Wonder Woman 84 - Spoiler Free Review

 Hey guys!

So... I haven't done one of these in a while huh. Well, I just saw Wonder Woman 84 and it's the only superhero blockbuster comic book movie I have seen all year... quite literally. So given that, it's probably the best movie in that genre I saw all year. So, this is my spoiler-free review of Wonder Woman 84. 

PLOT:

After a mysterious stone that grants wishes appears at the Smithsonian Museum, gemologist and superhero Diana Prince must stop it from falling into the wrong hands, all the while battling demons both new and of her past.

CAST:

Diana Prince/Wonder Woman - Gal Gadot
Steve Trevor - Chris Pine
Barbara/Cheetah - Kristen Wiig
Maxwell Lord - Pedro Pascal

REVIEW

WW84 is a pretty fun film. It's 2 and a half hours long, and almost the entire runtime is filled with fun jokes and pretty decent action scenes. It works like a standard comic book film affair. You have your pinnacle-of-good superhero, absurd action that's PG-13; it's the kind of movie you have seen many times now. It even has a good message! I don't mind these kinds of films and I had a pretty good time with it. It certainly wasn't as good as its predecessor but that's not to say that this is bad, I still recommend you go to the theatre to watch it.

Now we come to my issues with the film.

My first issue: it has an exposition problem. Almost the entire first hour is a poorly written exposition line to set up the film. There is one action set piece, right at the beginning of the film and then the next one comes an entire hour later. I don't mind slow-moving superhero films either, I enjoy them too, for example, Batman v. Superman is one of my favourite superhero movies despite being incredibly slow; the only thing is that the exposition has to be done right. Otherwise, it just makes for a drag watch. Objects that are important to the story are given one line explanations and then just left at that. Case in point: the action scene at the beginning sets up a big plot point in a single throwaway line and then isn't mentioned anywhere right up until the end. It comes off as clunky and unnecessary. Even Diana's golden Kingdom Come suit gets a rushed explanation. (I'm not joking, Diana literally says "I don't have time to explain it to you, let me just show you.") So, that's my first problem, the poorly done exposition.

My second problem, which is also one that I find with most Marvel movies, is that it's a very bland film. The colours of this film are extremely flat and unappealing. I am a huge Zack Snyder fan and one thing I love about him is that he makes shots look cool, with great colours, treating the frame like a painting. 300 and Batman v. Superman are testaments of this. The first Wonder Woman movie had a great colour palette and as a result of this, many action scenes stood out. But the second one lacks this and it is appearant. The action scenes are cool, yes, but they look just so incredibly bland and boring. This problem may be a minor one, but I just found it severely disappointing.

My third problem (which kind of ties into my first problem) is that the pacing of this film is terrible. The first one hour fifteen minutes of the film have one action scene and way too much dialogue. It moves just way too slow. The last hour has quite a few action scenes and some potentially civilisation ending threats, but the movie glosses over them too fast, and the audience really doesn't get any time to comprehend the magnitude of the danger that Diana faces. Cheetah's entry is incredibly vague and rushed and I was just left asking "Why?' when she made her first appearance as her comic book accurate representation. There's even a major emotional moment in the end, and it's done away with so quickly and so little importance is given to it that I was left in the theatre wanting more. 

I have other problems too, but to discuss that would be to dive into spoiler territory and I don't want to do that right now. So, all-in-all, it has issues, but its a fun ride to just sit back and enjoy. I highly recommend hitting the theatres to go check this one out.

As always, be sure to leave a comment below!

You can follow me on Instagram @blogofbooksandmovies and @bobamfacts

You can follow me on Twitter @BlogofBooksandM