The first Wonder Woman film was a sweet, sweet blast. After the downbeat sensibility of "Man of Steel", "BvS: Dawn of Justice", and "Suicide Squad", the hopeful, joyous energy of "Wonder Woman" was glorious.
Until the final third went down an awful CGI baddie battle that was at odds with the rest of the tone. But no matter, Gadot's innocent optimism left a strong enough sweet taste.
Yay, Patty Jenkins! You did it!
The first was such a hit that naturally Warner Bros. Wanted to get a sequel out as soon as possible but it feels like in their rush to do that, they hadn't got the script nailed down before they began shooting.
That's the best explanation I can think of for what happened here.
A lot of the same lightness of tone does permeate the film. Chris Pine's Steve Trevor is resurrected and now he's the fish out of water, in 1980s America, which generates some cute laughs. Gadot brings a sort of older, wiser energy to her Wonder Woman/Diana Prince while retaining the essential decency that made her compelling in the WW1 setting.
Some of the action scenes, such as the opening on Themyscira, and in the shopping centre are wonderful; kinetic and exciting.
But some choices have been made that undermine the movie. The main one is the strange splitting out of the narratives. Pedro Pascal plays Maxwell Lord, one of our nominal villains, and he's great at showing us the charm that makes this man a successful hustler, but the sweaty desperation behind it all. The problem is that he's basically a co-lead in the movie. For a villain, he gets an awful lot of screen time. I'm all for that, but when the villain is getting backstory and a sympathetic motivation, and pushing the lot forward, and our hero is off doing romance, and being reactive, it saps some of the energy from the movie.
It also takes from Kristen Wiig's potential screen time. Pascal is good, but Wiig kills it as the dowdy, ignored nerd who gets her wish to be more like Diana. She is a joy to watch as she revels in her new found power. More of that would have been fun.
The film also doesn't make enough of its 80s setting. A few tunes, a few fashion trends singled out at the start of the movie, but it's then all quickly forgotten about.
There's a great movie in here, but it needed more work at the script stage. The theme of getting what you want, and excess, could work but it needed more thinking through.
And one less villain.
And less sudden development of ridiculous powers. (Flying on air currents?! Making things invisible?! Come on!) We've bought into the conceit of Wonder Woman, but you can't keep adding things on. It lowers the stakes if she can just keep deus ex machina-ing herself out of problems with new powers.
I have faith Patty and co can right the ship for a third Wonder Woman movie, and I shall be there, ready to believe.
Until the final third went down an awful CGI baddie battle that was at odds with the rest of the tone. But no matter, Gadot's innocent optimism left a strong enough sweet taste.
Yay, Patty Jenkins! You did it!
The first was such a hit that naturally Warner Bros. Wanted to get a sequel out as soon as possible but it feels like in their rush to do that, they hadn't got the script nailed down before they began shooting.
That's the best explanation I can think of for what happened here.
A lot of the same lightness of tone does permeate the film. Chris Pine's Steve Trevor is resurrected and now he's the fish out of water, in 1980s America, which generates some cute laughs. Gadot brings a sort of older, wiser energy to her Wonder Woman/Diana Prince while retaining the essential decency that made her compelling in the WW1 setting.
Some of the action scenes, such as the opening on Themyscira, and in the shopping centre are wonderful; kinetic and exciting.
But some choices have been made that undermine the movie. The main one is the strange splitting out of the narratives. Pedro Pascal plays Maxwell Lord, one of our nominal villains, and he's great at showing us the charm that makes this man a successful hustler, but the sweaty desperation behind it all. The problem is that he's basically a co-lead in the movie. For a villain, he gets an awful lot of screen time. I'm all for that, but when the villain is getting backstory and a sympathetic motivation, and pushing the lot forward, and our hero is off doing romance, and being reactive, it saps some of the energy from the movie.
It also takes from Kristen Wiig's potential screen time. Pascal is good, but Wiig kills it as the dowdy, ignored nerd who gets her wish to be more like Diana. She is a joy to watch as she revels in her new found power. More of that would have been fun.
The film also doesn't make enough of its 80s setting. A few tunes, a few fashion trends singled out at the start of the movie, but it's then all quickly forgotten about.
There's a great movie in here, but it needed more work at the script stage. The theme of getting what you want, and excess, could work but it needed more thinking through.
And one less villain.
And less sudden development of ridiculous powers. (Flying on air currents?! Making things invisible?! Come on!) We've bought into the conceit of Wonder Woman, but you can't keep adding things on. It lowers the stakes if she can just keep deus ex machina-ing herself out of problems with new powers.
I have faith Patty and co can right the ship for a third Wonder Woman movie, and I shall be there, ready to believe.