Wonder Woman 1984 Doesn’t Live Up To Original

by Jensen McKey

Like many people, I was incredibly excited that Wonder Woman 1984 would be released this year. I loved the first movie and couldn’t wait for the second one. 

Unfortunately, the movie was less than underwhelming.

The main theme is about being known.  Maxwell Lord, played by Pedro Pascal, desperately wanted to be known as powerful, he wanted to be important and Barbara Minerva/Cheetah, played by Kristen Wiig, wanted “to be like Diana, strong, sexy, cool, special.” 

Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, a returning Gal Gadot, wanted to be known as Wonder Woman, but only by one person, her beau, Steve Trevor.  It’s only when she accepts that she can’t be known by him that can she save the day. 

My aunt, Tammy Wilkerson liked the film. She had many reasons to love it. and although Tammy and I disagreed on some points, we did agreed on several.

“I like how she (Wonder Woman) is very honest and an encouraging person,” Tammy said. “She is a good role model. At the beginning of the movie when she was young and she cheated during the race, it showed her mother not letting her have the victory. She told her she was not ready. I try to teach my kids that so I really liked that part of the movie. I liked how they brought back the love of her life and put some closure to that from the first movie. I liked that it showed you may lose someone but you can still carry on even though it is hard. You can look past your own desires to see what’s good for all.” 

My sister, Jaci, and I disliked many parts of the movie.

“It showed Barbara/Cheetah’s descent into darkness/evil by having her beat up the man who harassed and then assaulted her,” Jaci said. “Barbara’s arc also held the narrative that trying to fit in was bad, all Barbara wanted was for people to like her, to not see her as weird, and wishing for that took away her humanity. During the rising action of the movie, it showed Maxwell Lord clearly overwhelmed; several people were talking to him over one another, hundreds of calls coming in.”

Jaci said Maxwell Lord’s character was clearly overwhelmed and reacted how most people would react and the movie used that to show he was evil and was losing his humanity.

I had high expectations for Wonder woman 1984, but it failed to meet a lot of them. The storyline was weak and the central message was horrific. People were put in bad situations and their reactions were used to show their “evilness.”

Whether or not it was worth watching is something I’m still split about, while the movie had many faults, it had many good points as well. Overall I don’t regret watching it, but I most definitely would not do it again.

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