Wonder Woman 1984 SPOILER Review Thread

[flickchick85]

I still maintain Aquaman was nothing more than a CW show with a budget. WW84 was doing much more unique and creative things with its script whether it worked for you or not, imo.

 

[Schlosser85]

Aquaman was fun, but so so dumb at times. Some of the banter between Arthur and Meera felt like we wandered into a bad rom com, and it even started doing some jarringly out of place "comedy" music at times.

Also I just don't find Momoa likable or appealing.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I am a big fan of Aquaman. Was it dumb? Very, but it was a glorious type of dumb. It was up my alley, lol

 

[Aurakles]

Aquman had better action scenes than WW84, but that's it.

 

[writer0327]

Thinking this is dumber and/or cringier than Aquaman is a little head-scratching to me, but okay.

I think for me, it's because Wonder Woman completely flipped tones on us. The first WW film was full of fantasy, but also dealt with some very serious elements in it regarding war and death, almost poetically. WW84 was goofy in a very unexpected and (imo) not well thought out way. Its almost like if the Godfather was followed up by a bad version of Home Alone. That's how jarring this was for me.

But Aquaman was fish people fighting other fish people the entire time and never pretended it was anything but that.

 

[dhandler01]

Thinking this is dumber and/or cringier than Aquaman is a little head-scratching to me, but okay.

Well I think part of that is Aquaman leans into the cringe. It lives there. They hang a lantern on it and just turn the knob to 11. (like walking in slow mo out of the Ocean to Pittbull!) Outside of maybe Manta and his daddy issues none of the stuff is really all that heavy handed or serious. Any story was just a break from another montage or action set piece. It was a Nintendo game.

Wonder Woman tries to be campy but still have seriousness to it and it clashed heavily in some of our minds. There is a definite good movie in there but the creators lost it. It reminds me of PS3 games that try for something awesome but the game is so slow it never grabs ya.

On the topic of the stone I had no issue with that...that fit right in with the 80s vibe because a lot of 80s flicks had that stupid artifact that was impetus of the story. Lord being able to grant wishes via the Emergency Broadcast System was stupid as heck though. It was a major step too far.

 

[kguillou]

I think Aquaman also lived or died on your feeling of Jason Mamoa. Mamoa’s charisma and rock star personality held that film up but if youre someone not really sold on him as Arthur i could definitely see movie not working for you.

 

[Stringer]

I found it pretty bad and nothing particularly poignant about our current times as many of the more positive reactions implied. Just basic all over the place. Bringing back Steve Trevor was always a sign of a lack of faith in how Wonder Woman as a character could progress in the franchise but hopefully that's over and done with now.

 

[misslane38]

To me, AM and WW84 are comparably campy. I didn't mind the cheese in either, and I don't think tone is the issue with WW84 (or the CGI or action). WW84's problems are in its structure, logic, characterization, and message. The message is both muddled and questionable. The film is also, in my opinion, deeply sad and cynical despite its candy coated presentation.

 

[Moncton]

I think the difference between Aquaman and WW84 is that at no time did the fight scenes in Aquaman go for physical comedy, which the WW84 mall scene did. And the villains on Aquaman always had a seriousness to them. I think these two factors make WW84 seem a lot more campy.

 

[davide_myskin]

It's not that "campy" means one thing and one thing only. There are, like, different shades of campy. Aquaman is as campy as a Fast & Furious movie or some 80s movie like Commando. I'd actually say that it is a flawed movie and they could have done even better and take an "Evil Dead"-like direction. Anyway, it's pretty clear what they were going for.

WW1984 is campy in terms of tone and because of some visual features, but a lot of moments are involuntarily campy. Or just involuntarily funny. The colors in the mall scene, or Minerva's clothes, are voluntarily campy. The robbers screaming because the little girl is in danger or Wonder Woman literally destroying a police car just by throwing at it the robbers is just laughable. I repeat it again - just erase Wonder Woman from the story and with some reworking here and there this could have been a homage to fantasy comedies of the 1990s such as Bruce Almighty.

 

[Prison Mike]

Yeah the mall scene in WW84 had physical comedy...which reminded me more of Superman 3 and 4. Reminded me of Lenny Luthor.

 

[dhandler01]

Yeah the mall scene in WW84 had physical comedy...which reminded me more of Superman 3 and 4. Reminded me of Lenny Luthor.

