Wonder Woman 1984

 RATING: B

The DC Extended Universe has had a bit of a shaky run. The attempt to rush out the Justice League was a colossal failure for multiple reasons, and while the series is still sort of kicking, their future doesn't look bright. That said, they have been pretty good at doing solo movies. The first Wonder Woman and Shazam were excellent, Man of Steel was pretty great as well, and even Aquaman was surprisingly serviceable. Now, we get the first sequel to one of those solo movies (Batman vs Superman doesn't count as a Man of Steel sequel) in Wonder Woman 1984. Rather fitting, since Wonder Woman has been pretty easily the best thing to come out of the DCEU and the one thing that is universally believed to have been done right. 

Much like its predecessor, this one takes place in the past--although it does take a rather large time skip from World War I. The advantage of your protagonist being basically immortal is that you can put them in whatever time you want--and the chosen setting here was the American 80's, a rather promising idea. At this point, Diana is continuing to do Wonder Woman things, while somehow managing to remain fairly underground in the process (some suspension of disbelief is required there). When a mysterious artifact turns up that turns out to grant wishes, it puts her into conflict with an ambitious businessman (Maxwell Lord) whose plans/use of it eventually cause chaos--as well as (eventually) one of the more famous villains in the Wonder Woman canon--the Cheetah. Oh yeah, and the supposedly dead Steve Trevor is back somehow!

To get right to the points, WW84 is not as good as its predecessor. There's definitely some good Wonder Woman action as always, and the character herself is still enjoyable--but this is a more bumpy ride at times. To start with, there's actually barely any WW action for almost 90 minutes (save for a mall heist at the beginning, but that's more comedic than anything). The movie's first half spends a lot more time on establishing the characters of the two villains (which isn't a bad thing) as well as playing up the MacGuffin of this movie for a bit. Some of this still could've been cut down--namely, the very first scene involving a flashback to Themyscira could've been left out and it wouldn't have mattered one bit. 

Those are mostly issues with pacing and editing, but one more foundational flaw is that, for a movie set in the 80's, they do not bank on that setting or nostalgia as much as you'd think. There is a bit where Diana shows Steve around the city and a hilarious scene involving him trying on 80's fashion (and poking fun at it), but not a lot beyond that and a little of satirizing the more toxic consumerism/megalomania of the time. Not even one 80's song is played. Captain Marvel did a much better job of banking on the nostalgia of its 90's setting in multiple ways. Heck, the Bumblebee movie from the Transformers franchise did a much better job with the same 80's setting itself! 

Still, there's plenty to like here. As previously stated, there are some good action sequences, even if it takes a while to get to them. An Egypt highway chase and White House fight scene are particularly of note here. There's some impressive visuals as well, particularly in a scene where Diana and Chris drive a jet through a fireworks show. As usual, Diana/Wonder Woman herself (and Gal Gadot's performance) is a delight, and Chris Pine does well with the "man in the wrong time" role. But arguably of higher note are the villains. Kristen Wiig's Cheetah is actually played as more of a tragic villain, and it mostly works--though as an outsider to the comics, I do find myself wondering why a cheetah-human hybrid would be one of the most iconic villains of this canon. 

However, Pedro Pascal's performance as Max Lord is one of the very best things about this movie. He excellently plays a stereotypical charismatic 80's businessman with some unexpected depths who goes from silly to desperate to sympathetic to insane to power-hungry (and not necessarily in that order) quite convincingly. (And despite a mildly similar appearance, he's not really an expy for a certain real-life businessman of that era you may be thinking of.) It's Pascal's performance and Max's character arc that perhaps make this thing work the most, besides Diana herself. 

One other issue of note, though, is just *how* Steve Trevor ends up being in this movie. There were multiple theories before the movie's release, some of which were actually pretty good--but pretty much none of them ended up being right, and the actual explanation ended up being rather stupid--and odd/bizarre in the context of the plot, with a lot of unanswered questions. 

(SPOILER ALERT for the next paragraph, regarding the above subject.) 

Essentially, Steve unintentionally ends up in another man's body--which makes zero sense, and does raise some questions about whose body it actually is during that time period. Did the other guy get erased from existence temporarily? Is he still in there but suppressed? Why did Steve have to inhabit someone else to begin with? The movie is interested in answering exactly zero of these questions, and for some reason Diana and Steve don't seem to care that much either. This plot device could've been handled a *lot* better even in the context of the plot/MacGuffin that spawns him, but instead it's borderline hand-waved. 

Ultimately, WW84 isn't as great or even as impactful as its predecessor, but it's still a fairly good follow-up overall. It does stand on its own well too and doesn't depend on being a part of the further DCEU canon (though it does briefly set up its own threequel). As much as I've enjoyed the immersive Marvel Universe, these DC movies seem to work a lot better when they're more self-contained. This may be more of a bumpy ride than its predecessor, but it's still worth the watch, particularly if you're a fan of the character.