The saga of Diana Prince, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, the leading female character in the DC Comics universe, was bought to the screen for the first time in 2017 under the striking direction of Patty Jenkins, and with Gal Gadot giving everything she had in the titular role of the Amazon warrior princess with a heart and a conscience. That particular film was set in the mechanized horrors of World War I. And in the mysterious way that is only plausible in a comic book, her saga moves sixty-seven years into the future in the follow-up, 2020's WONDER WOMAN 1984.
A longer film (by ten minutes) than its predecessor, WONDER WOMAN 1984 now finds Gadot's Diana Prince working at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D. C. in 1984, five years before (at least in terms of actual history) the end of the Cold War, as an archaeologist (not necessarily a female version of Indiana Jones, though) who soon becomes intrigued by a special gemstone with immense but (ultimately) very destructive powers. A very insecure colleague of hers, Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), and a power-hungry businessman (sound familiar?) named Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) come into contact with this gem; and very soon, Gadot has a situation on her hands that even her immense powers may not be enough to solve in a good way. Incredibly enough, even though he was lost in the first film, her former love Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), somehow comes back into her life; and therein lies the possibility to stop World War III. But both Minerva and Pascal have become so megalomaniacal that it takes all Gadot has, and then some, to get things back into order.
Jenkins not only returned to the director's chair for WONDER WOMAN 2020 (it made more than enough sense to have her for the original in the first place), but she also co-wrote the screenplay as well; and to add to the back story of a younger Diana (Lilly Aspell), she has both Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright returns in their roles of, respectively, Hippolyta and Antiope. Like many a hyper-budget comic book movie, especially those made during this century, some of the performances here are larger-than-life (this was true, though in a more deadpan way, of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor in the 1978 classic SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE), and that case can be made for both Wiig's and Pascal's arguably over-the-top performances, which most of these films obvious have to have, as it is what fans of the genre have come to expect. But ultimately, it is Gadot's humanistic performance that drives this film, as it did its predecessor. While she may be a, for lack of a better term, a kick-ass super hero, it's only when she needs to be; otherwise, she eschews violence for love and truth. Meanwhile, the tag in the closing credits introduces a new character...played by someone with a very familiar name and face (you can't miss it).
As with the original, I am giving this a 9-star rating.
A longer film (by ten minutes) than its predecessor, WONDER WOMAN 1984 now finds Gadot's Diana Prince working at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D. C. in 1984, five years before (at least in terms of actual history) the end of the Cold War, as an archaeologist (not necessarily a female version of Indiana Jones, though) who soon becomes intrigued by a special gemstone with immense but (ultimately) very destructive powers. A very insecure colleague of hers, Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), and a power-hungry businessman (sound familiar?) named Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) come into contact with this gem; and very soon, Gadot has a situation on her hands that even her immense powers may not be enough to solve in a good way. Incredibly enough, even though he was lost in the first film, her former love Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), somehow comes back into her life; and therein lies the possibility to stop World War III. But both Minerva and Pascal have become so megalomaniacal that it takes all Gadot has, and then some, to get things back into order.
Jenkins not only returned to the director's chair for WONDER WOMAN 2020 (it made more than enough sense to have her for the original in the first place), but she also co-wrote the screenplay as well; and to add to the back story of a younger Diana (Lilly Aspell), she has both Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright returns in their roles of, respectively, Hippolyta and Antiope. Like many a hyper-budget comic book movie, especially those made during this century, some of the performances here are larger-than-life (this was true, though in a more deadpan way, of Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor in the 1978 classic SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE), and that case can be made for both Wiig's and Pascal's arguably over-the-top performances, which most of these films obvious have to have, as it is what fans of the genre have come to expect. But ultimately, it is Gadot's humanistic performance that drives this film, as it did its predecessor. While she may be a, for lack of a better term, a kick-ass super hero, it's only when she needs to be; otherwise, she eschews violence for love and truth. Meanwhile, the tag in the closing credits introduces a new character...played by someone with a very familiar name and face (you can't miss it).
As with the original, I am giving this a 9-star rating.