Wonder Woman 1984

Oof!

The struggle is real!  Wonder Woman 1984, directed by Patty Jenkins, should have been a lot of things as it embraces the technicolor, cocaine-fueled era of BIG HAIR and even BIGGER SHOULDER PADS, but it’s not and its nearly three-hour running time is only part of its tonally deaf downfall.

"This is not what the Wonder Woman fans of the DC cinema-verse wanted, but it is the crappy 1980s buddy adventure yarn they got"


This is a movie in love with itself and, as it could have been edited down by at least 60-minutes and made for a much better film, it decides to give you NO CHOICE but to watch the extended cut of its noisy nonsense as Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) saves kids from oncoming traffic on a vacant Egyptian highway, rapes a man (who has no idea his body is being used by the spirit of a resurrected Chris Pine), and - in what has to be an even more ridiculous re-introduction to a superhero character than the one in Superman III - saves a bride from being pushed off a bridge, among other things, which finally sees her swinging through a hyper-realized Mall. 

If you want to feel a little bloated with your DC diet, look no further than Wonder Woman 1984!

I mean, there is something seriously off with this flick and, quite honestly, it lies in its editing and in its own storyline, which hinges around a stone that grants wishes with severe consequences.  And then, because nothing else in the film comes close to the backstory opening of a young Diana (Lilly Aspell, returning again for more island adventures) and what she learns during a 20-minute race, it just sadly limps into the 1980s with a Donald Trump-like figure as its villain.Wonder Woman 1984

I am not going to beat around the bush.  Wonder Woman 1984 is just not a good movie.  Even my wife, who loved the first one, had to agree upon the conclusion of her viewing experience.  Nothing in it - outside a totally WEIRD but FASCINATING performance from Pedro Pascal as the greedy and villainous TV con man Maxwell Lord - works to create something worthy of the time investment involved.

The early assembled buddy scenes with Kristen Wiig as Diana’s co-worker Dr. Barbara Minerva might be the only scenes which work - and when Minerva goes totally CATS on Diana as The Cheetah, Diana is there with her best Flash Gordon outfit.  You might wish you were watching either of those movies instead of this one.  I know that I did.  

Maybe we would have been able to go the distance with the movie had it felt connected, but little in what amounts to an 80’s buddy comedy about GREED by way of a modern-day superhero flick works to raise our interest.  Not an attack on the White House; not nuclear missiles filling the sky; not the love felt between Diana and her lost pilot; and so on.  It feels like an excuse to watch Pine try on ridiculous jazzercise outfits and gawk at break dancing.  

This is not what the Wonder Woman fans of the DC cinema-verse wanted, but it is the crappy 1980s buddy adventure yarn they got.

Wonder Woman 1984 is now on blu-ray courtesy of Warner Bros.

1/5 stars

 

Wonder Woman 1984

Blu-ray Details

Home Video Distributor: Warner Bros.
Available on Blu-ray
- March 30, 2020
Screen Formats: 2.39:1
Subtitles
: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos; English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1; English: Dolby Digital 5.1; French: Dolby Digital 5.1; German: Dolby Atmos; German: Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian: Dolby Atmos; Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set; DVD copy
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman's next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah.

Video:

Warner Bros 1080p treatment of Wonder Woman 1984 is superb and – especially the beginning in adventure – is a masterful transfer. Details are explicit. Amazonia looks fantastically crisp. And the flesh tones are warm. Blues are heavenly. Greens are leafy in their crisp goodness. Black levels are solid. The film is stylistically colored and the hues – from city to island – are adequately handled by an impressive MPEG-4 AVC encode.  While the effects might be a little gamey throughout the film, there are some highlights - mainly the fireworks as viewed from the newly refurbished invisible jet.

Audio:

The release – a Blu-Ray/DVD Combo pack also features an impressive Dolby Atmos soundtrack that has been remixed for the home theater experience.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

The Blu-Ray/DVD combo from Warner Bros features behind the scenes looks at the making of the movie with an extended series of Director’s Vision supplements. We get detailed looks at the island, the beach battle, the modern world (of the movie), the Amazonian army, and a look at how Wonder Woman got her film. There’s also a bonus scene in which Etta Candy gets the gang back together for a super special mission. Bloopers and extended scenes are also included.

  • The Making of Wonder Woman 1984: Expanding the Wonder (36:21)
  • Gal & Kristen: Friends Forever (5:10) 
  • Small But Mighty (10:44)
  • Two Scene Studies
  • Gal & Krissy Having Fun (1:10)
  • Meet the Amazons (21:28) 
  • Black Gold Infomercial (1:38)
  • Gag Reel (6:26)
  • Wonder Woman 1984 Retro Remix (1:36)

Blu-ray Rating

  Movie 1/5 stars
  Video  4/5 stars
  Audio 4/5 stars
  Extras 3/5 stars

Overall Blu-ray Experience

3/5 stars


Film Details

Wonder Woman 1984

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of action and violence.
Runtime:
151 mins
Director
: Patty Jenkins
Writer:
Patty Jenkins & Geoff Johns & Dave Callaham
Cast:
Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig
Genre
: Action
Tagline:
A new era of wonder begins.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Nothing good is born from lies. And greatness is not what you think."
Theatrical Distributor:
Warner Bros.
Official Site: https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/wonder-woman-1984
Release Date:
December 25, 2020
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
March 30, 2021.
Synopsis: Diana must contend with a work colleague and businessman, whose desire for extreme wealth sends the world down a path of destruction, after an ancient artifact that grants wishes goes missing.

Art

Wonder Woman 1984