WW84 (Wonder Woman 1984) 2020 Movie review

Wonder Woman 1984 hit theaters on December 25 after months of delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite its recent premiere, Warner Bros has already confirmed that there will be a third installment, which will once again feature Gal Gadot as the protagonist and Patty Jenkins as director.

Wonder Woman 1984 Trailer

 

“As fans around the world continue to welcome Diana Prince, fueling the strong box office of Wonder Woman 1984 opening weekend, we are excited to be able to continue her story with our real-life Wonder Women Gal and Patty, who they will return to conclude the long-planned trilogy, “said Toby Emmerich, director of Warner Bros.

Although many chose to see Wonder Woman 1984 through HBO Max, the film has surprised with its box office in theaters in the United States. The sequel grossed $ 16.7 million in 2,100 North American theaters, the best opening weekend to date since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. For its part, HBO Max said that almost half of the platform’s subscribers saw the film on Friday, December 25, the opening day in the United States.

“Wonder Woman 1984 broke records and exceeded our expectations on all of our key viewer and subscriber metrics in her first 24 hours on the service, and the interest and momentum we’re seeing indicates this will likely continue well beyond the weekend,” said Andy Forssell, WarnerMedia’s chief business officer.

“During these difficult times, it was nice to give families the option to enjoy this movie at home when going to the movies was not an option,” he added.

In the film, Gal Gadot once again takes on the role of DC’s Amazon in an intense film that has a strong message of hope that is totally timely in these difficult times. A movie loaded with spectacular sequences and that deserves to be seen on the big screen.

The plot of WW84, the first of the premieres in the United States, still the main film market, Warner launches simultaneously in theaters and in streaming its streaming service HBO Max, is located seven decades after the first installment directed by Patty Jenkins.

The story jumps from World War I to the full Cold War, with Princess Diana fully adapted to the modern world and working at the Smithsonian Museum as a historian and archaeologist.

As she tries to deal with the death of her great love Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), a mysterious gem with supernatural powers come into play, serving as a ‘MacGuffin’ to intertwine the story of Wonder Woman with that of the two great villains of the tape: the leopard woman Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) and the devious and self-centered Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal).

DC fans have long been waiting to see Wonder Woman’s new adventure within the DCEU. And these are the 5 great reasons to go see WW84 in theaters.

Although WW84 is a prequel in the DCEU timeline – it takes place several decades before Justice League – it still has a connection with the Batman, Superman and company films, whose last installment so far was Birds of Prey, released in 2019.

Given the multiple delays in the 2020 releases, the film feels like a return to the big blockbusters, which still make the difference in quality with streaming productions.

In this regard, both the action sequences, as well as the sets, locations, the number of extras and the post-production effects are worth seeing on the big screen. Everything in Jenkins’ film is taken care of to the smallest detail, from the eighties setting to the evolution of the characters, through the magnificent costumes and the brilliant performance of Gadot and the rest of the protagonists.

The second strong point of the film are its two main villains, played by Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal. Far from the antagonists of the first installment – the god of war Ares and the dangerous Doctor Poison – Max Lord and Bárbara Minerva are two normal people who aspire to more in a society dictated by ego and greed. And that they will do whatever it takes to become exceptional people.

The brilliant performances of both performers lead to great dialogue, which even dwarfs the action scenes in which Gadot proudly wears the classic Wonder Woman costume. And yet, they keep up with the great villains of superhero movies.

Because while the two antagonists are presented as secondary characters in Diana’s life, they soon become dangerous villains capable of standing up to DC’s almost unbeatable Amazon. This results in some of the most shocking action sequences starring Wonder Woman, rivaling those seen in Batman v Superman and Justice League.

From the great scenes in which the powers of Max Lord come into play to Wonder Woman’s continuous interventions in robberies, riots and various accidents, through the confrontations between Cheetah and Diana -with special mention of the final combat- WW84 presents footage of about two hours and 30 minutes in length, which at no time slows down, making the viewer’s experience as intense as it is light.

A large part of the plot focuses on Diana’s growth as a superhero, narrated through her love affair with pilot Steve Trevor, who in WW84 is once again played by Chris Pine after his ‘apparent’ death in the first installment. However, the film presents their idyll lightly, and at times comic.

Pine’s character fulfills the typical architrama of a hero out of time, functioning as an engine of change in the personality of the protagonist, who throughout the film makes the leap from the inexperienced savior of the world to the hardened superheroine that was shown in Batman v Superman.

In this way, Diana’s love life, and her journey of self-knowledge, become the engine of the action, and not the other way around, making the footage much more dynamic and agile. Special mention to the flight sequence between fireworks, worthy of Aladdin himself.

Finally, there is the message of the film itself, which focuses like the plot on how society has changed since the first installment. A world where each individual, regardless of their place in society, thinks of their own benefit over global well-being, and in which there is no room for hope.

In this regard, Wonder Woman, and her unwavering faith in goodness and truth, shines like a beacon of disinterested empathy, capable of illuminating not only her fellow citizens but all the spectators who decide to live this cinematographic experience that is WW84 in a big screen, in a movie theater.