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Review: Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
You know, this movie wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Wasn’t as good as the first Wonder Woman but it wasn’t a train wreck and I was actually engaged for most of it.
Spoilers.
Story
This movie took place after a time skip, taking us to 1984. It revolved around a special crystal that would grant wishes and of course take something in return.
Diana Prince continued to grieve for Steve. She was always alone, thinking of him. She worked in a museum where she befriended Barbara. They came upon the crystal, the “dreamstone” as Wikipedia called it, and they both accidentally made wishes. Diana wished for Steve to come back, and in turn it took her powers. Barbara wished to be like Diana and in turn it took her kindness and humanity.
Max Lord, a failed businessman, got hold of the dreamstone and wished to become the stone itself. It seemed a bit gimmicky, but the logic was that if he’d wished for something from the dreamstone, he’d only get one wish. If he became the dreamstone, he could manipulate people into getting what he wanted, which is what he did. He granted many wishes that changed the state of geopolitics, and that plunged the world into chaos.
Diana and Steve investigated the stone and determined that everyone would either have to renounce their wish, or the dreamstone had to be destroyed. Barbara could not let that happen because she was living her best life by being popular, strong, and invincible. She defended Max when Diana and Steve tried to take him down, and she succeeded, as Diana’s powers were waning.
Steve convinced Diana that she had to let him go. He had always been dead ever since the war. He couldn’t live on a lie, and the Diana needed her powers to defend the people. Diana renounced her wish.
When Steve was still alive briefly, Diana said that flying had always been a mystery to her, while flying was so natural to Steve. After Diana regained her powers, she finally learned to fly, and it was somewhat of a symbol of her love for Steve. In addition to learning to fly, she also gained the winged armour of Asteria, a legendary Amazonian who defended Themyscira.
Diana found Max and Barbara. She first defeated Barbara, who by now had gained the form of Cheetah. Max had used the airwaves to get the wishes of as many people as possible across the world. Through those same airwaves, Diana convinced the people to renounce their wishes. In his trance, Max saw his son Alistair afraid, and he renounced his wish. Barbara’s end was uncertain.
In the end, Diana resumed her life, but learned to appreciate it around her. In a post-credits scene, Lynda Carter showed up as Asteria.
As a whole, the story was typical of a superhero movie. It had a story line about saving the world, and it had a story line that was more personal to the main character and their loved ones. In this case, they were intertwined in a way that made sense and made our hero make the important decisions.
My favourite parts of the movie were when Diana and Steve were together. Unfortunately I think it was just that Steve was a more engaging character than Diana was. Once Steve showed up, Diana’s character had more form.
I’m going to nitpick here because I might as well lol.
The first thing that made me roll my eyes was how the movie wanted to make Diana look like a relatable shut in at the beginning. She was the hot, popular one and she was telling Barbara how she was so funny and so cool, when Barbara was the one who was always shunned. Maybe it was because this movie was released in 2020, when everybody had to stay indoors, even the cool girls.
In general, I felt that the ending was kind of messy because all of the wishes were overlapping. The point was probably just that the world was plunged into chaos because of the wishes, but I wondered how the story would have been affected if it chose to focus on more specific whoopsies. I also wasn’t too sure about how Diana saved the world. She managed to convince the whole world to renounce their wishes? Her speech wasn’t super coherent to me.
Another thing that bothered me was Barbara’s origin story. Diana was trying to show her that Barbara had given up the good parts of her to become powerful, but like Barbara, it was kind of hard to see. We really only saw it during the confrontation with the harasser in which Barbara was violent and the homeless man she was friends with was afraid. I think it would have hit the point home if she had really hurt people important to her. So that part wasn’t fleshed out. As well, her transition into Cheetah was really random. Why a cheetah of all animals? It might be me being nitpicky, but for a superhero movie, origin stories are important. Maybe if there was an ongoing theme in which Barbara liked cheetahs would have formed a stronger association in my mind.
