Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers.
The first Wonder Woman movie, released in 2017, received high praise from critics and audiences for its strong female lead, engaging plot and dramatic action sequences.
The sequel, “Wonder Woman 1984,” not only failed to live up to the original; it was just plain embarrassing. The franchise depicts the life of Diana, played by Gal Gadot, an Amazon princess, and her journey to save mortal life from war. As in the original, “Wonder Woman 1984” begins on Paradise Island, Diana’s childhood home. Unlike the original, however, what followed is underwhelming, to say the least.
Despite the beautiful costume designs and a strong cast, the story lacks depth and the plot has no real conflict. While the movie falls under the superhero/action category, it amounted to a romance between Diana and her dead boyfriend, Steve. This should-be action packed movie’s main plot consists of her inner turmoil of choosing between her power or bringing back her dead boyfriend in another man’s body.
Even the fight scenes are disappointing; there are only four in the entire movie and one of them is literally Diana stopping a robbery at the mall, which makes her seem more like a mall cop than an actual superhero.
And those who like stories of female empowerment are hugely let down when Cheetah, the female villain, ends up serving more as a supporting character with short, sporadic fight scenes than a prominent, proper villain. The leading male villain, Maxwell, has no actual interaction with Wonder Woman, and his superpower, granting his own wishes, just seems overall silly and meaningless.
The climax shows up only well into the second half of the movie once Diana finally gets her strengths back. She faces Maxwell for the last time, yet fails to attack him because of a powerful vortex wind, making most criticize that a gust of wind is enough to defeat a trained superhero.
And then, as if the writers didn’t screw this movie up enough, they make the most pivotal scene a conversation about love and apologies between her and Maxwell. Following this scene of her preaching her love for ordinary people for another five minutes, the most anti-climactic “defeat” made us all cringe when Maxwell remembers he has a son and doesn’t want to hurt him.
This shouldn’t even be classified as a superhero movie with its nonexistent action and overabundance of talk. The writers would have never gotten away with doing this blunder for a male superhero, so why should a female one be any different? We can only hope the creators of any new female superhero movies will look at this movie and do the exact opposite.