Wonder Woman 1984: Movie Review

Having missed out on film blockbusters for the most of the year due to the pandemic, "Wonder Woman 1984" was the very film we were hoping to help cap the year off on at least a positive note. But like everything else that's connected to the year 2020, nothing happens as planned and "Wonder Woman 1984" was a huge disappointment overall. As much as it pains us to admit it (as we absolutely loved the first film), "Wonder Woman 1984" was a bloated spectacle that was a hollow shell of the former film.

Sixty six years after the first film, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is now in 1984. She is now working at the Smithsonian and has been fighting crime on the side but pretty much avoiding the limelight. Everything is going smoothly until she and her colleague Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) encounter an unscrupulous looking object. At first, they think of the object as a cheap knock-off but it eventually turns out that this object can grant the wishes of anyone holding it come true. Chaos ensues as the stone gets stolen and gets into the greedy hands of the oil tycoon Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal).

There came a point in "Wonder Woman 1984" that we just couldn't comprehend what was happening on-screen. This was a superhero film and works on the realm of the fantastical and yet, even with that knowledge and understanding, the film just defied logic time and time again and it had us rolling our eyes in a concocted mix of amusement, confusion, and mostly frustration. The biggest issue we had with "Wonder Woman 1984" was that it was a bloated mess and the writing couldn't tie up all the elements together due to this. The themes, elements and scenes just don't bind and coalesce together naturally and we were mostly forcing a lot of the story just to make sense. You get this feeling that the writing and narrative were taking the most complicated route instead of keeping it simple. This over-complication and over-thinking of its story made us feel like we were watching a technically deep sci-fi film than a superhero film. It doesn't help that the film was two and a half hours long and had pacing issues. The first two scenes in "Wonder Woman 1984" were blissful and showed what could have been. And while these scenes were setting the tone and hype right from the get-go, the film bogged down right after that so anticipate to experience a very slow film in its second act onwards. "Wonder Woman 1984" will also feel like it is a very slow film focusing more on exposition than action sequences. And speaking of the action sequences, we found them to be tame in terms of heart-pumping effects and choreography especially when compared to the excellent use of action in "Wonder Woman". While the film may sound a disaster at this point, there are bright spots. In fact, Pedro Pascal was perfect as the flamboyant and devious Maxwell Lord. He had a great performance overall and was severely limited by bad writing. The dynamic between Chris Pine and Gal Gadot was still there and was the funny and emotional high that "Wonder Woman 1984" needed to at least be acceptable. Overall, "Wonder Woman 1984" was a massive disappointment as it misses the critical beats in its writing. The elements of making a great and outstanding superhero film are there but the writing failed to make sense to most of its presentation.

Rating: 2 reels

Why you should watch it:
- it still is a spectacle at certain parts

- even with its problems, the film had emotional highs and peaks

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the narrative and pacing was a complete mess

- it decided to do the complicated route instead of keeping it straight and simple