I’m also very much over the USA-centric take that all superhero movies have. I don’t care about this fake USA vs. Russia nuclear missiles war in the movie. It was handled very randomly too. Like no vibes. They just inserted that in there.
I preferred the first Wonder Woman movie because it gave us a story and atmosphere that we didn’t see a lot in superhero movies. The superhero story was weaved into human history, and it managed to keep that serious tone. Steve said something to Diana that made her realize that he was the real Steve. The reason why it could invoke that reaction was because that moment meant something from the first movie that we would have remembered.
The “saving the world” plotline of this Wonder Woman movie was just the same as any other superhero movie. It was easily forgettable. Max Lord is just a random villain-of-the-movie. Cheetah was just a side villain. As well, I was originally under the impression that this movie would be very 80s, but its style didn’t stick out at all. So the aesthetics won’t make it memorable either.
But overall, this movie was not as big of a mess as other superhero movies have been. What it has going for it is its strong character story line.
Production
The first thing that struck me was the weird accents that all of the Amazonians were putting on. Were they just doing it to match Gal Gadot’s accent? It was very vague, the kind of accent you can’t really pin to a certain place.
When I first saw promotions for this movie, I was under the impression that the fact that it was set in the 80s would be a big deal. As I mentioned above, I did not feel that the world was very 80s. It was not as charming of a world as I thought they could make it.
It was a big copout for the final showdown between Wonder Woman and Cheetah to be in the fucking dark but we know it’s because animators were working overtime and if we got bright lighting, it would not have looked good. But I still have to point it out because it made the final fight worse.
Characters
Diana Prince
I kind of didn’t want to watch this movie on account of all that’s happened with Gal Gadot lately. I’m not talking the pandemic stuff, I’m talking the Zionist stuff. At the beginning of this movie, I struggled to even look at her. But I did want to see what this movie was like. But in the future I kind of wonder if she’ll continue to play Wonder Woman. But this section is about Diana Prince as a character in a movie.
Like I said, I struggled to take Diana Prince seriously at the beginning. The movie wanted us to think that she was a girlboss with a tragic past that overshadowed all of the privilege she had in her life like being pretty and being paid attention to. It was very hard to take that seriously, and I attribute that to the writing. During the meal between Diana and Barbara, Diana was like “you are so funny!” but like, in what way? We didn’t get to hear Barbara tell any of her jokes. So that beginning part of the movie didn’t build the characters well, both for Diana and Barbara.
Diana’s character became more interesting when Steve came into the story, even if it was just comedy at first. Diana played the straight man to Steve’s fish out of water schtick. While Diana was still a girlboss, she was more interesting because Steve gave her a dimension. She was a girlboss but we saw how she loved. It didn’t have to be complex or messed up. She just liked Steve and missed him a lot. She wanted to be around him, she wanted to laugh and smile with him. And that made Wonder Woman so much more interesting to me.
The lack of effective writing continued for Diana and Barbara. When they talked about the things that they gave up for their wishes, it wasn’t really clear what either of them gave up, and because of that, I felt like that entire fight scene between them wasn’t really done well. Barbara even said that Diana was patronizing to her, which I felt she kind of was.
Diana’s big weakness was her love for Steve. She had considered playing by the rules of the dreamstone, so that she could keep Steve. But she always knew that it was not sustainable. She even said before that the truth was bigger than her, and she knew she was living on a lie. She knew that her calling was always to protect the people. It was a tough decision, but she made it so that she could fight for the people. Barbara was even mildly surprised that Diana renounced her wish, but that was what set them apart (though whether Barbara renounced her wish was uncertain).
Diana convinced the people to renounce their wish, though again I can’t really say the speech got me. Maybe because of how it was delivered, just with her speaking while against the wall, with montages to the world outside. It just wasn’t super moving as a viewing experience.
