MOVIES, FASHION & LIFESTYLE

Wonder Woman 1984, a sequel to skip or stream? 

 By: Aditi Shevade

Wonder Woman 1984 is the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe and is set against the backdrop of 1984 Cold War. The film now available on Amazon Prime Video, stars Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/ Wonder Woman alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal. The film is also available in four languages English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

The film’s started off on a pleasant note showcasing the life of young Wonder Woman with beautiful background score to boot. Unfortunately it soon started running at a sluggish pace and took a longtime to get to the good glory scenes. Forget plot holes, the plot in itself was quite weak. It seemed like everything was put together in a hurry, half the movie is nothing but filler, the editing is awkward and choppy. The film is 150 minutes long which was not required in the first place, the fillers, especially the mall scene where she destroys the CCTVs so that her identity isn’t disclosed was absolutely not convincing.

On the positive front, the cast shines as Gal Gadot performs her character beautifully and majestically. Her charismatic, charming, mesmerizing performance will keep your eyes glued to the screen at all times. She’s the one, true and perfect Wonder Woman. Chris Pine plays his role well enough as Steve Trevor proving to be a great helper and partner. The villains, Maxwell Lord and Cheetah could’ve been more promising. The action sequences were minimal and did not live up to the expectations.

The character development of Diana Prince is beautiful. Wonder Woman continues with her struggles of moving on from Steve’s death, and the antagonists of this movie (both Dreamstone and Maxwell Lord) provide her the ability to get him back, even though when imposed on someone else’s life. The theme of the story is about greed and the costs that some people pay to get what they want without realising what they already have.

Gal eventually accepts the fact that Steve is gone and is willing to give up what she wanted the most to gain back her powers to save the world, highlights the fact – what a heroine is about – the willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. Also by focusing the overall theme on humanity made the film so much more relatable for the audiences. We might not get the final boss battle we expected but overall it does cast a sympathetic light towards everyone of us, that we’re all capable of doing the right thing in the given circumstances.

The message the movie is trying to convey about how we should not live in a delusion, and how we should face the truth and not hide from it was indeed  a good one. It’s something that people, especially teens, nowadays can relate to. To hide from reality, one would flee to the online world for refuge or maybe even use more extreme methods. This movie teaches people to be brave, like Wonder Woman and face reality head on.

As Maxwell Lord said, “Life is good, but it can be better.” The same can be said about Wonder Woman 1984 as well – “The movie is good, but it could’ve been better!”

Rating: Three Stars