Wonder Woman 1984 review: fabulous villains and an unexpected ingenue make for a kick-ass sequel

Our heroine is altogether more world-weary, 70 years on from her last adventure, but no less lovable 
Charlotte O'Sullivan18 December 2020

The 2017 original Wonder Woman, which made a bomb, combined unapologetic feminism with an exquisitely knowing love story and orgasmically cheesy fights. Slo-mo flying hair plus Junkie XL/Hans Zimmer guitar riffs! Each and every ‘Biff!’ was bliss.  In this eagerly awaited sequel (and long-awaited; thanks to Covid, waiting for Gadot has been torture and, for Londoners and anyone else in tier 3, it’s not over yet) the riffs are used more sparingly, but you won’t feel deprived. Returning director Patty Jenkins isn’t interested in giving us more of the same, which turns out to be a wonderful thing.

There’s been a cunning switcheroo. In the first film, mostly set in Europe in 1918, demi-goddess Diana (Gadot) was an adorable cross between Disney’s Ariel and Roman Holiday’s Princess Ann. Per the title, it’s now 1984, and Diana is altogether more world-weary. Having explained that she doesn’t own a TV, Diana demurs when offered a free one. She drawls: “I think I’ll stick to the one I don’t have”.

Now it’s her love-interest, WWI pilot and spy, Steve (Chris Pine), who’s the ingénue. Brought back from the dead by a stone that grants wishes, aka the Dreamstone, Steve marvels sweetly at everything in this new future. Thanks to Pine’s comic timing, you buy every gasp.

9022129 -  Kristen Wiig reveals that ground-breaking eighties female action stars Linda Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver inspired her to take on the role of Cheetah in Woman Woman 1984 role
Warner Bros

Meanwhile, the story’s villains are a riot. Lonely Barbara Ann Minerva (Kristen Wiig, who improvised many of her lines) works with Diana at the Smithsonian but is so desperate to impress her poised colleague that she all but gibbers in her presence. Discussing the provenance of the Dreamstone, Diana implies that it’s a naff fake and Barbara gabbles “Yeah, it’s, like, the lamest lames!” Wiig’s superpower is understanding what makes smart adults behave like gormless teens and she loads every syllable of that line with pathos, and she’s just as good as Cheetah, the alpha-predator Barbara morphs into.

Pedro Pascal is also great as Max Lord, a conman with an uncanny ability to exploit the greed and insecurity of others. DC comic book fans may feel liberties have been taken. Does the character have “telepathic persuasion”, even before he gets his hands on the stone? The script can’t seem to decide. But this man’s dilemmas have real heft and his irascibility is hilarious: he’s a rubbish single parent to his young son, Alistair (Lucian Perez; cute), but much more well-rounded than David Thewlis’ Ares, in Wonder Woman. In fact, in terms of blockbuster bad buys, he’s up there with Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.

Clay Enos

As Diana, Steve, Barbara and Max criss-cross each other’s lives we get one visual feast after another. There are gorgeous nods to Stranger Things, Metropolis and Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (the opening sequence is both a rousing hymn to female perfection and a sly reminder that physical prowess isn’t the be-all and end-all). A series of flying sequences is weirdly cathartic. Jenkins is an expert at weaving emotion into set-pieces. If the film has a message, it’s that you can never be too kitsch or too kind.

I’ll be straight with you. If I were caught in Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth I’d have to admit the finale left me ever so slightly flat. But that may be because critics weren’t shown the end credit scene (Warner clearly don’t trust journalists to keep a secret). And now that in another comic book universe we’ve met Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, some things about Wonder Woman seem a tad old hat - the fact that she’s still zipping around on wedge heels, for one. Still, one shoe doesn’t fit all and there’s no need to make invidious comparisons between two iconic characters. We need them both.

151mins, cert 12

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