In the end, Diana learned to enjoy life. It’s the kind of “wherever you are, there you are” mentality, where Diana had to learn to live without the things she couldn’t have, but learn to appreciate what she did have. And that was what she would fight for.
As a hero, Diana gained two new things. One was the power of flight, and the other was the armour of Asteria, which gave her considerable defence. It would have looked cooler if we saw it in the light and also if the animators got paid but we can’t have nice things.
I will say that Diana Prince remains a superhero that is distinct from a lot of other superheroes out there. Particularly because the movies have focused on developing Diana as a character first before a hero. We know who she is, and the powers follow.
Steve Trevor
Steve was magically revived upon Diana’s wish. Of course, he played some comedic relief for us, being amazed with the world, its fashions, its technology. Honestly I thought his character was very cute because of his almost naivete.
Diana and Steve’s love of course was a big topic for this movie. Their relationship was always a bit different from most mainstream relationships because in this situation, Diana is the hero. But the way that Steve supports her is not just by telling her how amazing she is. He does that, but he also reminds her of her kindness and her humanity. Rather than propping her up, he brings her down to earth and reminds her of the small things, the mundane things, that can be so important. And that is what Steve does in this movie too. He reminds her that she is a hero and the people rely on her, but also that she is not above the law, not above the truth.
Overall, good job Chris Pine. I really felt his character in this movie.
Barbara Minerva
Barbara worked at the same museum as Diana. She was a stereotypical nerd girl who was witty and funny but largely ignored because she was nerdy. But in addition to that, we saw that she was normally kind and warm hearted.
Barbara wished to be like Diana, and soon after she found herself often at the centre of attention. She also saw physical changes in herself, including her strength. Barbara became more confident but also more violent and less kind.
When faced with the possibility of having to revert back to the ignored nerd, Barbara could not let that happen. So she defended Max. She was smug at seeing Diana lose her powers, because now it was time for Diana to learn what it was like to be at the bottom of the hierarchy, except that point did not get through because we never saw much of that. We only saw Diana weaker in battle and her strength fading, but she was never treated poorly. So again that part of the movie (dealing with what Diana and Barbara gave up) was handled clumsily.
Barbara and Max teamed up, and Max asked Barbara what she wanted. Barbara said she wanted to be an apex predator. However, I’m not sure how Barbara came to be Cheetah. I thought Barbara had already had her one wish with the dreamstone, which was to be like Diana. So I’m not sure if Max granted her another wish, or what she did to become Cheetah. Because becoming Cheetah wasn’t just a matter of putting on a suit, Barbara had to become a humanoid Cheetah.
During battle with Diana, Barbara was electrocuted and thus defeated, but not killed. We saw a closeup of her while Diana was giving her speech to the world, but we did not see whether she renounced her wish. Actually, I don’t think the dreamstone was destroyed, so there is a chance that Barbara remained Cheetah, of course for future instalments.
Maxwell “Max Lord” Lorenzano
Max was as cartoonishly evil villain, as is the norm in superhero movies now. He was a businessman but his business was failing. His investors were pulling out because all of his oil reserves were duds. Max had researched the dreamstone and he had targeted Barbara specifically to get it. Max then wished to be the dreamstone itself. As explained, by becoming the dreamstone, he could manipulate others to wish for the things he wanted.
Max used his new powers to make his company profitable. In an example shown in the movie, we saw that he would promise powerful people what they wanted, and take their oil reserves in return. As the movie progressed, the power drained his health, and so he decided that he would take people’s health and power in return for granting wishes as a way to live forever.
Max had a story line relating to his family life. Only in flashbacks during Diana’s speech did we find out that he came from an abusive home. And throughout the movie, we saw that he was a poor excuse of a dad who always put his business above his own son. And only during Diana’s speech did he realize that his son was lost and needed a dad, in the same way that he needed a dad when he was a kid.
