Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) Review

 "What do you wish for?"

-Max Lord

66 years after the first movie, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) works at the Smithsonian and befriends her awkward coworker, Barbara (Kristen Wiig).  A strange stone is sent to the Smithsonian and they discover it can grant wishes.  Unfortunately, each wish comes at a price and when the stone falls into the hands of desperate businessman Max Lord (Pedro Pascal), Diana has to risk everything to get it back.

What Works:

The best part of Wonder Woman 1984, is the villains.  Wiig and Pascal are both great and give us the best villains in the DCEU, hands down.  Both are pretty likable and easy to relate to.  They aren't crazy people trying to destroy the world, they are people who have had a hard time and things are finally starting to go their way and they are desperate to make sure it stays that way.  They are both very easy to relate to and I think most people would make the same decisions as them if they were in the same situation.  Both Barbara and Max are well written and performed and are the highlights of the movie.

One of my favorite aspects of the first film was how much of a fish-out-of-water Diane was upon arriving in the human world.  Now it's been 66 years and that Diana is long gone.  Instead it's Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) who is the fish-out-of-water when he is resurrected and looks upon the 80's for the first time.  It's very funny and brings back the spirit of the first movie.

We also get a few solid action sequences.  My favorite is the chase in Egypt, which reminded me a lot of the truck chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The fight in the White House is also well done with our four main characters chasing each other all over the place.

One problem with characters like Wonder Woman and Superman is they are basically indestructible.  That can remove some of the tension from the story because they're going to be fine.  In this movie, Diana starts losing her powers and we see her get injured.  That adds some tension to the action sequences.  It's Wonder Woman, she'll probably be fine, but she's going to get hurt along the way.

Finally, the 3rd act gets pretty insane as wishes are granted around the world.  It's over the top and chaotic and I loved it.  This is way more creative than trying to disarm a bomb before a clock reaches zero...your typical third act.  This was very imaginative and interesting.

What Sucks:

This movie is very strangely paced.  It takes a long time for the story to kick in and it mostly focuses on developing the characters rather than action sequences.  I don't think that's a bad thing.  The only problem is that for the first half of the movie, there isn't anything at stake.  We don't know why the stone is such a bad thing.  There isn't any ticking clock or tension.

My other problem comes after we get the tension.  We get too much too fast.  As soon as our heroes return to the United States, things are getting crazy.  Chaos everywhere.  At the end of the movie, that makes sense.  But the chaos hits too fast.  I wasn't sure if the rioting had to do with the wishing or if it was unrelated.  Don't get me wrong, I love when movies get crazy, but I didn't know why it was getting crazy until much later.

Verdict:

1984 isn't as good as the first film thanks to its pacing issues, but it's still a very fun film with an awesome cast, excellent villains, solid action sequences, and an insane 3rd act.  It's definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good