“Wonder Woman 1984” movie review

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Yness Martinez

Wonder Woman 1984 out now on HBO MAX

Yness Martinez, Editor

She’s literally an Amazonian goddess, no seriously, she is. Gal Gadot reclaimed her title as Diana Prince in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ which came to theatres and HBO MAX for members only on Christmas Day. Diana lives a common life like most immortal heroes, holding a job as an antique curator at the Smithsonian in D.C. in 1984. When a mysterious artifact turns people’s desires into reality, Diana must decide whether or not to stop the chaos that arises; when doing so would cost her what she desires most.

Yet another modern film set in the glory of the 80s. The elements of pop culture mixed with the lore of Diana’s past spun an interesting world into existence. It was amusing to see old technology and fashion through such a clear camera, and the attention to detail like the bulky TV’s and neon pink leggings seen how they were meant to be.

While the costumes of most of the characters played directly into the timeline, Diana’s did not. Most of her outfits would be defined as a modern take on 80s fashion. When she wasn’t lassoing her enemies, she was strutting about in what looked like the Loft work section. While this might have been meant to come across as ‘down to Earth’, it caused confusion in the timeline. Looking at her non-battle worthy outfits alone, it’s hard to say if she was playing someone in the 80s or someone now.

While there is no doubt to the quality of the movie, the complexity of the plot is not something to admire anytime soon. There seemed to be too many rom-com like scenes with Diana and her love interest, Steve Trevor. A whole 5 minute outfit montage was not necessary to the story. They could have made this shorter to make room for more of the antagonist’s backstory, of which I wanted to see more of.

Like most action and superhero movies there is a message, this one being something akin to ‘you can’t always have what you want’. While this isn’t a bad message to the audience, it essentially came directly from Diana. It would have been better if it looked like the rest of the world was coming to that conclusion; instead of needing convincing from Diana. If there had been more conflicting moral issues among the citizens, it would have made the plot more enjoyably complex. Sadly, it seemed like most of the world decided chaos was cool.

Negativities aside, there is praise for another antagonist in the film. Diana’s friend Barbara, or better known as Cheetah, was a more interesting villain that developed at the end of the movie. They started out as good friends until the mysterious antique caused them to follow separate moral paths. It was more entertaining to see her change in character than that of the main antagonist, Maxwell Lord.

Overall, the movie did what it set out to do. It updated the timeline on Wonder Woman’s exciting adventures and introduced now challenges and villains. However, it lacked critical backstory details and focused too heavily on little things that seemed unrelated to the storyline. Although the plot was flawed, it was successful in the sense of world building and action packing. And don’t forget to look out for a familiar face during the credits.