SPOILERS - Wonder Woman 1984 - Review Thread

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by TREK_GOD_1, Dec 25, 2020.

  1. Saul

    Saul Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I agree they oversold the 80s thing in the trailers and promotion.
    As for the movie I liked it better than the first Wonder Woman movie. It is perhaps my favorite female Super Hero movie although that's not exactly high praise. I'm expecting Black Widow to blow away everything that came before. WW84 is a mess, but an entertaining one. A scene I really enjoyed was seeing Wonder Woman learn to fly. So many male Superhero movies make a big deal of flying for the first time.I can't think of a female Superhero movie that gave us a moment like that until now.
     
  2. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    You liked this better than the original? That's a interesting take. I liked this movie just fine, but the first one just has more charm, warmth, and logic to it. I love the moment when after Wonder Woman sees the plane blow up she seems to hit the "apex" of her powers and busts out of the trap she's in and seeing her learn about the aspects of the real world and all of that. It just has a lot going for it. This second one just has a lot of mess in it that's hard to overlook.

    Hell, the first movie makes a point of how Diana putting on glasses doesn't do anything to make her less attractive and noticeable and then *this* movie makes a point of making a woman with glasses unattractive and dismissed by people even though she's still perfectly attractive?
     
  3. M'rk son of Mogh

    M'rk son of Mogh Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I had to read this sentence more than once to make sure I read it right. I think you may be the first person I've ever seen express this opinion!

    Supergirl did it in the real 1984.
     
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  4. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    On one hand, I can see 1984 Kara wanting time away from 1984 men on Paradise Island, on the other hand those women are larping that its still the bronze age.

    Although as an alien from a futuristic flying city, she can't tell the difference between 1984 bc Amphipolis, and 1984 ad National City.
     
  5. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think the Amazons would count as LARPing, since they aren't pretending to live in a bronze age society, it really is a society that never advanced beyond the bronze age.
     
  6. Saul

    Saul Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I was really not hot on the first film. Overly long and boring. Now the sequel is overly long too but I wasn't bored by it. The villain for the first film was a big monster god type of guy to defeat with strength and it just felt like the end of BVS again. At least the villain in WW84 wasn't your average overpowered giant. I was surprised that WW84 was entertaining enough that it held it's own for an hour before there was another big action scene with her in chase in Egypt. I liked the homage to the original series. I like that they overstuffed it with references to wonder woman lore.

    Long overdue a rewatch of that film. Partly dreading it.
     
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  7. TREK_GOD_1

    TREK_GOD_1 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    He is. Just about everyone else has said--in one way or another--that WW84 was markedly inferior to the first film. It was so awful that it torpedoed all that went into building the WW character in her previous appearances.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2021
  8. loved the movie, and... They didnt exaggerating the things from the 80's at all.
    it was just fine, i lived all of my teens and young adulthood in the 80's and i remember it
    much more flamboyant than this.

    edit: of course, i smoked a lot of ganja in the 80's so the colors may have appeared
    stronger than they actually were...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 6, 2021
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  9. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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  10. LaxScrutiny

    LaxScrutiny Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, that was certainly something that one could click on and watch.
     
  11. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well that depends on which version of Paradise Island that you're talking about.

    In one, they built the invisible plane themselves, and they had "purple technology" that was able to fix any injury.

    From what we know about Amish kids, I imagine that most Amazons have playboys under their bed & transistor radios they use to keep track of Man's world.
     
  12. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Finally saw this. I liked it, but it's a big step down from the first movie. That had a spark which this doesn't.
     
  13. Enterprise is Great

    Enterprise is Great Vice Admiral Admiral

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    WW84 was a bit too long for me. I liked it but no where near as much as the first.
     
  14. thribs

    thribs Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Comparing it to JL you can tell the action scenes aren’t on the same level. I also don’t get why that gold suit was necessary. She had her powers back by then.
    It was also weird having the Beautiful Lie song from BvS at the end. It’s incredibly jarring.
     
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  15. Grendelsbayne

    Grendelsbayne Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I just got to see this movie now, and I've got to say it really didn't live up to the negative hype. I had a great time, watched it again and had a great time again. I may like it just a bit more than the first one, if only because I feel like the Max Lord/Wish plotline is almost perfectly done, whereas the Ares/triumphing over hate story really kind of falls down on its ass when Diana just randomly kills the bad guy even though that goes directly against the whole point of the story.

    I do feel like this runs a bit long - I noticed a bunch of scenes that seemed to be lingering longer than they really needed to. In particular the learning to fly sequence could've been cut by half at least, especially the lightning lassoing (which I was totally on board with in the trailer, but to do something that weird in such a detached/quiet moment where there's not even an immediate threat just feels super weird). But if it runs long, I was still having fun all the way to the end, so it's not a great sin.

