A New Era of Wonder Begins

Kaleidoscope presents its newest: Warner Bros. & DC Entertainment's production of Wonder Woman 1984.  Directed by Patty Jenkins, the movie stars Gal Gadot, Pedro Pascal, Kristen Wiig, Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, & Robin Wright.  It is rated 'PG-13' & has a running time of 2 hr., 31 min.

The prologue features a young Diana Prince participating in an athletic event called the Themyscira against older Amazons.  After falling from her horse, she takes a shortcut but ultimately fails to win the race.  Antiope (Wright) explains to Diana that anything worth winning must be done in an honest fashion.  Transition to 1984 where Diana (Gadot) is working at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. while clandestinely performing superhero exploits as Wonder Woman.  Diana soon meets co-worker Barbara Ann Minerva (get it?), a mousy, frumpy, shy geologist & crypto-zoologist who is barely, if ever, noticed by her other co-workers.  Noticing this, Diana befriends her; soon, however, Barbara comes to envy Diana's confidence & beauty.  One day, the FBI comes to the museum & asks the workers there to identify some of the stolen antiquities from a robbery that Wonder Woman recently thwarted.  Meanwhile, Diana longs for her now deceased lover Steve Trevor (Pine); inadvertently, she brings him back to life in another man's body. (Huh?)  Concurrently, failing businessman Maxwell Lorenzano (Pascal), known to others as Max Lord, steals one of the aforementioned antiquities called the Dreamstone; according to a Latin inscription on the stone, the stone can grant any one wish  Lord hopes that this will help save his bankrupt oil business.  So ends Act I.

Jenkins (also the director of the 1st 'WW') has directed this very disappointing sequel.  Whereas its predecessor felt fresh, tightly directed, with explosive action sequences, this follow-up feels like a rehash, clumsily directed, & with tamer action episodes (altho, in contradiction to myself), there should have been more.  Equally to blame is the screenplay co-written by Jenkins, Geoff Johns, & Dave Callahan.  The film's MacGuffin, the aforementioned Dreamstone, is a hokey device that might have worked with better villains (more about that later); frankly, the movie needed a better MacGuffin.  The dialogue is pedestrian most of the time & cliched on several occasions.  The acting, with 1 exception, left much to be desired.  The anomaly, of course, is the superb Gal Gadot as Diana/Wonder Woman.  One cannot think of a more perfect choice--her beauty, conditioning & frame (she surely retains that physique honed, I am sure, by her 2-year stint in the Israeli Army), physicality in stunts, & overall acting ability leave the viewer thoroughly believing in this Wonder Woman.  Sadly, our 2 villains are lukewarm, at best.  Pascal (so wonderful & convincing as The Mandalorian) is woefully miscast here as Max Lord.  It's not as if we are constantly expecting him to grab for his helmet or to see little Grogu--which we are :)--but he never gets below the surface of the villainous Lord.  There is an attempt early on, but it is not, in the least, believable,  Equally miscast is the normally reliable Wiig as Minerva.  While she is somewhat fine in Acts I & II, once she becomes Cheetah, her scenes become laughable   Dressed in an outfit that makes her look like a reject from the cast of "Cats", Wiig becomes the most ludicrous criminal in the DC Universe.  Finally, we have Pine as Steve Trevor; incongruously brought back to life in another man's body by Diana.  He should have stayed in the early 20th Century.  Serving as nothing more than a clumsy plot device to add humor & a love interest for Gadot, he makes what is already silly & preposterous even more so.  Bad decision.  Hans Zimmer's score is as bombastic as ever.  He needs to learn moderation at appropriate times.  Matthew Jensen's cinematography while clear & crisp overall is marred by too many muddied scenes straight out of the Zack Snyder playbook.  The special effects are not up to DC's usual excellent palette--despite employing dozens & dozens of special effects artists.

I give "Wonder Woman 1984" 5 out of 10 nuggets.  This is a woeful sequel to 2017's far superior "Wonder Woman".  If you have not already seen it, wait for its debut on TNT or FX in the future.