When I was a kid I thought Lenny was awesome! And think he grew up and is now Lex on Supergirl

 

[jmc]

The more reviews I read from others the more this film starts to piss me off. I really didn't want to believe the first film was a fluke. When it came out it was the happiest I'd been watching a DC film since TDK. But maybe I ignored the warning signs, but the more I think about this film and the more I hear from others about their thoughts on it, the more pissed off it makes me. It's like Patty just said '**** it, I'm going to make a cartoon'. Like, did she even look at her own movie that she made 3 years ago? Did she understand why people liked it in the first place? If she did she would never have brought back Steve Trevor. I've never seen a more ham fisted way of trying to bring back a dead character than in this film. It's not even a case of this being something like TDKR where it's a drop off from it's two predecessors, but not enough to be an outright terrible film. The drop off here between the first and second film is I think what astounds me the most. I cannot believe the same director, with more resources at her disposal, would be capable of such a drop in quality unless the first film was simply lightning in a bottle. You've gone from something that was on the edge of being a masterpiece of superhero films, to something that is a complete and utter joke. And the thing that pisses me off the most is she wasted Diana's primary villain. A ****ing golden opportunity to have a female hero and villain be centre stage and it's a complete botched job. The entire film should have been built around building up that rivalry and it should have been aiming for Batman vs Joker levels of confrontation. Did anyone working on this film bring up the point that Cheetah is suppose to be her arch rival? Did Jenkins even care about that? It would seem the answer was no. Frankly, I don't know what she did care about or what her goals where here, all I know is that it was a failure.

 

[Mysteryman]

When I was a kid I thought Lenny was awesome! And think he grew up and is now Lex on Supergirl

And he is a pretty good Lex,too!

 

[kguillou]

There was one part at the mall scene where the thief was dangling the little over the edge and it cuts to one guy screaming “Nooooo!” And holy CRAP it the worst “Noooo!” I have seen since Revenge of the Sith.

That whole sequence just set a really bad tone for the movie.

 

[writer0327]

The more reviews I read from others the more this film starts to piss me off. I really didn't want to believe the first film was a fluke. When it came out it was the happiest I'd been watching a DC film since TDK. But maybe I ignored the warning signs, but the more I think about this film and the more I hear from others about their thoughts on it, the more pissed off it makes me. It's like Patty just said '**** it, I'm going to make a cartoon'. Like, did she even look at her own movie that she made 3 years ago? Did she understand why people liked it in the first place? If she did she would never have brought back Steve Trevor. I've never seen a more ham fisted way of trying to bring back a dead character than in this film. It's not even a case of this being something like TDKR where it's a drop off from it's two predecessors, but not enough to be an outright terrible film. The drop off here between the first and second film is I think what astounds me the most. I cannot believe the same director, with more resources at her disposal, would be capable of such a drop in quality unless the first film was simply lightning in a bottle. You've gone from something that was on the edge of being a masterpiece of superhero films, to something that is a complete and utter joke. And the thing that pisses me off the most is she wasted Diana's primary villain. A ****ing golden opportunity to have a female hero and villain be centre stage and it's a complete botched job. The entire film should have been built around building up that rivalry and it should have been aiming for Batman vs Joker levels of confrontation. Did anyone working on this film bring up the point that Cheetah is suppose to be her arch rival? Did Jenkins even care about that? It would seem the answer was no. Frankly, I don't know what she did care about or what her goals where here, all I know is that it was a failure.

Oh yes indeed, I am questioning what she understood about the character of Wonder Woman, what she understood about the other characters she was working with, maybe even what she understands about the comic book genre itself.

There's no mistake in my mind that she's a good director and she can handle herself behind the camera but when it comes to actually writing a film, she's out of her depth. I know Geoff Johns will take some blame for this but Patty Jenkins wrote this film, directed this film, and this is her project and her creative vision.

I'm starting to feel about her the way I feel about Zack Snyder. Good on the direction but keep her away from script and story structure. I'm hearing everyone say she was great with Monster, great with the first WW. A lot of directors were great on their first couple of outings (M Night Shyamalan, anyone?) but Monster was 17 years ago and WW had a shaky 3rd act amongst other issues. This may be just a bump in the road, but whatever follows this had better be lights out.

