WONDER WOMAN 1984
***
Director: Patty Jenkins
Screenplay: Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, from a story by Jenkins and Johns, based on characters created for DC Comics by William Moulton Marston.
Principal cast:
Gal Gadot
Chris Pine
Kristen Wiig
Pedro Pascal
Robin Wright
Connie Nielsen
Country: USA/UK/Spain
Classification: M
Runtime: 151 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2020.
With the world in the grip of COVID-19 and now the evolution of new strains, it is still a difficult time for the film industry. A few months back, Christopher Nolan’s hoped-for blockbuster, Tenet, made a brave attempt to entice people back into the cinemas; now, Wonder Woman 1984 (on-screen title WW84) is the second tent-pole flick to try it. It contains all the ingredients necessary to provide its audience with a powerful blast of escapism, while containing not so subtle messages that comment on today’s confused, post-truth world. In this case, although not quite as chockfull of spectacular stunts (although there are many, they are mainly in the back half), it is more accessible than Nolan’s time-twister. One suspects that WW84 won’t reach the US$822 million global box-office receipts of Wonder Woman but much of that will be due to people’s ongoing reticence to return to their local movie house. Indeed, in the US the movie has been made available to stream via WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, so viewers can watch it in their own homes.
After an exhilarating opening race sequence set on the Amazonian home island of Themyscira, the young Diana (played by the very adept and cute-as-a-button Lilly Aspell) is taken aside by the female elders of the community, her aunt Antiope (Robin Wright) and her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), and reprimanded for cheating. She is told in no uncertain terms that, to achieve success in life, one requires “diligence, patience and truth” and “no true hero is born from lies”. Hmm? Could that be a reference to a certain political figure? This sets the tone for the rest of the film and the story that follows. The time shifts to 1984 and Diana Prince, as she’s now known (the absolutely gorgeous Gal Gadot), is working as an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. She’s a bit of a loner, still mourning the loss of her beau from Wonder Woman, Steve (Chris Pine). Diana befriends a work colleague, Dr. Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), who is everything Diana is not - clumsy, insecure, geeky - but who is flattered that someone of Diana’s beauty and grace has taken a shine to her. When a strange crystal relic turns up in a pile of stolen antique artifacts, the pair work together to figure out exactly what it is, but someone else is also aware of the crystal’s existence, TV conman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), and he knows about its extraordinary powers. Playing the suitor, he seduces Barbara into letting him have it ‘for his research’ but, once he has the stone in his hands, he sets out to put a devious plan for world domination into action. And who is there to stop his evil scheme? Why, Wonder Woman, of course.
Placing the script in the time of Reagan has allowed the screenwriters, art directors, production designers and hair and makeup departments to have a lot of fun with the excesses of the ‘greed is good’ 1980s, and there are lots of laughs to be had observing the men’s and women’s fashions and hairstyles of the period. They haven’t dated well! Gadot and Wiig work very well together and are ably supported by the malevolent character portrayed by Chilean actor Pascal (from Disney’s The Mandalorian) and (spoiler alert!) the re-emergence of Chris Pine’s Steve. It’s interesting to see Wiig, usually cast in comic roles, take up the chalice of being a villain in WW84. She’s good as a ‘baddie’. The battle to outwit the increasingly bizarre behaviour of Lord, assisted by a transformed, power-hungry Barbara, creates an SFX roller-coaster ride as impressive as any we’ve come to expect from Warner Brothers’ DC Comic stable. Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer’s soaring score revs up as the action increases. It’s very effective for the greater part of the movie but verges on being histrionic in the climactic scene… or was that just the cranked-up volume?
Although the film is spectacular, Wonder Woman 1984 is overly long and, at two-and-a-half hours, feels drawn out. Plus, it must be said, this one doesn’t have quite the same charm as the original. There is an enormous emphasis on truth-telling (even referencing ‘fake news’) and other not so subliminal messages for younger viewers, such as “sometimes you can't see what you're learning until you come out the other side.” Perhaps, though, the real lesson to be learnt from WW84 is ‘Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!’
