(This was something I’d written most of closer to the original release date but never got around to finishing. But given the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max, it seemed worth looking over.)
It was first announced that DC/Warner’s Wonder Woman sequel with Gal Gadot would be released simultaneously in theaters and Warner’s HBO Max streaming on Christmas Day. But then Warner Brothers announced that all their major movies for 2021 would be done primarily in streaming format. In this the movie industry, as in, the production part of it, was simply acknowledging the reality of the world under coronavirus and the fact that people can’t or won’t go to theaters anymore, but in the rest of the industry, as in the theaters that show the movies and the filmmakers who actually create them, some saw the decision as a betrayal. In large respect it’s because filmmakers intend for big-budget movies to be seen on a wide screen, not a TV or desktop, and the budgeting on these movies is such that only major studios like Warner can really produce those Hollywood movies and international blockbusters.
I had intended to do more analysis on this point in terms seeing WW84 on HBO Max, but my friends wanted to wait until we could all get together to see it. I had thought it would be more convenient to see it in my house on streaming (since I’m already paying for it via DIRECTV and wouldn’t have to drive all the way out to the movie theater at my friend’s house) but for some reason the streaming service didn’t seem to be cooperating that week. So we went to one of the local theaters and found (even though new COVID rules mean there are no longer any matinees) that ticket prices have been reduced to six dollars. THAT’s good to see, at least. It may be the theaters’ own survival tactic, but for once the Law of Supply and Demand is working for the consumer.
Which doesn’t answer the question: Is WW84 any good?
Well, I liked it, but that doesn’t make it objectively good.
In this story, Diana Prince the antiquarian is working for the Smithsonian in Washington DC, where she meets an introverted new colleague Barbara Minerva (Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig), who is asked to appraise various smuggled artifacts, including a piece of citrine they call a “dream stone,” which inspires them to make wishes to themselves that only get fulfilled later. But their department receives the patronage of Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal from The Mandalorian) an oil investor who has apparently been searching for this Dream Stone for quite some time. And when Diana goes to Lord’s party in DC to investigate him, along with a suddenly glammed-up Barbara, she is approached by a strange guy only to realize he is her long-dead love, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). So while Lord continues his quest and Barbara starts to realize she is no longer “normal”, Diana resumes her life with Steve and takes him on an enchanting tour of the city, showing the ex-World War I pilot America’s National Air and Space Museum.
Really, a big part of this movie is just Gal Gadot and Chris Pine being attractive, and happy, and in love with the world and in love with life, and… that’s not the sort of thing you see in modern media, is it?
Unfortunately that state of affairs can’t last, as Lord’s experiment with the Dream Stone causes a downward spiral that makes him more desperate the more powerful he gets even as Barbara and Diana both refuse to accept the drawbacks of their wishes.
Naturally this film gets analyzed from a feminist angle, not just because it’s Wonder Woman, but because it, along with the still-yet-to-be-released Black Widow, is one of the few movies that centers on a superheroine, given how rare they are in movies generally. So there was some critique of the example being set by both Diana and Barbara. WW84 presents two paths to female empowerment: one is to be a born demigoddess who is both powerful and classically feminine. The other is to be a deranged carnivore who attacks people. I think the second option is more realistic.
As for the “problematic” nature of Steve’s second life, I think the movie addressed this in playing out the lesson of the prelude story, where young Diana’s mentor tells her “the truth is all there is – you can’t live by lies.” Yes, Diana had one selfish desire in the world, and its fulfillment was negative in both moral and practical terms, but not AS much as, say, wishing your wife would drop dead, or escalating the arms race towards nuclear war. It’s also noteworthy that Steve himself is quicker to realize the problem and more willing to come to terms with it than Diana is.
The movie is ultimately kind of weak, because it relies so much on a deus ex machina device, but in a way, that’s kind of the point. Even so, and even given that DC movies (as opposed to Marvel Studios) very clearly show that gods and magic are real, a lot of how things develop is just implausible. Not completely though. A few years ago, I would have said that a plot involving a failing TV conman who finagles his way into the White House and causes a global catastrophe would’ve been too much to believe, but for some reason it seems easier to buy into now.
I’ve seen a few reviews that compare 84 to the Richard Donner Superman movies, and I think that’s about right: It’s very ‘four color.’ One of the first scenes of the movie shows Diana doing very “superhero-ey” stuff in public, even if for some reason she doesn’t want to be recorded. With the exception of the scene where Barbara beats up a harasser and it isn’t clear if he’s been killed, lethal violence is played down. This tone extends to the villains – despite the literally fantastical plotline, I found the villains better than in the original movie, in the sense of being better characters.
And yes, the mid-credits scene was a really nice touch.