a major threat. Instead, she feels like a side effect of the Maxwell Lord plot. Her final design is not great, her final fight is not great, and by the time she becomes full Cheetah, the movie has already lost so much momentum that it feels too late.

The action is also shockingly weak for a Wonder Woman movie. The first film had the No Man’s Land sequence, which was genuinely memorable. This movie has nothing that comes close to that. The mall scene is goofy. The road chase is okay but overlong. The final Cheetah fight is visually muddy. The climax is basically Diana talking into a broadcast while people decide to renounce their wishes. That might work thematically, but as a superhero finale it is not exactly thrilling.

Final Thoughts

Wonder Woman 1984 is terrible. I wish I could be nicer, but I really cannot. This movie takes a character who had a strong first outing and gives her a sequel that feels bloated, awkward, morally questionable, and bizarrely boring. It has a few good ideas buried inside it, but almost every single one of them gets handled in the worst possible way.

The first Wonder Woman was not perfect, but it had heart. It had focus. It had a strong emotional throughline. This sequel feels like it is trying to be a romance, a superhero movie, an 80s throwback, a comedy, a tragedy, a fantasy story, and a moral lesson all at once, but none of those pieces fully work together. It is colorful, yes, but color does not mean personality. It is ambitious, sure, but ambition does not mean success.

By the time the movie ended, I was not emotional. I was not excited. I was not satisfied. I was just tired. Tired of the wish stone, tired of Maxwell Lord’s chaos, tired of the Steve situation, tired of the movie pretending this story was more powerful than it actually was. This is one of those sequels where you sit there and wonder how the same franchise fell this hard this fast.

Rating

2/10

Spoiler Warning

Everything past this point contains spoilers for Wonder Woman 1984.

Spoilers

Steve Trevor coming back should have been the emotional center of the movie, but the body-swap decision ruins it. If Steve had returned in a magical body created by the Dreamstone, fine. If Diana had seen him as Steve while everyone else saw something else, maybe that could have worked. But no, the movie has Steve inhabit the body of a real man, and then Diana and Steve proceed to live their romantic reunion through that man’s body. The movie never treats this with the seriousness it deserves. It just kind of ignores the implications and hopes the audience does too.

Diana eventually giving up Steve is supposed to be heartbreaking, and on paper it should be. She has to let go of the person she loves in order to regain her strength and save the world. That is a strong idea. But because of how Steve returns, the whole thing feels messy. I should be crying over Diana losing Steve again. Instead, part of me is thinking, “Good, give that poor random man his body back.”

Maxwell Lord becoming the Dreamstone is another plot point that feels like it belongs in a much stranger movie. Pedro Pascal goes all in, and I respect that, but the story around him becomes increasingly absurd. He starts granting wishes, taking power, causing global chaos, and eventually nearly brings the world to nuclear destruction. Then the climax comes down to Diana convincing everyone to renounce their wishes. Again, thematically I understand it. People must reject selfish desire and accept truth. Fine. But as a finale, it feels weirdly passive.

Barbara becoming Cheetah should have been a major moment, but it does not land. Her transformation from awkward scientist to villainous predator happens too quickly, and the movie never gives her enough depth to make the fall truly tragic. The final fight between Wonder Woman and Cheetah should have been one of the highlights of the movie, but instead it is visually dull and emotionally weak. For one of Wonder Woman’s most iconic villains, Cheetah deserved better.

The ending tries to leave us with Diana having learned to move forward, but the journey there is so messy that the emotional payoff does not work. The movie wants to be about truth, sacrifice, and letting go, but it spends so much time tangled in its own awkward plot mechanics that those themes never hit the way they should.

So yeah. Two words: awful.

Actually, one word.

Awful.