    I would also say that Kristen Wiig was surprisingly good for me, I don't normally like her that much. But her character was definitely let down in two particular moments - at the introduction (say everything before the dinner date scene) and after the transformation. The end, in particular, is just a bad action sequence with barely any character and then after refusing vehemently to ever even consider going back to what she was she apparently renounces her wish anyway, offscreen, for no apparent reason? That was disappointing. But everything in between those points was actually really great. The scene of her confronting the wino was incredibly menacing and her first fight against Diana at the white house was full of character and really effective. I like how she walks the line between genuinely wanting to help and being utterly unwilling to give up what she's gained.

    I do agree that the body swap aspect was too glossed over and I really think the movie would work better if Diana didn't lose her powers at all, but rather Steve nearly got himself killed trying to help her and forced her to acknowledge not just that he was already dead but also that they were willfully putting an innocent guy in danger who isn't even capable of saying no. But in the end, the movie does get there with 'I'm already gone' and the whole respect for the truth even if it could've done it better, so it doesn't bother me that much.

    And that's really the only things I didn't like about it. Loved Gal, as usual. The 80s stylism really worked for me to a surprising degree (way better than Ready Player 1, which was the last movie I saw that tried to be unabashedly 80s to this degree, but just could not make it work at all). Pedro Pascal was fantastic throughout, easily one of the best villains in the DCEU. I loved the backstory of the wishing stone and really loved the whole world falling apart sequence. And just the broad range of worldwide reactions we got to see where everyone is wishing and then renouncing their wish really sells the stakes and the humanity of this movie in a way a ton of other superhero movies have just not done very well. Steve's joy of witnessing the wonders of the modern world (especially modern aviation) was brilliant and infectious. (Especially loved: "radar..."/"Well, shit, Diana!") Diana saving the world by convincing people, even Lord, to see the truth was exactly the kind of thing I love about her which makes her way more interesting than the average hero franchise. And I especially loved that the truth Lord needed to see was how much his son needed him the same way he had needed the people who were never there for him - and that his son still is able to teach Lord that he doesn't have to prove himself to be worthy of his family.

    Overall, I'd say A-. A really great flick and I'd love to see another. Especially if, after fighting the hatred/xenophobia of jingoism and the greed/gluttony of commercialism, she closes out the trilogy with a similar metaphysical/symbolic adversary. Maybe the apathy of the globalism era or something like that.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
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  16. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Negativity dominates internet discussions of all sorts. WW84 was a good movie and a deserved success for Warners, which is what matters at the end of the day.
     
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  17. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    The whole "Renouncing wishes" thing really was poorly done, especially if people wished for selfless things like curing their kid of a disease or young Bruce Wayne wishing his parents back.

    Now, if they'd made it clear that Max alone renouncing his wish simply undid everything then it would've been more logical.

    Wiig, she was fine but it's something we've seen so often before. Jim Carrey as Riddler, Electro in ASM2, even Selina Kyle in Batman Returns. The lack of resolution to her didn't help.

    That and we're supposed to think that it's bad she beat up the guy who tried to rape her, and even THAT encounter was utterly contrived that she'd run into the guy randomly again in a city as big as Washington and neither knew where the other was.
     
  18. Grendelsbayne

    Grendelsbayne Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, since Riddler and Electro were utter shit and Catwoman was 30 years ago, I really don't see this as a problem.

    There's nothing contrived about it. The fact that her homeless friend was there both times makes it obvious both encounters happened in the same area. And the fact that she brings him food every day makes it clear she goes there fairly often. So all that needs to happen for them to run into each other is for him to have some reason to get drunk in that area, which he clearly does. Probably there's a bar or a liquor store close by.

    As for it being bad, it pretty clearly crossed the line by a huge margin. If Captain America or Superman did that, there'd be massive outcry and calls of character assassination. So I don't think it's at all out of line to call it a villainous act, even if the guy clearly deserved a lesson to begin with.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
  19. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    That 2 out of 3 were shit show that it's just not that great a concept.

    Well, maybe not completely contrived then. Just irritating that no one reported the guy or he just happened to be around at the exact same time. And drunk again.

    Imagine if Steve was walking around Brooklyn in First Avenger near that same theater and happened to run into that same jerk he was fighting before his power-up.

    A lady killing her rapist (and we aren't even sure he's dead) shouldn't be used as a sign of villainy.
     
  20. thribs

    thribs Vice Admiral Admiral

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    She should have gone after Diana for her actions on that dude. :)