Why Haters Are Hating on Wonder Woman 1984

Ten minutes. That’s how long Wonder Woman 1984 had been running before I knew the next morning my newsfeed was going to be littered with headlines like “WW84: Huge Disappointment”, “Why WW84 let us down”, etc. WW84 had an uphill battle to garner even lukewarm praise from most critics from the moment it was announced. Comic book movies, like any big spectacle film, don’t fit the bill for critical acclaim. Some recent releases have started to break out of that naysaying orbit, but those are still exceptions rather than rules. Wonder Woman 1984 bathes the audience from head to toe in nostalgia. As Themyscira fades away into the Aqua Net rich land of the 1980s, we get a mall escapade, the likes of which Bill and Ted would find totally righteous. Feeding the nostalgia beast is another sure-fire way to lose the critics. And without another time jump, Wonder Woman doesn’t have much of a choice but to keep fanning the flames and relegate itself into a mediocre rating. My certainty on the critical response to Wonder Woman did not extend to the general viewing audience, at least not the majority of the broad viewing audience. Until the three-quarter mark of the movie, when I realized this movie was going to hit very close to home. Wonder Woman 1984 was never going to reach the heights of Logan acclaim, but its reception is handicapped by the country’s, and the world at large’s, current state of affairs.

The ten-minute mark also solidified in my mind that a particular set of the general audience, as in those butt hurt by the ladies only showings of the first film, were sharpening their fangs to tear this film to shreds. An arena filled with scores of beautiful women cheering on a subset of their peers engaged in displaying their badass skills could signal little else than censure. That said, these naysayers seemed relatively quiet during this round of attacks on the Princess of the Amazons. You can’t be right all of the time.

But there is something to be said about the hero’s relationship with men in this movie. As in, Diana is not interested in men or their attentions toward her. She eats alone, lives alone, and focuses on her career. Scene after scene, we see at least one man try to get Diana’s attention, fawn over her beauty. She’s even resistant to Maxwell Lord’s charm and advances. She wants none of it. Diana has become her very own walking, talking Themyscira. Which is not realistic?

If Diana were Bruce Wayne, this paragraph wouldn’t exist. I don’t recall reading criticism about Bruce Wayne’s life choices at any of the Batman releases. He’s a billionaire who’s never sought out therapy for his parents’ tragic death, is the CEO of Wayne enterprises and spends his off hours running around in a bat suit, and is emotionally closed off from nearly everyone in his life. His flaws and Diana’s are on par with one another’s, and yet, Bruce is arguably the most popular superhero in any franchise while Diana is a disappointment. What’s that quote about Ginger Rogers? “Sure {Fred Astaire} was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did…backwards and in high heels.”

Looks like not much has changed if we’re expecting Diana to have a stronger emotional acuity than her peers. It’s not like she grew up with an overabundance of healthy examples to use as a boilerplate for her actions. Her mother had a fling with Zeus and then retreated from the world entirely to a hidden island for all eternity. I’m not shocked that Diana followed suit and threw herself into other personal pursuits. Having a moment over dinner where she wished someone was sitting across from her is one of Diana’s most relatable things in this movie. On an odd note, her being vilified over it is equally relatable. Anyone who hasn’t been in a relationship for an extended period probably felt seen in that moment in the movie and in the criticism of that scene. We are expected to both fit into and break traditional societal roles for women. If Diana Prince can’t do it, I’m not sure why the rest of us are still expected to, but here we are in another Caucus Race.

Every movie genre sets certain expectations for moviegoers. Comic book movies, or more broadly action movies, have a hero, a villain, gobs of special effects, and a sequence of action/violence crescendo in a battle royale finale. Oh, and the hero usually gets the girl. WW84 doesn’t stick with the boilerplate expectations for this one.

Audiences don’t get a clear cut division between villain and hero. Barbara and Diana are on the same team for the majority of the movie. The character set up as the main villain of the story, Maxwell Lord, barely qualifies as a full-fledged villain. The casting of Pedro Pascale in that role undercuts whatever villainy he gets up to. This is the way.

Coloring outside the lines with expectations can have disastrous consequences. Just ask The Last Jedi. While WW84 isn’t going to soar to that level of combustion but it will kick up plenty for it. The biggest subverted expectation is the battle at the end of the movie, which includes of all things Diana apologizing. I don’t even think Superman has issued an apology. When I see commentary stating WW84 is boring, I can’t help but wonder if it’s because audiences don’t receive the villain’s cathartic and obligatory beating.

We see the villain renounce his wish-granting ways in exchange for the love of his son. Make no mistake, though, Maxwell Lord got his. Sure, Wonder Woman didn’t have to ice her knuckles for a week following her victory, but Lord paid all the same. His price was an emotional one, where we can’t see the bruises or watch him walking down a hallway in cuffs and an orange jumpsuit. A heart growing three sizes as a resolution only works in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. No others need not apply.

Which brings me to the main reason why folks aren’t digging on WW84. When Maxwell Lord gets going, society crumbles under the weight of selfish indulgence. The pandemonium busts up all nostalgia and escapism to set the audience down in a world that feels, more than looks, like what we’re dealing with right now. The intent was to create a hyper-realized version of the worst-case scenarios of the Cold War. If this movie had made it to theaters before the pandemic reaching full swing, the reception for WW84 would be different. But it didn’t. Audiences watched this from the banal comfort of their couches by in large because movie theaters haven’t opened in much of the country.

But don’t let all these articles hating on the movie stop you from hitting the play button on your entertainment device. There is a lot to unpack about Wonder Woman 1984. And I am not talking about just the negative. There were plenty of positives here. The opening sequence, where Robin Wright returns as Antiope, beautifully laid out the movie’s framework. Barbara and Diana’s relationship bonding was a delight. I would have sacrificed some of Lord’s storyline to allow Barbara and Diana to get fleshed out more. I didn’t go too far into it, but there is a lot that needs to be said about Diana apologizing amidst the struggle with Cheetah. This film has laid the groundwork for an exciting clash between these two women further down the road. I’m hoping that there will be more subversion of the comic book hero movie expectations. I’d love to see a more complex relationship between hero and villain be explored.

To further the point that the negativity stretching over news feeds is a bit exaggerated, the studio has already announced Diana Prince’s story’s third installment has been greenlit. Faith in this franchise is still running strong with executives, which is a fickle beast. If the studio still believes, so should we.