In an earlier scene, when Max was preaching the importance of greatness, his son Alistair said that he wished for Max’s greatness as well, though his original wish was just to be with his dad. When chaos hit, Alistair was lost, and he’d wished for his dad to come to him, though that would not have been granted as he’d already made his first wish.
I admit that Max and Alistair’s reunion had me crying. When they reunited, Alistair said that he knew the wish would come true, that his dad would come to see him. And it broke my heart that he had to rely on a wish to see his dad. Max explained to Alistair that he was actually a bad man who’d made mistakes, and that Alistair should not have to make a wish to have his father’s love.
While I did find this reunion scene touching, I do think that the fatherhood story line for Max was overall not very well done. Why did Max suddenly care for his son? We didn’t see them doing anything of note other than Max trying to get rid of his son. I guess we’re meant to understand that only then did Max remember his struggles with his own dad and that’s when he realized how poorly he’d treated Alistair.
Pedro Pascal gave his all for this character, but unfortunately superhero villains in movies only go so far.
Themes
Wishes
The theme of the movie. What do you give up for the things you wish for? Whenever you’re granted something, something else is taken away.
For Diana, she had to give up Steve for the power to protect everyone in the world. She was raised as a protector warrior, and it was her very essence, just the way that Steve’s essence was flying. Barbara gained powers and confidence, but she lost the part of her that was human. That was what set her apart from Diana, because while Diana was powerful, she learned to love as humans did, while Barbara lost that as when became powerful. In Max’s quest to be the richest and most powerful businessman in the world, he lost his health, and he lost his son.
However, in real life, people don’t get to renounce their wishes and go back to how things were before. Instead, humans only get to make their decisions and live with them forever.
Overall
Whenever I watch superhero movies these days, my eyes kind of glaze over and my brain just goes on sleep mode. For this movie, I liked that I could take it as a drama-action movie because the emotional story line for the Wonder Woman film franchise has always been its strong point.
That being said, Gal Gadot being in the main role did make me a little uneasy again because of the kind of person she’s revealed herself to be in recent current events. The world is more than entertainment.
Spoilers.
Story
This movie took place after a time skip, taking us to 1984. It revolved around a special crystal that would grant wishes and of course take something in return.
Diana Prince continued to grieve for Steve. She was always alone, thinking of him. She worked in a museum where she befriended Barbara. They came upon the crystal, the “dreamstone” as Wikipedia called it, and they both accidentally made wishes. Diana wished for Steve to come back, and in turn it took her powers. Barbara wished to be like Diana and in turn it took her kindness and humanity.
Max Lord, a failed businessman, got hold of the dreamstone and wished to become the stone itself. It seemed a bit gimmicky, but the logic was that if he’d wished for something from the dreamstone, he’d only get one wish. If he became the dreamstone, he could manipulate people into getting what he wanted, which is what he did. He granted many wishes that changed the state of geopolitics, and that plunged the world into chaos.
Diana and Steve investigated the stone and determined that everyone would either have to renounce their wish, or the dreamstone had to be destroyed. Barbara could not let that happen because she was living her best life by being popular, strong, and invincible. She defended Max when Diana and Steve tried to take him down, and she succeeded, as Diana’s powers were waning.
Steve convinced Diana that she had to let him go. He had always been dead ever since the war. He couldn’t live on a lie, and the Diana needed her powers to defend the people. Diana renounced her wish.
When Steve was still alive briefly, Diana said that flying had always been a mystery to her, while flying was so natural to Steve. After Diana regained her powers, she finally learned to fly, and it was somewhat of a symbol of her love for Steve. In addition to learning to fly, she also gained the winged armour of Asteria, a legendary Amazonian who defended Themyscira.
Diana found Max and Barbara. She first defeated Barbara, who by now had gained the form of Cheetah. Max had used the airwaves to get the wishes of as many people as possible across the world. Through those same airwaves, Diana convinced the people to renounce their wishes. In his trance, Max saw his son Alistair afraid, and he renounced his wish. Barbara’s end was uncertain.
In the end, Diana resumed her life, but learned to appreciate it around her. In a post-credits scene, Lynda Carter showed up as Asteria.
As a whole, the story was typical of a superhero movie. It had a story line about saving the world, and it had a story line that was more personal to the main character and their loved ones. In this case, they were intertwined in a way that made sense and made our hero make the important decisions.
My favourite parts of the movie were when Diana and Steve were together. Unfortunately I think it was just that Steve was a more engaging character than Diana was. Once Steve showed up, Diana’s character had more form.
I’m going to nitpick here because I might as well lol.
The first thing that made me roll my eyes was how the movie wanted to make Diana look like a relatable shut in at the beginning. She was the hot, popular one and she was telling Barbara how she was so funny and so cool, when Barbara was the one who was always shunned. Maybe it was because this movie was released in 2020, when everybody had to stay indoors, even the cool girls.
In general, I felt that the ending was kind of messy because all of the wishes were overlapping. The point was probably just that the world was plunged into chaos because of the wishes, but I wondered how the story would have been affected if it chose to focus on more specific whoopsies. I also wasn’t too sure about how Diana saved the world. She managed to convince the whole world to renounce their wishes? Her speech wasn’t super coherent to me.
Another thing that bothered me was Barbara’s origin story. Diana was trying to show her that Barbara had given up the good parts of her to become powerful, but like Barbara, it was kind of hard to see. We really only saw it during the confrontation with the harasser in which Barbara was violent and the homeless man she was friends with was afraid. I think it would have hit the point home if she had really hurt people important to her. So that part wasn’t fleshed out. As well, her transition into Cheetah was really random. Why a cheetah of all animals? It might be me being nitpicky, but for a superhero movie, origin stories are important. Maybe if there was an ongoing theme in which Barbara liked cheetahs would have formed a stronger association in my mind.
I’m also very much over the USA-centric take that all superhero movies have. I don’t care about this fake USA vs. Russia nuclear missiles war in the movie. It was handled very randomly too. Like no vibes. They just inserted that in there.
I preferred the first Wonder Woman movie because it gave us a story and atmosphere that we didn’t see a lot in superhero movies. The superhero story was weaved into human history, and it managed to keep that serious tone. Steve said something to Diana that made her realize that he was the real Steve. The reason why it could invoke that reaction was because that moment meant something from the first movie that we would have remembered.
The “saving the world” plotline of this Wonder Woman movie was just the same as any other superhero movie. It was easily forgettable. Max Lord is just a random villain-of-the-movie. Cheetah was just a side villain. As well, I was originally under the impression that this movie would be very 80s, but its style didn’t stick out at all. So the aesthetics won’t make it memorable either.
But overall, this movie was not as big of a mess as other superhero movies have been. What it has going for it is its strong character story line.
Production
The first thing that struck me was the weird accents that all of the Amazonians were putting on. Were they just doing it to match Gal Gadot’s accent? It was very vague, the kind of accent you can’t really pin to a certain place.
When I first saw promotions for this movie, I was under the impression that the fact that it was set in the 80s would be a big deal. As I mentioned above, I did not feel that the world was very 80s. It was not as charming of a world as I thought they could make it.
It was a big copout for the final showdown between Wonder Woman and Cheetah to be in the fucking dark but we know it’s because animators were working overtime and if we got bright lighting, it would not have looked good. But I still have to point it out because it made the final fight worse.
Characters
Diana Prince
I kind of didn’t want to watch this movie on account of all that’s happened with Gal Gadot lately. I’m not talking the pandemic stuff, I’m talking the Zionist stuff. At the beginning of this movie, I struggled to even look at her. But I did want to see what this movie was like. But in the future I kind of wonder if she’ll continue to play Wonder Woman. But this section is about Diana Prince as a character in a movie.
Like I said, I struggled to take Diana Prince seriously at the beginning. The movie wanted us to think that she was a girlboss with a tragic past that overshadowed all of the privilege she had in her life like being pretty and being paid attention to. It was very hard to take that seriously, and I attribute that to the writing. During the meal between Diana and Barbara, Diana was like “you are so funny!” but like, in what way? We didn’t get to hear Barbara tell any of her jokes. So that beginning part of the movie didn’t build the characters well, both for Diana and Barbara.
Diana’s character became more interesting when Steve came into the story, even if it was just comedy at first. Diana played the straight man to Steve’s fish out of water schtick. While Diana was still a girlboss, she was more interesting because Steve gave her a dimension. She was a girlboss but we saw how she loved. It didn’t have to be complex or messed up. She just liked Steve and missed him a lot. She wanted to be around him, she wanted to laugh and smile with him. And that made Wonder Woman so much more interesting to me.
The lack of effective writing continued for Diana and Barbara. When they talked about the things that they gave up for their wishes, it wasn’t really clear what either of them gave up, and because of that, I felt like that entire fight scene between them wasn’t really done well. Barbara even said that Diana was patronizing to her, which I felt she kind of was.
Diana’s big weakness was her love for Steve. She had considered playing by the rules of the dreamstone, so that she could keep Steve. But she always knew that it was not sustainable. She even said before that the truth was bigger than her, and she knew she was living on a lie. She knew that her calling was always to protect the people. It was a tough decision, but she made it so that she could fight for the people. Barbara was even mildly surprised that Diana renounced her wish, but that was what set them apart (though whether Barbara renounced her wish was uncertain).
Diana convinced the people to renounce their wish, though again I can’t really say the speech got me. Maybe because of how it was delivered, just with her speaking while against the wall, with montages to the world outside. It just wasn’t super moving as a viewing experience.
In the end, Diana learned to enjoy life. It’s the kind of “wherever you are, there you are” mentality, where Diana had to learn to live without the things she couldn’t have, but learn to appreciate what she did have. And that was what she would fight for.
As a hero, Diana gained two new things. One was the power of flight, and the other was the armour of Asteria, which gave her considerable defence. It would have looked cooler if we saw it in the light and also if the animators got paid but we can’t have nice things.
I will say that Diana Prince remains a superhero that is distinct from a lot of other superheroes out there. Particularly because the movies have focused on developing Diana as a character first before a hero. We know who she is, and the powers follow.
Steve Trevor
Steve was magically revived upon Diana’s wish. Of course, he played some comedic relief for us, being amazed with the world, its fashions, its technology. Honestly I thought his character was very cute because of his almost naivete.
Diana and Steve’s love of course was a big topic for this movie. Their relationship was always a bit different from most mainstream relationships because in this situation, Diana is the hero. But the way that Steve supports her is not just by telling her how amazing she is. He does that, but he also reminds her of her kindness and her humanity. Rather than propping her up, he brings her down to earth and reminds her of the small things, the mundane things, that can be so important. And that is what Steve does in this movie too. He reminds her that she is a hero and the people rely on her, but also that she is not above the law, not above the truth.
Overall, good job Chris Pine. I really felt his character in this movie.
Barbara Minerva
Barbara worked at the same museum as Diana. She was a stereotypical nerd girl who was witty and funny but largely ignored because she was nerdy. But in addition to that, we saw that she was normally kind and warm hearted.
Barbara wished to be like Diana, and soon after she found herself often at the centre of attention. She also saw physical changes in herself, including her strength. Barbara became more confident but also more violent and less kind.
When faced with the possibility of having to revert back to the ignored nerd, Barbara could not let that happen. So she defended Max. She was smug at seeing Diana lose her powers, because now it was time for Diana to learn what it was like to be at the bottom of the hierarchy, except that point did not get through because we never saw much of that. We only saw Diana weaker in battle and her strength fading, but she was never treated poorly. So again that part of the movie (dealing with what Diana and Barbara gave up) was handled clumsily.
Barbara and Max teamed up, and Max asked Barbara what she wanted. Barbara said she wanted to be an apex predator. However, I’m not sure how Barbara came to be Cheetah. I thought Barbara had already had her one wish with the dreamstone, which was to be like Diana. So I’m not sure if Max granted her another wish, or what she did to become Cheetah. Because becoming Cheetah wasn’t just a matter of putting on a suit, Barbara had to become a humanoid Cheetah.
During battle with Diana, Barbara was electrocuted and thus defeated, but not killed. We saw a closeup of her while Diana was giving her speech to the world, but we did not see whether she renounced her wish. Actually, I don’t think the dreamstone was destroyed, so there is a chance that Barbara remained Cheetah, of course for future instalments.
Maxwell “Max Lord” Lorenzano
Max was as cartoonishly evil villain, as is the norm in superhero movies now. He was a businessman but his business was failing. His investors were pulling out because all of his oil reserves were duds. Max had researched the dreamstone and he had targeted Barbara specifically to get it. Max then wished to be the dreamstone itself. As explained, by becoming the dreamstone, he could manipulate others to wish for the things he wanted.
Max used his new powers to make his company profitable. In an example shown in the movie, we saw that he would promise powerful people what they wanted, and take their oil reserves in return. As the movie progressed, the power drained his health, and so he decided that he would take people’s health and power in return for granting wishes as a way to live forever.
Max had a story line relating to his family life. Only in flashbacks during Diana’s speech did we find out that he came from an abusive home. And throughout the movie, we saw that he was a poor excuse of a dad who always put his business above his own son. And only during Diana’s speech did he realize that his son was lost and needed a dad, in the same way that he needed a dad when he was a kid.
In an earlier scene, when Max was preaching the importance of greatness, his son Alistair said that he wished for Max’s greatness as well, though his original wish was just to be with his dad. When chaos hit, Alistair was lost, and he’d wished for his dad to come to him, though that would not have been granted as he’d already made his first wish.
I admit that Max and Alistair’s reunion had me crying. When they reunited, Alistair said that he knew the wish would come true, that his dad would come to see him. And it broke my heart that he had to rely on a wish to see his dad. Max explained to Alistair that he was actually a bad man who’d made mistakes, and that Alistair should not have to make a wish to have his father’s love.
While I did find this reunion scene touching, I do think that the fatherhood story line for Max was overall not very well done. Why did Max suddenly care for his son? We didn’t see them doing anything of note other than Max trying to get rid of his son. I guess we’re meant to understand that only then did Max remember his struggles with his own dad and that’s when he realized how poorly he’d treated Alistair.
Pedro Pascal gave his all for this character, but unfortunately superhero villains in movies only go so far.
Themes
Wishes
The theme of the movie. What do you give up for the things you wish for? Whenever you’re granted something, something else is taken away.
For Diana, she had to give up Steve for the power to protect everyone in the world. She was raised as a protector warrior, and it was her very essence, just the way that Steve’s essence was flying. Barbara gained powers and confidence, but she lost the part of her that was human. That was what set her apart from Diana, because while Diana was powerful, she learned to love as humans did, while Barbara lost that as when became powerful. In Max’s quest to be the richest and most powerful businessman in the world, he lost his health, and he lost his son.
However, in real life, people don’t get to renounce their wishes and go back to how things were before. Instead, humans only get to make their decisions and live with them forever.
Overall
Whenever I watch superhero movies these days, my eyes kind of glaze over and my brain just goes on sleep mode. For this movie, I liked that I could take it as a drama-action movie because the emotional story line for the Wonder Woman film franchise has always been its strong point.
That being said, Gal Gadot being in the main role did make me a little uneasy again because of the kind of person she’s revealed herself to be in recent current events. The world is more than entertainment.