 

[SiegePerilous]

I hope most of the writers of WW84 don’t comeback, but if they’re gonna bring back Cheetah then they better simply chop it up to she didn’t renounce her wish and move on. The more they don’t mention the events of this movie, the better. Then again, there’s still a part of me hoping with Jenkins being busy with Star Wars she steps down and just becomes an executive producer of any future WW movies.

This is what I think they will do. Barbara didn't renounce her wish and her facial expression at the end is ambiguous. She could still be resentful of Diana and addicted to gaining the full Cheetah power back.

Hopefully leading to her seeking out and teaming up with Circe.

The ending speech and everyone renouncing their wishes works for me because of the lasso of truth element: she was showing everyone the truth of their wishes and what it was costing, and they know it to be true because that’s the lasso’s magical power, so they instinctively know that the truth is that the only right course of action is to renounce.

I think the scene was schmaltzy, but I can't dislike it. I can't hate anything that intends for Diana to resolve a conflict with the lasso, like she should.

And the thing that pisses me off the most is she wasted Diana's primary villain. A ****ing golden opportunity to have a female hero and villain be centre stage and it's a complete botched job. The entire film should have been built around building up that rivalry and it should have been aiming for Batman vs Joker levels of confrontation. Did anyone working on this film bring up the point that Cheetah is suppose to be her arch rival? Did Jenkins even care about that? It would seem the answer was no. Frankly, I don't know what she did care about or what her goals where here, all I know is that it was a failure.

I would be more mad about this if it didn't seem like there will be more Cheetah going forward.

But yes, if this ends up being it, it will be a supreme waste of the character and actress. Cheetah making her big cinematic debut by being secondary to Max Lord of all people (not even a WW character) is a shame. I would have preferred if the movie had been set in present day and followed Greg Rucka's arc for Barbara Minerva. Which, minus maybe the English accent, Wiig probably could have delivered on.

 

[Prison Mike]

I also realized that there was no main song for this movie like there was that Sia song for the first WW movie. Would have been nice to have a title track.

 

[The Shape]

My absolute favorite moment in this was when Diana had to say goodbye to Steve again and renounce her wish, running away with that scream and then flying in the air with the music swelling. Very well done and emotional moment, extremely reminiscent of the moment in Donner's Superman when Lois dies and he screams and flies off to turn back time. It was obvious she would have to say goodbye to him again eventually and I expected it to be something lame or half-baked, but this surprised me and hit me in the feels.

Overall, I really loved Gal's performance in this. As always, she is magnetic and it's hard to keep your eyes off her at all whenever she is on screen. She has clearly improved in terms of her acting.

 

[The Shape]

The more reviews I read from others the more this film starts to piss me off. I really didn't want to believe the first film was a fluke. When it came out it was the happiest I'd been watching a DC film since TDK. But maybe I ignored the warning signs, but the more I think about this film and the more I hear from others about their thoughts on it, the more pissed off it makes me. It's like Patty just said '**** it, I'm going to make a cartoon'. Like, did she even look at her own movie that she made 3 years ago? Did she understand why people liked it in the first place? If she did she would never have brought back Steve Trevor. I've never seen a more ham fisted way of trying to bring back a dead character than in this film. It's not even a case of this being something like TDKR where it's a drop off from it's two predecessors, but not enough to be an outright terrible film. The drop off here between the first and second film is I think what astounds me the most. I cannot believe the same director, with more resources at her disposal, would be capable of such a drop in quality unless the first film was simply lightning in a bottle. You've gone from something that was on the edge of being a masterpiece of superhero films, to something that is a complete and utter joke. And the thing that pisses me off the most is she wasted Diana's primary villain. A ****ing golden opportunity to have a female hero and villain be centre stage and it's a complete botched job. The entire film should have been built around building up that rivalry and it should have been aiming for Batman vs Joker levels of confrontation. Did anyone working on this film bring up the point that Cheetah is suppose to be her arch rival? Did Jenkins even care about that? It would seem the answer was no. Frankly, I don't know what she did care about or what her goals where here, all I know is that it was a failure.

So...have you actually seen the film yet? Or you've made up your mind based on reading spoilers and other people's reviews/reactions? It's not clear from your posts.

