WW84 – not so much…
Sun ,27/12/2020So, we were eager to see the new WW84 movie on Friday like everyone else, but in the end, the movie is unfortunately fairly mediocre (several spoilers ahead, be forewarned):
1) While it’s certainly ‘made’ very well, and Gal Gadot once again is great in the movie (like the last one), as kerewin said, it could have been fine being a half hour less in length and still told the same story;
2) The whole initial Diana as “overachieving future Amazon” when a small girl was essentially a repeat of the setup from the previous movie – they already told all that once before, so why repeat it?
3) Bringing back Steve Trevor was OK but would have worked far better as a flashback in places rather than an actual ‘character’ in the current movie plot – to wit:
a) anyone can tell you a 1940s pilot cannot simply jump into a modern jet (even if it’s an earlier 70s museum jet – i’m unable to determine what precise model it was – but same diff) and fly it, “just like that”;
b) you also cannot expect to simply fire up a jet that’s been on display in a museum and take off (does it have any fuel? has it been prepped for flight? lots of q’s) let alone fly to CAIRO in it from DC (besides having any fuel at all, does it have the range/enough fuel to fly to EGYPT, period)?
4) How did they get back to DC *from* Cairo? Seems like it happened faster than the actual outbound trip?
5) as cheesy as the Legion of Doom and earlier era Cheetah characters are – their outfit is much better villian-wise. Kristin Wiig is good in the movie, but the outfit is at best silly.
6) A cheetah may be by definition an ‘apex predator’ – but if you truly wanted to be the best ‘cat’ predator, a African lion, Asian tiger or others like the puma or snow leopard are much more the real deal. None of those may run 70mph (in very, very short bursts, truth be told) but the cheetah in many ways is a simply much faster cat version of a coyote or hyena – despite not being a pack hunter – and in its environment, there are other predators (e.g. hippo for one, besides the African lion) that are far more dangerous.
7) The whole ‘flying’ thing at the end doesn’t make sense to me. If she had that ability, she’d have had it on the Amazon island to begin with and they’d all have been flying around (instead of just amazing jumps and gymnastics, which seem the *actual* ability). I get the skill of being able to ‘flip’ herself into the air and ricochet off things using the magic lasso – that’s fine. But that doesn’t bestow the ability of flight?
8) Finally, at the end of the first movie, Bruce Wayne mailed her a bunch of the 40s photos, etc. that include her group photo with Steve Trevor and the rest of them in WWII. So that implies both that Batman exists (also proven by the other JL movie itself) and, that Batman knows who she is. So last time I checked, Batman was around in the 80s too? So where the F is he? Surely he’d have seen all the ‘make a wish’ broadcasts at minimum, if not leading an investor revolt against them, etc.)?
This last is one of the truly major plot flaws in nearly all ‘big team’ superhero movies – e.g. where were all the X-Men when the Avengers were otherwise teaming up with all the OTHER Marvel heroes to fight Thanos? When Cap and The Winter Soldier were fighting Hydra (the ‘bad’ former Nazi org that apparently owns its OWN fleet of invisible, underground-moored flying aircraft carriers to rival that of SHIELD) they make mention of Iron Man and then that ‘he’s busy and can’t help’ – WTF? Either they’re all there or they’re not? Same should apply to DC – either in WW’s universe Batman and the rest don’t exist – or they do, and they should be showing up? Lame.
Generally speaking the movie is decent – there’s far worse out there in either the MU (and certainly as regards DC superhero movies past and present) but there’s also far better, including the previous WW movie as a prime example of arguably the best DC superhero movie, certainly the best recent one (the first couple Christopher Reeve Superman movies are definitely otherwise up there too)….I was waiting (in vain) for General Zod to show up, but Terence Stamp must have been in lockdown already….sigh.
Other opinions:
Victoria Advocate
Cinemayward
IGN
candybowl