Wonder Woman 1984. (12A.)
Directed by Patty Jenkins.
Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Pedro Pascal, Kristen Wiig, Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright. In cinemas, somewhere. 151 mins.
Having sent out Tenet to try and save cinemas in the summer, for Christmas Warner Brothers are putting their hopes on Wonder Woman.* She'll have her work cut out what with all of London's cinemas being forced to close on the very day it opens. But, it wouldn't be the first time she has coming riding to the rescue. After the disappointments of Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League, Wonder Woman was the first Warner DC superhero movie to be fully enjoyed by audiences since the Dark Knight films. It turned the tide and Warner enjoyed billion-dollar hits with Aquaman and Joker. Granted, Shazam! didn't quite take off at the box office, those that saw it enjoyed it.
Such has been the turnaround that character otherwise known as Diana Prince has helped them to achieve that Warners are now so emboldened that they have decided to re-edit Zach Snyder’s original version of Justice League, the same Snyder whose “vision” made Batman Vs Superman such a dirge, and make out like this is a big treat. That's some front right there.
So DC superhero movies have got their swagger back, and this is another outing for the woman who got it back for them. And suddenly they're flailing again. Where the first film was quick, nimble, fun and unpretentious, 1984 is slow, plodding, dull and a little bit up itself. It's a simple story told at length and with not much skill, casually leaving a trail of loose ends and underwhelming resolutions throughout its two and a half hours.
After a flashback to an Amazonian triathlon event in our hero's past, establishing the theme that “No true hero is born from lies,” the film then takes up ninety minutes establishing its paper-thin characters and plot. Wiig is a nerdy, socially awkward scientist who attains great power and becomes Cheetah; Pascal is a smarmy businessman eager to get his hands on a magic artefact that grants wishes but, a-ha, always with unforeseen consequences. Who'd've thought it - a wish giving device with a catch. The roles give the performers nothing to work with, though maybe 2D characterisations are appropriate for a film where everything falls flat.
The 1984 setting for this ungood sequel wasn't chosen for any Orwellian overtones but because the eighties were the apotheosis of rampant capitalism and to set up a Greed Is Bad speech. Earlier in the year when Gadot gathered together some celebrity mates to zoom Imagine at us, her efforts were not well received. At that point, she would've hoped that it might have been the most cringe-inducing thing she would be delivering all year but the finale of this comes close.
* In America it's going to Warner's ailing streaming service HBO Max the same day it opens in cinemas.
Directed by Patty Jenkins.
Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Pedro Pascal, Kristen Wiig, Connie Nielsen and Robin Wright. In cinemas, somewhere. 151 mins.
Having sent out Tenet to try and save cinemas in the summer, for Christmas Warner Brothers are putting their hopes on Wonder Woman.* She'll have her work cut out what with all of London's cinemas being forced to close on the very day it opens. But, it wouldn't be the first time she has coming riding to the rescue. After the disappointments of Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League, Wonder Woman was the first Warner DC superhero movie to be fully enjoyed by audiences since the Dark Knight films. It turned the tide and Warner enjoyed billion-dollar hits with Aquaman and Joker. Granted, Shazam! didn't quite take off at the box office, those that saw it enjoyed it.
Such has been the turnaround that character otherwise known as Diana Prince has helped them to achieve that Warners are now so emboldened that they have decided to re-edit Zach Snyder’s original version of Justice League, the same Snyder whose “vision” made Batman Vs Superman such a dirge, and make out like this is a big treat. That's some front right there.
So DC superhero movies have got their swagger back, and this is another outing for the woman who got it back for them. And suddenly they're flailing again. Where the first film was quick, nimble, fun and unpretentious, 1984 is slow, plodding, dull and a little bit up itself. It's a simple story told at length and with not much skill, casually leaving a trail of loose ends and underwhelming resolutions throughout its two and a half hours.
After a flashback to an Amazonian triathlon event in our hero's past, establishing the theme that “No true hero is born from lies,” the film then takes up ninety minutes establishing its paper-thin characters and plot. Wiig is a nerdy, socially awkward scientist who attains great power and becomes Cheetah; Pascal is a smarmy businessman eager to get his hands on a magic artefact that grants wishes but, a-ha, always with unforeseen consequences. Who'd've thought it - a wish giving device with a catch. The roles give the performers nothing to work with, though maybe 2D characterisations are appropriate for a film where everything falls flat.
The 1984 setting for this ungood sequel wasn't chosen for any Orwellian overtones but because the eighties were the apotheosis of rampant capitalism and to set up a Greed Is Bad speech. Earlier in the year when Gadot gathered together some celebrity mates to zoom Imagine at us, her efforts were not well received. At that point, she would've hoped that it might have been the most cringe-inducing thing she would be delivering all year but the finale of this comes close.
* In America it's going to Warner's ailing streaming service HBO Max the same day it opens in cinemas.
