Wonder Woman 1984
"One day you will become all that you dream of and more. Your time will come and everything will be different. This world is not yet ready for all that you will do. You will become a legend."
I knew the moment I heard that dialogue in one of the trailers that Wonder Woman 1984 was going to be pretty empowering and even though I knew that dialogue was coming, I still teared up over that scene. Watching a young Diana try so hard, believe in herself, and ultimately learn a valuable life lesson in the process at the start of the film made for a great start.
As one of the most anticipated movies of 2020, it does a great job of making us forget about the year and seamlessly move into total escapism. For a film with a runtime of 2hrs 31 mins, it definitely did not feel that long, and I could have kept watching it for a longer time than that. Patty Jenkins masterfully takes us on an adventure, one filled with action, romance, fan moments, grief, and joy.
Of course the film isn’t immune to criticism. First there was the CGI that made Cheetah look more like a cast member of CATS (yes, the movie). I also found a few of the fighting sequences to be dragging — precious real estate that could have been better spent on establishing the characters backstory — particularly Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord and Kristen Wiig’s Barbara Minerva. We as an audience would be connected better with their story, would have felt so much more of their motivation, had that been established in the first place. Instead it felt like we couldn’t fully understand them so when it came to their pivotal moments, it felt a bit flat.
In my opinion, the best villains are always the ones who make you feel conflicted. The ones you still kind of want to root for, the ones you want to ‘fix’ and help see the light. Which is such a shame because the actors performances were incredible and had they been developed more, we would have seen Kristen Wiig showcase more range too. I also really wanted more 80s music in it like the trailer! That would have made for a more cinematic experience and brought the ‘1984’ title to life even more. Nostalgia hits hardest with music.
When we strip the action sequences and phenomenal costumes off, WW84’s premise is actually pretty simple. It begs us to reflect on this very question, one that I often think about myself: what if we get absolutely everything we wanted?
In a year where arguably most of us did not get everything we wanted, Wonder Woman shows us an alternate universe of what could happen if we did. And that perhaps is its biggest gift to us this year. In a year where most things did not go to plan, where even the screening date of this film got pushed several times, Wonder Woman 1984 seems like a fitting watch for the end of 2020. Another reminder yet again to appreciate what we have, to cherish the people we love while they are still around, and that most of the things we wish for, the things we think would make us happy, have been right in front of us all along.
Wonder Woman 1984 is out in cinemas nationwide. Watch the trailer here: