Wonder Woman was widely renowned as the best DC movie, winning several awards including Movie of the Year (AFI Awards, USA), Best Action Movie (Critics Choice Awards), and Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie (Dragon Awards). And last year, fans were thrilled to hear of a sequel. On December 24, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 was released to much anticipation. In theaters, the movie gained over $16.7 million in the U.S. during Christmas weekend with nearly two million tickets sold, the highest “three day total” for any new movie since the COVID lockdown. Many people also streamed from home on HBO Max, which had 17.2 million accounts subscribed by the end of the year and doubled account activations, with 8.6 million sign-ups through September when Wonder Woman 1984 was first announced.
The return of Patty Jenkins, who previously directed Wonder Woman, bolstered fans’ anticipation. Fans were also excited to see Gal Gadot play Wonder Woman again, as she did tremendously well in previous iterations of Wonder Woman. Despite the excitement, the movie disappointed, receiving 60% from Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.4/10 on IMDb. Wonder Woman 1984 failed to give Gal Gadot enough focus in her scenes, which were the highlights of the film. It’s a shame her character isn’t featured in as many action scenes as the first movie. Even Batman vs. Superman had a more intense scene, with Wonder Woman only appearing in 7 minutes of the entire film. The other characters in the movie were tacky and strange, and despite the quite talented cast, did not suit their roles properly. Chris Pine performed exceptionally well, but his character (as her dead love interest) was unnecessary and a repeat of the first movie. The main antagonists of the film, Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig, are also skilled actors and comedians but were given very cheesy lines, making their characters distasteful to watch. The movie was two and a half hours long and felt even longer due to the bad pacing and misplaced scenes. It did not portray any deep character arc with the heroine throughout the story and even seemed to focus more on the antagonist at times. The film’s 200 million dollar budget was wasted on random fight scenes that came out of nowhere and added nothing to the plot. They utilized the character of Cheetah horribly, depicting her as a cliche bullied high school girl who had a makeover and became obsessed with popularity. The failure is even more pronounced considering that in DC Comics, she serves as Wonder Woman’s archenemy and is very much like Lex Luthor to Superman. Wonder Woman 1984 was an overly long waste of time with the worst screenplay I have ever seen in a DC movie, and if you’re interested in watching, read the plot summary online instead.
The Cougar Connection 