FINALLY watched it! I can now "judge" the Snyderverse. It SUCKED!
Yep, I FINALLY watched it!
As a disclaimer, I have loathed the Snyderverse since he ruined Superman in the Man of Steel “reboot”, and as I result I HAVEN’T seen Batman vs. Superman, EITHER version of Justice League, Suicide Squad, OR the FIRST Wonder Woman movie (the lone “good” Snyderverse character film that audiences “loved”) I viewed this film for one reason alone: I am a voting member of the Razzie Awards this year, Wonder Woman 1984 is up for several awards, and the Snyderites always sneer “You can’t JUDGE a film until you’ve actually SEEN it!” whenever anyone criticizes something the Snyderverse is doing, so I decided to indeed “see this film for myself” and carefully consider at face value what it was doing good or bad.
It sucked.
I find it ironic so many male fanboys screamed bloody hell about Captain Marvel. If I was going to compare those two “female empowerment” superhero movies, Wonder Woman 1984 is certainly the WORSE of the two, and probably more “woke” to boot (starting with Wonder Woman’s first kick ass action scene being her quipping “I HATE guns!” to the “bad” guys). Captain Marvel had much more fun with its mid 1990s period setting than this film had with its pointless mid 1980s setting (Captain Marvel even did a great job de-aging Samuel L. Jackson to look like he did c. 1995. Wonder Woman 1984 DID get the “look” of the mid 1980s very accurate, but did nothing with it that couldn’t have happened in another era) Captain Marvel’s “lighthearted humor” worked much better too, but that is because Wonder Woman 1984 comes from the “dark & gritty” humorless Man of Steel as a foundation, and like STD season 2, you can force “humor” and “fun” into a universe that was already established as extremely dour, bleak, and depressing without it feeling forced and awkward.
But similar to Captain Marvel, the worst part about Wonder Woman was the title character. Just like Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Gal Gadot is pretty flat and dull as Wonder Women. Again, I haven’t seen the first film, but I can’t understand what all the “rave reviews” for Gadot were about, because she did nothing for me in this one. She had zero chemistry with Chris Pine (which really hurt the film as it goes on the premise that Steve Trevor was her one true love and soulmate and she was devastated when he died, supposedly…) and it wasn’t until the final climatic scene she actually showed some sort of acting range and did a heartfelt emotional plea. Some of her dialogue (especially an action scene with the villain on a highway where she asks him to give up the Dream Stone) was particularly lousy. People were oddly using identity politics and praising Gadot for being an Israeli actress, which is particularly weird since Wonder Woman speaking with an Israeli accent (apparently the actress can only use her natural speaking voice) came across as distracting and weird in this movie. I will say I liked the costume and its ACTUAL appearance on screen was colorful and badass, and seemed far more “faithful” to the original DC intent than the dark, ugly monochromatic crappy “teaser” publicity shots we got from Snyder in the Batfleck v. Pseudoman movie. As for Wonder Woman overall, sorry, Lynda Carter remains the one and only true Wonder Woman for me.
The film itself was an incoherent mess, the plot made no sense and the scenes seemed randomly jumbled together. The villain was OBVIOUSLY a thinly veiled Orange Man Bad reference, as the 80s version made him an “Art of the Deal” era Trump at first, and then a “President Trump” in the climax, when he gets his wish fulfilled for total power and spends the movie’s finale in front of a “President of the United States” emblem brainwashing millions around the world to follow his evil plans. Okay, we get it, Hollywood. I wonder what they will have to bitch about now that Trump is no longer in power? Which makes this film ALREADY dated, BTW.
The positives? I liked the opening scene with young Wonder Woman, and although Kristin Wiig is up for worst actress and her scenes were indeed ridiculous, she did what she could with the stupid material the script gave her, and her character was actually much more interesting and compelling than Wonder Woman herself. Oh, and the poster artwork is awesome. Love it! Wish it could be used for a GOOD Wonder Woman movie!
In conclusion, if being against more of this Synderverse garbage makes me “anti-fan”, then I proudly embrace being “anti-fan”. Any “fans” who want more of this have very poor taste in entertainment.
Without respect, I reject!