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Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Unbalanced by over-ambition

Film: Wonder Woman 1984

Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Lilly Aspell, Amr Waked

Director: Patty Jenkins

Rating: * * ½

Runtime: 151 min.

(Streaming on HBO Max)

 

Director Patty Jenkins’ first Wonder Woman outing was a well-balanced entertainer that was believably put together and offered the audience some high-tension adrenaline gushing moments. Gal Gadot’s belief in the role and its place in the superhero hierarchy was evident and she made the role indelibly hers by living the part of Wonder Woman with equal muscle, grace and heart. She put on such high-end testosterone action finesse that the resultant was singularly bedazzling. She was a regal superhero living much beyond the scale that DC comics envisioned her to be. In this, Jenkins’ second DC comic’s adaptation effort of Wonder Woman, a cold war set spectacle, the Superhero is shown to have come into conflict with the Soviet Union during the 1980s and finds a formidable foe in Cheetah. The arsenal gets more modern and heavier of course and the makers try to go for bigger and better but the attempted over-indulgence only makes the lack of a credible narrative rallying point all the more obvious. 

 

The film opens with a bang. The flashback sequence featuring Diana (Lilly Aspell) as a young trainee warrior in the magical island of Themiscyra competing in a contest that tests her strength and skill with opponents twice her age and size opens our eyes to her valour, tenacity and unflagging fighting spirit. What she learns from that experience forms the basis of our empathy towards this warrior princess whose innate goodness shines brighter than her God-killer-Sword’s blade. That opener is basically the centrepiece of a narrative that eventually flags under the weight of its desire to excel with excess. The tonal and elemental balance displayed in the first outing, gets lost in the battle ground that this outing weighs in with. 

 

The script co-written by Jenkins, Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, based on William Moulton Marston’s original characters, is about avarice and is set in a time period when people had caught on to consumerism and materialism with a vengeance. Even though the reference point is the height of Reagan-era (“WW84”), the inference that self-seeking behaviour to the exclusion of all else could well be destructive, has relevance even today.

 

The ageless Diana Prince(Gal Gadot) is currently living in Washington DC( The Watergate to be precise) and working as an archaeologist at the Smithsonian, a befitting position for a resourceful linguist with unchallengeable knowledge about ancient artefacts. An emotional and period misfit, she bonds with co-worker Dr. Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) a misfit herself, who eventually transforms into the villain with chameleon like stealth. But that happens only after Barbara gets her hands on a mysterious wishing stone, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) gets resurrected and Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), a fake oil Tycoon makes his evil desires felt.

 

Gadot of course towers over the unwieldy narrative with a regal power and grace that is magnetic and Wiig manages a transformation that is brilliantly timed. Unfortunately the action set-pieces feel a little repetitive and over-the-top. The story doesn’t feel original either because the linkage to archaeology and ancient wisdom harkens back to ‘The Mummy’ series while some of the other story elements link it to the ‘Superman’ series. The longish, ungainly runtime is utilised mainly for ensuring chaos as the script follows the three main characters and their wish-fulfilment escapades. Despite Gal Gadot’s charismatic screen presence, this second edition fails to bring wonder mainly because it takes a little too long to show-off its flash and super power.

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