Wonder Woman: messy but thought provoking

The much anticipated Wonder Woman 1984 finally came out on Dec. 25, 2020. Unfortunately, many fans were disappointed, mostly because of the messy and confusing plot line. Warning: spoilers ahead!
The movie begins in Themyscira with a young Diana (Wonder Woman) who is competing. She tries to cheat to win, but ends up learning the importance of truth. Fast forward to the year 1984, 66 years after the original Wonder Woman, we see Diana now working as an archaeologist and still mourning the loss of Steve Trevor (her love interest who had previously tragically died). She still has not moved on, strongly rejecting any other man who comes her way. She also seems to avoid people in general, except when she’s heroically saving the world.
Then an ancient stone is brought into the museum where Diana and Barbara, her coworker, both work. Unbeknownst them, the stone has the power to grant the holder one wish, but it will take something in return. For example, Barbara wishes to be just like Diana, but in return she slowly loses her kindness. Diana wishes for the return of Steve Trevor, but in return she slowly loses her powers. Max Lord, an aspiring oil magnate, wishes to become the stone (have the ability to grant wishes and take something in return).
Lord then wreaks havoc as he travels. Wonder Woman learns that the only way to stop the collapse of the world is if everyone renounces their wish, or if the stone (now Max Lord) is destroyed. Wonder Woman, unable to renounce her wish, then tries to stop Max Lord, but her attempts are foiled by her weakening powers and Barbara. This eventually leads to the climax of the movie where the world is on the brink of destruction as Lord grants an extraordinary amount of wishes.
I’ll begin with aspects I liked about the movie. First, I love Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. She’s a wonderful actress as well as extremely kind, smart, and beautiful with a great personality. She helps create Wonder Woman into a likeable character whom the audience find themselves rooting for.
Secondly, even though the movie was 2.5 hours long, it went by extremely fast. Therefore, the movie was quite captivating for me. I also thought that the insertion of history into the storyline was interesting. They mention ancient civilizations that mysteriously disappeared and the movie is set in the Cold War era. The high tensions surrounding that time are accurately portrayed and eventually bring the movie to its climax.
Wonder Woman 1984 also had some humor throughout, which I enjoyed. It’s always nice to have a movie that can both be lighthearted and serious.
There were also some very powerful, engaging scenes. One is when we see Diana slowly lose her powers. I found myself being very concerned during these parts because the hero is always someone we can look up to and who we believe can do anything. But our confidence wanes when the hero loses their powers. Furthermore, the loss of Diana’s powers is directly linked to Steve Trevor. In order to regain her powers, she must once again lose Steve. Eventually, the movie brings us to the inevitable scene with a heartfelt goodbye between Diana and Steve. This scene was extremely captivating and heart wrenching.
Now I’ll move onto the things I didn’t like quite so much about Wonder Woman 1984.
My main complaint is that the movie was extremely confusing with many apparent contradictions. For example, Barbara seems to get two wishes from the stone, when it seems everyone only gets one. Why did Steve Trevor come back to life in the body of another man? The stone seems to be powerful enough to bring him back as himself. This aspect didn’t really add much to the movie and in fact raised some pressing issues. The final scenes were the most confusing of all for me. Why was only Barabara electrocuted by the electrified water when both Diana and Barbara were touching it? How did Diana’s lasso reach Max Lord when previously it had been impossible for it to break through the mysterious wind shield? I had many more questions, but I’ll leave it here.
I also didn’t like the style of the movie. Throughout, but especially at the beginning, Wonder Woman 1984 came off as extremely corny. Perhaps this was on purpose in order to capture the 1980s’ style. If so, I personally don’t think this was a good move.
I also found the villains hard to sympathize with. Barbara wanted to be like Diana: cool, smart, beautiful, etc. This part I understand. Who wouldn’t? But Barbara’s deep craving for approval ended up making her storyline feel more like a high school drama than a superhero movie. Then there’s Max Lord. He desperately wanted to be successful in the oil industry so he could be rich and respected by all. When Max finally gets his hands on the stone, he doesn’t wish to be a successful oil businessman like one would think. Instead he makes the wish to “be the stone.” Already the audience is confused. It begins to make sense when we see Max granting wishes, but also taking what he wants in return. But then Max begins to desperately want to grant everyone wishes (even if they don’t have something he wants in return). The audience is left asking, “Why does Max so desperately need to grant people their wishes?” This question isn’t answered. Instead the audience watches Max Lord descend into greater insanity and worsening health as the movie progresses.
I also disliked how the movie seemed to rely heavily on the clique theme of ‘be careful what you wish for.’ This is an age old story that is often overused. However, I will admit that Wonder Woman 1984 did offer a unique take on it by bringing in the emerging culture of always wanting more through Max Lord’s catch phrases “Why not have more? And “What do you want? What do you wish for?” I also liked how it created a global version of the ‘be careful what you wish for’ theme. It is interesting to ponder what would happen if everyone got their wish. I agree with the movie that the result would be utter chaos.
Finally, the ending was unrealistic and even more confusing. Basically, Wonder Woman convinces everyone in the world, including Max Lord, to revoke their wish by telling them about the importance and beauty of truth. Wonder Woman says, “This world was a beautiful place just as it was, and you cannot have it all. You can only have the truth, and the truth is enough. The truth is beautiful.” It’s a nice message, but it took Wonder Woman many days before she was able to revoke her own wish. I personally don’t believe that everyone would have been able to revoke their wish. But then, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. After all, once Max Lord revoked his wish to become the stone, then all of the wishes that he made while he was the stone would have been null. Then only Barbara would have to revoke her wish (Diana already had). Although, whether or not Barbara does is not clear. Or perhaps Max Lord revoking his wish also led to the destruction of the stone, therefore saving the world. If these past sentences were confusing, then I believe I have accurately captured the ending scene.
However, perhaps the final scene was purposely meant to be impossible. Wonder Woman 1984 is unique in that the collapse of the world was brought on by the billions of people within the world itself. Yes, Max Lord did help it along, but he wouldn’t have gotten very far if people hadn’t kept wishing. This is similar to the real world where many of today’s problems are caused by many people rather than just one. Therefore, to fix it, many people need to make changes. In the movie, everyone renounced their wish, but this was a movie where literally anything can happen. The real world is not quite so idealistic.
Wonder Woman 1984 is a good movie to watch at least once, but don’t have too high of expectations as it doesn’t quite match the first. However, there are some interesting themes within, and you’ll leave with much to think about, even if the majority of your thoughts will be just wondering what on Earth happened. I’d give it 3/5 spartan heads.