Review: Heroic Optimism Carries ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Through the Finish Line
“No true hero is born from lies.”
The era of shopping malls, video arcades, and perms set the stage for Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) to save the world again in Wonder Woman 1984. After stopping Ares in the European Theater of WWI, she finds herself in Washington DC working as an anthropologist at the Smithsonian. Living in the world of humans has its rewards, but she finds herself alone, missing the type of connection found on Themyscira or with her long-departed partner Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). On an incidental day of justice, the Dreamstone is uncovered — a stone that grants anyone their deepest desires in return for their most prized possession. When it’s brought into the Smithsonian for cataloguing, its immense power starts to draw the eyes of malicious actors who seek to abuse it.
From the film’s opening self-contained thesis, we’re given a bearing that 1984 is about truth seeking and achieving ambitions through righteous means. More narrowly, it hones in on our desires and what we’ll do to achieve them. Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) is a ‘touching’ television ponzi schemer who absorbs the power of the aforementioned Dreamstone. His mantra — “life is good, but it could be better” — becomes a compass for his villainous scheme as he tries to become a worldly success through illegitimate means.
For Diana, her wish means the return of Trevor. While fish out of water moments of levity and wardrobe montages remind us how much Diana appreciates a partner in this world, it isn’t long before the gift of the monkey’s paw starts to have adverse effects, something mirrored adversely by Diana’s foil and anthropologist coworker, Barbara Ann Minerva (Kristen Wiig).
Of the stylistic variety, 1984 amends issues of the first film. The over deployed slow motion of the first film is toned back in favor for a much more mild mannered implementation here. The questionable VFX work from the first is much improved. And tonal consistency is much more stable this time around, that is if you can stomach some of the more outlandish elements of this comic book narrative.
But for all intents and purposes, 1984 is more human than most in the genre. It’s most potent element is sheer optimism combined with a collective fallibility that’s inherent to all of us. “You’re just explaining a theme,” you might be thinking. Well yes, but 1984 makes relatively successful attempts at making its theme — corruptible desires — extend beyond the realm of spandex and super strength and into our own, a pervasive problem for a genre where the protagonists are so unlike us.
Perhaps I’m giving too much credit for a film carrying out one of the most basic functions it can do, but when so many super hero films fail on this front, its commendable when one can string a theme together that doesn’t feel so removed from the human experience.
All this is still very much packaged as a studio super hero film. It’s big. It’s grand. It’s VFX-laiden. It has clear divisions of right and wrong, and we’ll learn from acts of heroism in the same way we have for years. But this one features Wonder Woman, and maybe that’s enough to get you to see this one.
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