A Cry for Humanity That Would Not Be Answered

Patty Jenkins' WW1984 evolves the story of its Heroine Diana Prince, flashed forward from WWII to the exuberant and indulgent '80s. A stark contrast to where we last found our hero.

We discover the beloved Wonder Woman in Washington D.C, working as an Anthropologist for the Smithsonian, PINEing over the deceased Steve Trevor, and isolating herself from humanity. Utterly disappointing, seeing a strong Amazon destroy herself over one man... A theme that continues throughout the story.

We are soon introduced to the adorably clumsy Barbara Minerva, played by Kristen Wiig -- Who was an unexpected delight, a seemingly unliked geologist and cryptozoologist who finds herself at the pity of our Diana. Quickly after her introduction, Barbara is asked by the FBI to identify an artifact... a magic rock that grants wishes with a twist. Both our female leads unknowingly wish upon the stone and chaos soon ensues.

For Barbara, she wishes to be as sexy, confident, and strong as her new friend Diana, who unbeknownst to her is an Amazonian warrior. Barbara quickly devolves and gives into her villainous impulses, supercharged by her newly discovered powers. ( I will say Barbara curb-stomping sexual predators was a delicious highlight of the film).

And for Diana, she sadly wishes for Steve Trevor to be with her again. Disappointingly and creepily Trevor returns by possessing the body of an innocent 20 something Engineer... That's about it and this results in a 20 minute or so montage of Steve being introduced to the '80s.

The middle and heftiest of the film gets muddier with a subplot involving '80s pyramid schemes, middle east politics, bad parenting, and Oil... I guess... An oil tycoon Maxwell Lord, who actually has no oil, takes advantage of our newly supercharged and empowered Barbara by seducing her and sealing the magical rock that was left to her charge. Barbara's powers soon eat away at her humanity and Diana's boy toy is draining her of her powers. While our only main character of color Maxwell Lord turns into a super-charged villain ready to eat the world.

The film wraps with Barbara turning into Cheetah and kicking Wonder Woman's behind for approximately 2 minutes, and Our Diana saves the world by asking humanity to renounce their wishes and dreams to save everyone else... a cry for help that would realistically never be answered. WW84 presents a candy-coated and whitewashed '80s leaving a lot to be desired. Our greatest part being the performance by Wiig feels a bit wasted and leaving the character feeling cheated, I would rather see a film with Cheetah being the main antagonists, I know Wiig could carry the film if her role had been more substantial.

For a film with two female lead roles, it seems to villainize independent and powerful women who stand up for themselves against men and encourages giving up one's life to honor and stay loyal to a deceased one. Perhaps this is too critical for a film that is a comic book adaption.