Beautifully Flawed- Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Review
Ignore the cynicism and condescending opinions. This movie is worth watching!
I recently got to watch Wonder Woman 1984 in a theater and I really enjoyed it.
After seeing it, I found out (to my surprise and disappointment) , that there are many mixed and overtly negative reviews of this movie.
Of course everyone is welcome to their own opinions, but I thought this movie was very well made and I feel it has important lessons and themes that are worth seeing and talking about.
Especially in light of the rash of negative reviews, I thought it was important to share my thoughts about the movie with anyone who is interested.
For starters, Wonder Woman 1984 is that rare sequel you can enjoy whether you’ve seen the first film or not. The movie doesn’t waste time retelling stories from the previous movie, it just dives right into the story that it wants to tell.
I feel you need to see the original Wonder Woman to have a complete appreciation for this movie but that’s not a requirement. This movie stands well on its own.
I feel you need to see the original Wonder Woman to have a complete appreciation for this movie but that’s not a requirement. This movie stands well on its own.
One crucial difference between the two movies is the characters that held my attention and made the movie greater than the sum of its parts.
I wrote a review of the original Wonder Woman when it first came out. In that film the lead actress Gal Gadot stole the show for me and held my attention the entire time I watched the film.
Gal Gadot does a fantastic job in the sequel as well. However, this movie’s true strength is the three other co-stars of the film: Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, and especially Pedro Pascal.
Chris Pine reprises the role of Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman’s star-crossed true love. I have yet to see a Chris Pine performance that wasn’t excellent and this one is no different.
He has a natural likability about him that instantly makes him into a cross between a heroic figure and a lifelong friend. Pine’s chemistry with Gadot is remarkable. Even if you haven’t seen the first film, you'll appreciate the story of Diana and Steve. The relationship is a central theme of the film.
Kristen Wiig gives a tour de force performance as Barbara Minerva. Her nervous, neurotic character is instantly sympathetic and likable, especially for nerdy people like me. The character’s transformation throughout the course of this movie is by turns engaging, unsettling and frightening. Wiig sells every bit of it.
I have seen her performances in other films and I thought she did well overall but I’ve never seen her play such a complex and tragic figure before. She does a masterful job.
The breakout performance of the entire film is Pedro Pascal’s mesmerizing portrayal of Maxwell Lord.
As a comic fan I was nervous when I heard Maxwell Lord would be the villain in this movie. In the comics Lord is a cold blooded psycho who controls people’s minds for his own dark purposes. I thought this character on the big screen would be unpleasantly dark, over the top evil or bland and uninteresting.
I’m happy to say I was completely wrong about all those possibilities. Science fiction fans will immediately recognize Pedro Pascal as the brooding monosyllabic anti-hero in The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian and Maxwell Lord could not be any more different. While the first is deliberate and calm, Lord is a twitchy mess. He was a ball of energy in every scene and whenever he was on screen my eyes followed him to see what the heck he was going to do next.
I can’t fully describe the character without giving away important details from the plot. What I will say is he is more complex than he seems and the directions his manic energy take him in are shocking and drive the entire plot of the film.
You need to see the movie on a big screen if at all possible. It is epic in scope and experiencing it full size will make it that much more immersive. Bottom line: I really enjoyed this movie, and I think you would too. Is it perfect? No. Is it worth seeing? Absolutely.