Wonder Woman '84 Review

 First things first, this review is full of spoilers! Beware!

Generally speaking, I try to enjoy things on their own, as they are. So if a movie doesn’t exactly follow the book it was based on it’s ok as long as it was enjoyable in its own right.  I don’t want to be one of those fans who constantly complains that everything is awful because it doesn’t completely conform to previous iterations. Therefore I am a bit disappointed with myself because I am really annoyed with some of the decisions they made in the new Wonder Woman movie, it could have been much better. But here we are. When we initially watched the movie I enjoyed it but didn't think it was great. It was fun while we were watching it but afterward, the more I thought about it, the more I disliked it.

I am going to divide my thoughts into a couple of sections. First, some things I really liked. Then there are several smaller problems that add up to a bigger issue. Lastly, I will discuss the biggest problem of the movie. (I also have a large discussion about things that I think are explained poorly or seem to get lost in translation somehow. I decided to break that out into a separate post. Basically, I feel like I get what they were trying to do with the movie but failed in getting the point across clearly, and if these points were better explained or utilized more effectively it would have made for a much better movie.)

First, I want to talk about a few things that I really enjoyed. The race at the beginning is fun to watch. It’s probably my favorite action sequence in the whole movie. I find it adorable that Dianna takes Steve to the Air and Space museum, it mirrors her time discovering London with him in the first movie. I also really like the way they show the buildup of Dianna’s powers. They talk about her exploring her newly discovered identity as one of the gods and trying to practice things she saw Ares do in the first movie. It makes it very satisfying for her to turn the jet invisible when it could have caused a plot hole concerning why she never used that power during the war. It’s also interesting to watch her learn how to fly at the end. It kind of embodies her finally coming to terms with losing Steve. She starts out angry and upset, dragging herself forward with the lasso but as she accepts the loss more she can connect with her memories of him and use the air currents more effectively.

This next section is a list of things that caused me to question the movie. On their own none of them are all that bad and I would usually be willing to suspend my disbelief and let them go, but coupled with some of the other issues I have it starts to look like bad writing. They figure out where Max is headed by finding what looks like his boarding pass in the trash. Doesn’t he need that still? Dianna is totally okay with stealing a plane from the Smithsonian, where she works. I could let this go easily, she has been shown as someone willing to use any means necessary to get the job done in some of the comics. How does Steve know how to fly a modern jet? Wouldn’t it be at least somewhat dangerous to fly into fireworks? I don’t really know on this one. Maybe Steve knows it will be perfectly safe. And finally, Dianna uses a power she hasn’t been able to fully master before, while already starting to lose her powers. Finally, one thing that isn’t really related to the other things mentioned here but is still an annoyance I have with this film. I feel like this kind of a waste of good villains. If DC wants to create a cinematic universe to compete with Marvel’s, using the storyline where Dianna murders Maxwell Lord and the conflicts this causes between her and the rest of the Justice League would be really interesting to explore. ( https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Wonder_Woman_Vol_2_219 ) His use here doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility of doing that storyline later but he is made into a much more sympathetic character through his relationship with his son and I think that makes it highly unlikely. Cheetah is similarly underutilized. In most of the comics with Barbra Minerva her relationship to Dianna, either friendship, rivalry, or both is much deeper and more developed. Since the Cheetah mantle has taken various forms over the years, as well as being lost and regained, there is more room for her to return in a future story.

The biggest problem with Wonder Woman ‘84 is the fact that Dianna gives zero thought to the man who’s body Steve is inhabiting. (Listed in the credits as Hansome Man so that’s how he will be referred to in the rest of this.) This whole thing is explained very badly, and by that, I mean barely explained at all. She asks briefly about what Steve remembers and where he woke up but there is no explanation of how this works. We don’t know what happened to Hansome Man’s soul or whatever. Is he still inhabiting his own body but unable to control it because Steve took over? Did his soul swap places with Steve’s in heaven? Does he remember any of this afterward? If not how does he account for the missing time? There is a scene at the end showing that Handsome Man doesn’t remember any of this but for most of the movie, it is up in the air.

It is heavily implied that Dianna and Steve have sex. This is a huge problem when you stop to think about the fact that, that’s not really Steve. Whether or not Hansome Man is aware of what is happening he has no control or say over what is happening with his body, making it rape. They continue to take Hansome Man’s body into increasingly dangerous crazy situations. What would have happened if he’d been injured or killed? On its own this is bad but it’s made more appalling by how out of character it is for Dianna. She has been depicted as a hero of women and children, caring for those left behind by war, after the raping, burning, and looting is over. She has become a symbol to many of female strength and survival. Wonder Woman should be someone who fights for those who feel unseen, for her have no concern for this person/ body feels like a betrayal of her character.  Lots of people were super excited to see her depicted by a female writer/director… and they got a rape story. What makes it worse is that it doesn’t feel like a conscious decision but more like after setting things up for Steve to come back they just, sort of . . . forgot that it wasn’t actually 100% Steve.

    

     As I mentioned above, I do intend to write more focused on the themes of the movie and connections that I wish had been better developed but this was getting long even without all that so I decided to break it into two separate posts.

Addition: While in the middle of writing this I have come across several articles concerning this issue and it does look like it was an intentional decision. 

 https://www.themarysue.com/patty-jenkins-responds-wonder-woman-1984-body-swap-criticism/

Part of the argument given is that the events are somehow erased after you renounce your wish. Although at the end of the movie when Dianna meets Handsome on his own she also gives him a kind of weird, smug look like she’s picturing him naked and/or thinking of the sex they had so did she really lose her memory of the events? Even if she did it doesn’t erase it from the memories of the fans. Maybe it’s an innocent smile and I’m reading too much into it but I bet others are doing the same.