 

[fan4stic]

The more reviews I read from others the more this film starts to piss me off. I really didn't want to believe the first film was a fluke. When it came out it was the happiest I'd been watching a DC film since TDK. But maybe I ignored the warning signs, but the more I think about this film and the more I hear from others about their thoughts on it, the more pissed off it makes me. It's like Patty just said '**** it, I'm going to make a cartoon'. Like, did she even look at her own movie that she made 3 years ago? Did she understand why people liked it in the first place? If she did she would never have brought back Steve Trevor. I've never seen a more ham fisted way of trying to bring back a dead character than in this film. It's not even a case of this being something like TDKR where it's a drop off from it's two predecessors, but not enough to be an outright terrible film. The drop off here between the first and second film is I think what astounds me the most. I cannot believe the same director, with more resources at her disposal, would be capable of such a drop in quality unless the first film was simply lightning in a bottle. You've gone from something that was on the edge of being a masterpiece of superhero films, to something that is a complete and utter joke. And the thing that pisses me off the most is she wasted Diana's primary villain. A ****ing golden opportunity to have a female hero and villain be centre stage and it's a complete botched job. The entire film should have been built around building up that rivalry and it should have been aiming for Batman vs Joker levels of confrontation. Did anyone working on this film bring up the point that Cheetah is suppose to be her arch rival? Did Jenkins even care about that? It would seem the answer was no. Frankly, I don't know what she did care about or what her goals where here, all I know is that it was a failure.

I don't see why this is something to make someone that mad.

I thought the Steve Trevor thing kinda tied into thematic elements and such.

I don't really think it's a cartoon.

I think for me, it's because Wonder Woman completely flipped tones on us. The first WW film was full of fantasy, but also dealt with some very serious elements in it regarding war and death, almost poetically. WW84 was goofy in a very unexpected and (imo) not well thought out way. Its almost like if the Godfather was followed up by a bad version of Home Alone. That's how jarring this was for me.

But Aquaman was fish people fighting other fish people the entire time and never pretended it was anything but that.

I only really see the mall scene as outright goofy. I think this movie dealt with serious elements of greed, selfishiness and such.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

I would be more mad about this if it didn't seem like there will be more Cheetah going forward.

But yes, if this ends up being it, it will be a supreme waste of the character and actress. Cheetah making her big cinematic debut by being secondary to Max Lord of all people (not even a WW character) is a shame. I would have preferred if the movie had been set in present day and followed Greg Rucka's arc for Barbara Minerva. Which, minus maybe the English accent, Wiig probably could have delivered on.

I have no information but I suspect based on his track record this was Johns.

He loves using all parts of the character comics and this definitely felt like a nod to the Priscilla Rich version partly grafted on Barbara Minerva.

I actually like that there fallout wasn’t over jealousy but just not agreeing on how to deal with Max.

 

[Nemeres]

I liked some things. Loved the cast, the opening scene -- the first 40 minutes, actually, I felt were solid and I was fully onboard. And I think the wish storyline was a strong hook that fits well with WW, who's all about gods and magic. Generally, I liked what they wanted the film to be about. It's just bloated and the crazy-excessive plot mechanics eclipse stuff that could've been more interesting. The second it became clear to them that Kirsten Wiig's Cheetah was gonna end up as an afterthought rather than the star villain to whom the film belongs, that should've been their "Back to the drawing board!" moment.

 

[SiegePerilous]

I have no information but I suspect based on his track record this was Johns.

He loves using all parts of the character comics and this definitely felt like a nod to the Priscilla Rich version partly grafted on Barbara Minerva.

I actually like that there fallout wasn’t over jealousy but just not agreeing on how to deal with Max.

I think it was Jenkins as much as Johns. In adaptations for characters like these, creators always draw inspiration from various versions (ex: Clayface in BTAS being a mix of Hagen, Karlo and Payne). So a combo of Priscilla and Barbara isn't a bad idea on paper. Rebirth Barbra Minerva already had some Priscilla folded back into her, this was just even more Priscilla added in. Plus some Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman, which is appropriate considering that version of Selina seems to borrow from Priscilla Rich's archetype.

I like that envy plays a role in their friendship souring, just obviously a little more nuanced than "I hate that she's prettier than me and upstaging me at a party!". I think there is enough to work with here so she can be an ongoing character despite the flawed beginning. We need more of her without Max hogging the spotlight.