Wonder Woman 1984 3D Movie Review

Written By: Jacob Scarberry

3D

Throughout my viewing of Wonder Woman 1984 the 3D was wonderful. While being shot on film, you can tell they had 3D in mind when they were making this movie, and it delivers in spades. There is natural depth and spacing between the characters and background/foreground elements. This movie has plenty of particles that enter the theatrical space, and several shots with pop-out effects that manage to fully entertain and engross the viewer. One scene with fireworks is especially beautiful in 3D. In fact the 3D fully lifted my movie watching experience for Wonder Woman 1984. While not a perfect 3D visual experience, overall I really enjoyed the 3D in this movie.

Final Verdict: Great 3D

Art by **Ppeppermind**
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PpeppermindArtStore

Movie

To put it bluntly, Wonder Woman 1984 isn't as good as Wonder Woman (2017), that being said I still liked this movie.

Let me start off with the good aspects of this film, which is the cast. Gal Gadot was born to play the role of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, as she exudes confidence, charisma and class throughout all the scenes that she is in. Chris Pine returns as Steve Trevor, this time, the roles being reversed, with him not knowing (then) modern life. It's a fun performance and the chemistry between him and Gadot retains its spark from the first film quite easily. Pedro Pascal's performance as Maxwell Lord is your typical superhero villain, over-the-top, a bit hammy and plenty of bites taken out of the scenery. What grounds Maxwell Lord to Earth is when he has heart-to-hearts with his son Alistair, it's acted perfectly. Kristen Wiig is an odd casting choice as Barbara Minerva / The Cheetah, having mainly known her for her comedic roles in films and on SNL, but she manages to make a believable foe to Wonder Woman.

The story is where it falters a bit for me, though. The story is pretty simple on the surface, where a financially troubled oil baron ( Max Lord ) has been looking for the wishing stone, to lift his fortunes and control the world and Wonder Woman has to stop him. Unfortunately the film takes it's sweet time and at two and a half hours, you feel every minute of it. The film is languidly told with several scenes running too long or are totally unnecessary. I'm not against long films, but when the pacing is this slow, it really wears on the audience. Patty Jenkins, who returns to direct as well as co-writing, should've known better to scale back several scenes or outright delete them entirely. The opening scene in Themiscyira should've been shortened, maybe a minute or two of length, not the full 15 or so minute scene. The middle portion of this movie drags. The ending itself is too long and the denouements of the villains are entirely in the realm of WTF. There's also an utter lack of action in this film. I thought this was an action movie? There are two action scenes in the opening of the film (the Themiscyira scene and the mall scene) but it's a good hour before we even get to the next action scene. Luckily this final action scene is the highlight of the film. This scene is a fun and well-executed scene, with plenty of pep and excitement, but it's not enough to save the film. Also, despite being set in 1984, besides a few cursory details in the costume and production design, the film could've been set in modern times and worked. The film just didn't do enough to make me think "Okay, this is really 1984".

Overall, this isn't the worst of the worst of the DC extended universe of movies or any comic book film for that matter, but it's a film that has too much circumstance, and not enough pomp. A fairly middling entry, with just enough entertainment to prevent it from being outright boring, but not enough for more than the occasional re-watch. Simply put Wonder Woman 1984 is a disappointing mediocre movie.