Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

 

More than sixty years after the events of the first Wonder Woman film, Diana of Themiscyra still yearns for the man she lost in 1918.  In between bouts of wistfully remembering him, she's working at Smithsonian as an expert in antiquities and moonlighting as a costumed superhero.  When she thwarts a robbery at a jewellery store, it turns out said store was a front for an antiquities smuggling ring.  The FBI asks the Smithsonian to identify the smuggled artefacts and one item in particular comes to the attention of both Diana and her new colleague, the socially awkward geologist Barbara Minerva.

This artefact also comes to the attention of glitzy, charming "entrepeneur" (actually, grifter) Maxwell Lord.  The financial house of cards that is Lord's "business" is about to collapse, and - this being a comic book movie - his plan to rescue it is to gain control of a magical artefact that grants wishes.  No prizes for guessing that the item Diana and Barbara have is the very one he wants, and that actually utilising it is a very bad idea indeed.

I'm not generally a fan of DC's po-faced, grimmity-grim superhero films, finding them dour and dull.  So the first Wonder Woman was a nice surprise package for me, and I was hopeful that this sequel would also prove an entertaining watch.

Alas, it's a disappointing.  I lay the blame for this heavily on the writing, which makes a wide variety of mistakes, starting with the contrivance of Diana still being all hung up on Steve Trevor, six decades after his death.  Yes, it let them get Chris Pine back.  Yes, it thematically ties into the "get what your wish" thread of the plot.  It is nonetheless very ham-handedly done, and leads to some questionable behaviour by the main characters.  Also, maybe don't make the most important thing in a woman's life be the man she knew for a few months a literal lifetime ago.  

"Very ham-handedly done" is something of a recurring issue, in fact.  The script mishandles almost everything.  Vital plot elements are hand-waved in without any foreshadowing or grace.  The pacing is wonky, with overly drawn-out special effects sequences that achieve no narrative point.  But most of all, the emotional beats are both over-the-top and undercooked at the same time.  They're very loudly communicated, but not given time to breathe.  It's like the movie is shouting the cliff notes of the script it should have had.  "DIANA IS SAD!  DIANA IS HAPPY!  EVERYTHING IS AWFUL!  EVERYTHING IS OKAY NOW!"

The cast work hard, and it's just about watchable as a result, but ultimately, this film is a significant misfire.