Wonder Woman 1984 Review

The new Wonder Woman is finally here! And as always the internet has brought out the worst in people that have no constructive, coherent or intelligent opinions. Was the movie good? Undeniably. Was it better or even on par with the first one? Unfortunately not, but let's be honest, the feelings, raw emotion and cultural impact of the first one simply can not be duplicated. However 1984 was raw, real, emotional and as comic accurate as we can expect from movie adaptations so here we go.

The opening scene was one of the best opening scenes to a superhero movie possibly ever...we got to see little Diana compete with the grown-up Amazons and it was awesome. We got to see more of her training, ingenuity and resourcefulness and we got a little insight into what trait the movie was going to focus on which was, Truth. In Act 1 we are also introduced to what is referred to as the ‘dream stone’ that seems to simply grant wishes, but there is of course a drawback for every wish granted the stone takes something in return. We are introduced to Maxwell Lord who is a TV personality and businessman and Barbara Minerva who becomes Cheetah and we get to see the return of Steve Trevor.

Act 2 brings the audience granted wishes and increased conflict between Maxwell and the rest of the world as well as Diana feeling weaker, because what the stone took from her in order to have Steve back was her powers. Barbara had wished to be strong like Diana and she gets her wish but in exchange she loses her heart, her humanity and her kindness. Maxwell had wished to become the stone itself and each wish he grants takes a toll on his physical wellbeing.

Act 3 there are battles and obviously Diana saves the day, sorry but I’m trying to do this with as few spoilers as possible.

Directing; Patty Jenkins is absolutely incredible, the way that she melds all the film elements together to tell a cohesive story is completely breathtaking and I have absolutely nothing bad to say about her directing style or the execution. The directing was so intentional and well thought out, it really made for an elevated film.

Cinematography; All of the camera work was INSANE, it was freakin incredible. The scene where little Diana is on Themiscrya, the mall scene, the final scene between Diana and Cheetah and the scene with them in the White House were all phenomenal. The stunt work and camera work went together seamlessly and I was very impressed.

CGI; This was probably the weakest element of the film, there were some scenes (like Diana flying) that felt a little outdated. In fact the scenes of Diana flying felt very Smallville-esque to me. DC is known for abhorrent CGI but it wasn’t that bad, it just wasn’t great.

Writing; The story was great, and the character development and dialogue was wonderful. I do however feel that they should have utilized Cheetah more and focused less on Maxwell.

Acting; Nearly everyone was great, Pedro Pascal was aggressively mediocre but everyone else was wonderful.

I mentioned a little of this in the elements section but I think the movie would have been significantly stronger if they had focused on Cheetah as the main villain and had made Maxwell a side character. I think it would have been more entertaining and would have made for a more gripping story, especially considering the two women’s opposing motivations and their comic book origins. I will say that the way that they handled Cheetah’s character was in fact a balanced blend of all the Cheetah’s comic book origins and it flowed together really well. My only other major issue with the film was Maxwell’s character, he and his son had like zero connection and if that’s where they were going to focus the story then they should have given him and his kid more screen time. But I adored Diana’s character and power development and loved the way they introduced Cheetah. My main hope is that they keep her around for future storylines as Cheetah and Wonder Woman are an ongoing rivalry.

Overall I completely loved the movie, it was by no means perfect but I got to feel strong and empowered again. I will always support Patty Jenkins movies, and Gal is truly the perfect Wonder Woman, overall score 8/10.