Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Director: Patty Jenkins

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Runtime: 151 Minutes

Main Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Gabriella Wilde, Lilly Aspell, Kristoffer Polaha

Plot: It’s now 1984, Diana (Gal Gadot) is still mourning Steve (Chris Pine) and everything changes when she happens to befriend Barbara (Kristen Wiig), her clumsy work colleague tasked with identifying a mysterious artifact.

My Thoughts: As much as I want to gush about how much I loved this movie, I’m keeping my review SPOILER FREE. The UK somehow got it earlier than a lot of countries (which never happens), and there are so few cinemas actually open that I feel incredibly lucky to have watched it on release night so I’m not spoiling anything until my top 10 of the year list, which this will definitely be a part of. I enjoyed Wonder Woman (2017) just fine but the final act killed my buzz a little, but that wasn’t the case with this sequel. It’s a long movie but the time whizzes by and I really didn’t want it to end. It’s been wonderful to have the time to watch more indie movies this year but nothing beats walking into that cinema for the year’s biggest blockbuster.

Gal Gadot is quite simply breath taking in every sense of the word. We don’t get to see Wonder Woman in costume an awful lot but it makes those action moments stand out even further, and it’s clear the team behind Diana’s outfits were having a blast. Diana’s moments with Steve were adorable, and I’ve always been a fan of those ‘fish out of water’ scenes so watching Steve be fascinated by everything the 80’s has to offer was so funny. I thought Kristen Wiig was an odd casting choice when I saw the first trailer but she’s perfect in the role of Barbara and watching her character change from the ditzy, fun-loving work colleague to the cold, bitter villain she becomes was great. Pedro Pascal absolutely steals the show whenever he’s on screen, though. His character is up there with my favourite comic-villains of all time.

I’m not sure what more I can say without getting into spoiler-ish territory, so I’ll finish here by telling you that I enjoyed Wonder Woman 1984 much more than I thought I would. We get to see more of Diana’s will and daring from when she was a child, we get some thrilling action shots, a beautiful romance story and some laughs along the way. What more can you really ask for?

Best Bit: Whenever Diana’s theme music kicked in my heart started racing. My favourite scene was the car chase in Egypt, there’s clips of it in the trailer of course but the actual full scene is stunning.

Worst Bit: I have a few problems related to the artifact that I can’t talk about yet and they’re probably me just nit-picking, but other than that the only thing I didn’t like was when Barbara turned full Cheetah. I’m not saying that the release of the movie Cats (2019) is what caused the world to fall apart but…they both happened at the same time and I’d like to not be reminded of that!

Fun Trivia: The role of Cheetah was first offered to Emma Stone but she declined. The role was then offered to Kristen Wiig, Patty Jenkins’s first choice.

My Rating: 4 and a half fanny packs (they’re called bum bags in the UK!) which not even Chris Pine can make look sexy.