![]() (Oh and he also has bad hair, in case we needed a neon sign over his head as to whom he's supposed to be drawn from.) Maxwell grabs hold of the stone and wishes to become the Wishmaster himself, and his power grab leads to global chaos and, in turn, some pained reflection on who we are, the paths that got us there and the drawbacks to shortcutting inner happiness and outer success. Meanwhile, also coming in contact with the all-powerful stone is Maxwell Lord ("The Mandalorian's" Pedro Pascal), an over-leveraged TV shill with daddy issues who longs for power he didn't earn and winds up hijacking the White House. But Diana sees him as Steve, so the audience mostly does, too. And since no one's really looking for airtight explanations here, the script eventually shrug emojis on the whole it's-not-really-Steve thing and Chris Pine is free to do his thing. Not only does Barbara wish to be more like Diana, but Diana also wishes for a return of her old flame Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), who died in the first film, and - in a plot development that makes things even further complicated - comes back in the body of someone else. Ah, but there are consequences to such requests, such is the way of the old "Monkey's Paw" storytelling device that's been a popular go-to for more than a century. Well wouldn't you know it, such a stone presents itself, a literal wishing rock that, when held, grants holders the keys to whatever wild desires they verbalize. There, her socially awkward co-worker Barbara (Kristen Wiig) is exactly the type of introvert who, if given the chance, would wish upon a magical stone to be granted all the power, confidence, wisdom, beauty and strength of Diana. ![]() It's 1984 and our Diana is in Washington, D.C., where, when she's not taking down bad guys in fabulous '80s fashions at the local galleria, she works as an anthropologist at the Smithsonian. Add in a simplistic sketch of a plot and the wonky return of a past character and the result is far from wondrous, a reminder of the limitations of the superhero genre and the ways its escapist trappings sacrifice key storytelling elements (narrative, characters, dialogue) for empty spectacle. Curiously, the moral could equally be understood as “abandon your dreams”: Diana may be a species of role model, but it seems that her genetically transmitted powers are not for the likes of Barbara, nor presumably for you or I."1984" advances the timeline but not necessarily the story of Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), who in many ways feels like the same character as before, wedged into a semi-modern present. On this level the film resembles a laborious children’s fable about the danger of being too greedy, or relying on short cuts. Diana wishes to have Steve back, Barbara wishes to be like Diana, and smarmy huckster Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) wishes his way towards his goal of world domination. Some of the brio fades as we get further into the plot, which rests on the rather elementary device of a magical stone that grants wishes. The opening stretch of the film has a straightforward, high-spirited quality, not least in a shopping mall action sequence that gives the design team a chance to go to town with 1980s fashions. Not that she lacks for present-day admirers – among them Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) her anxiety-prone colleague at the Smithsonian.īarbara’s interest in Diana can just about be read as platonic, but the early scenes between the two women give Wiig every chance to show off her knack for awkward flirting, a speciality since her days on Saturday Night Live. But her gifts are almost as evident in her relaxed, confident way of walking through the world, which she observes in quick, alert glances that convey sincere appreciation as well as discreet amusement.ĭiana’s self-sufficiency masks a degree of melancholy: even in the 1980s, she continues to mourn her boyfriend Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), a casualty of the First World War. Unlike Superman, Diana literally has her feet on the ground: flying is one of the few things she can’t do. Gadot as Wonder Woman – or Diana Prince, as she’s more commonly known – may be the single best piece of casting in a superhero role since Christopher Reeve first donned the cape and spandex of the Man of Steel.Ī semi-immortal Amazon princess turned Washington-based anthropologist, Diana is almost as much of a resident alien as the extra-terrestrial Superman – and Gadot, like Reeve, is up to the challenge of conveying effortless mental and physical superiority without seeming unbearably smug. Few will deny that Gal Gadot was right for the lead in the 2017 Wonder Woman movie, but with the release of Wonder Woman 1984, again directed by Patty Jenkins, I’m prepared to go further.
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