Screenplay: Patty Jenkins, Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, from a story by Jenkins and Johns, based on characters created for DC Comics by William Moulton Marston.
Principal cast:
Gal Gadot
Chris Pine
Kristen Wiig
Pedro Pascal
Robin Wright
Connie Nielsen
Country: USA/UK/Spain
Classification: M
Runtime: 151 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2020.
With the world in the grip of COVID-19 and now the evolution of new strains, it is still a difficult time for the film industry. A few months back, Christopher Nolan’s hoped-for blockbuster, Tenet, made a brave attempt to entice people back into the cinemas; now, Wonder Woman 1984 (on-screen title WW84) is the second tent-pole flick to try it. It contains all the ingredients necessary to provide its audience with a powerful blast of escapism, while containing not so subtle messages that comment on today’s confused, post-truth world. In this case, although not quite as chockfull of spectacular stunts (although there are many, they are mainly in the back half), it is more accessible than Nolan’s time-twister. One suspects that WW84 won’t reach the US$822 million global box-office receipts of Wonder Woman but much of that will be due to people’s ongoing reticence to return to their local movie house. Indeed, in the US the movie has been made available to stream via WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, so viewers can watch it in their own homes.
After an exhilarating opening race sequence set on the Amazonian home island of Themyscira, the young Diana (played by the very adept and cute-as-a-button Lilly Aspell) is taken aside by the female elders of the community, her aunt Antiope (Robin Wright) and her mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), and reprimanded for cheating. She is told in no uncertain terms that, to achieve success in life, one requires “diligence, patience and truth” and “no true hero is born from lies”. Hmm? Could that be a reference to a certain political figure? This sets the tone for the rest of the film and the story that follows. The time shifts to 1984 and Diana Prince, as she’s now known (the absolutely gorgeous Gal Gadot), is working as an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. She’s a bit of a loner, still mourning the loss of her beau from Wonder Woman, Steve (Chris Pine). Diana befriends a work colleague, Dr. Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), who is everything Diana is not - clumsy, insecure, geeky - but who is flattered that someone of Diana’s beauty and grace has taken a shine to her. When a strange crystal relic turns up in a pile of stolen antique artifacts, the pair work together to figure out exactly what it is, but someone else is also aware of the crystal’s existence, TV conman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), and he knows about its extraordinary powers. Playing the suitor, he seduces Barbara into letting him have it ‘for his research’ but, once he has the stone in his hands, he sets out to put a devious plan for world domination into action. And who is there to stop his evil scheme? Why, Wonder Woman, of course.
Placing the script in the time of Reagan has allowed the screenwriters, art directors, production designers and hair and makeup departments to have a lot of fun with the excesses of the ‘greed is good’ 1980s, and there are lots of laughs to be had observing the men’s and women’s fashions and hairstyles of the period. They haven’t dated well! Gadot and Wiig work very well together and are ably supported by the malevolent character portrayed by Chilean actor Pascal (from Disney’s The Mandalorian) and (spoiler alert!) the re-emergence of Chris Pine’s Steve. It’s interesting to see Wiig, usually cast in comic roles, take up the chalice of being a villain in WW84. She’s good as a ‘baddie’. The battle to outwit the increasingly bizarre behaviour of Lord, assisted by a transformed, power-hungry Barbara, creates an SFX roller-coaster ride as impressive as any we’ve come to expect from Warner Brothers’ DC Comic stable. Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer’s soaring score revs up as the action increases. It’s very effective for the greater part of the movie but verges on being histrionic in the climactic scene… or was that just the cranked-up volume?
Although the film is spectacular, Wonder Woman 1984 is overly long and, at two-and-a-half hours, feels drawn out. Plus, it must be said, this one doesn’t have quite the same charm as the original. There is an enormous emphasis on truth-telling (even referencing ‘fake news’) and other not so subliminal messages for younger viewers, such as “sometimes you can't see what you're learning until you come out the other side.” Perhaps, though, the real lesson to be learnt from WW84 is ‘Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!’