電影《神力女超人1984》影評：[Film Review] Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) 6.5/10

Wearing a Teflon armor as the thus-far sole DCEU tentpole which both satiates the finicky taste of critics and reaps ginormous box office receipts, Patty Jenkins’ WONDER WOMAN (2017) smartly lends itself to the political correctness of women empowerment and makes a big splash with its comic book material, like Ryan Cooler’s MCU behemoth BLACK PANTHER (2018), no one dares to badmouth them lest it will court vehement rebuke of sexism or racism.

At the end of 2020, here comes Jenkins’ belated WONDER WOMAN sequel, thankfully Yours Truly is currently in China, where cinema remains open, and is able to watch its 3D version on the vast screen. WW 1984, its time-line is set among the Cold War nuclear hysteria, and our heroine Diana Prince (Gadot) does the usual superhero good deeds while remain certain degree of anonymity in Washington D.C.. Still pining for her lost lover, the WWI pilot Steve Trevor (Pine), she alights on a magical wish-granting gem, makes her wish and hey presto! Steve’s soul is tossed back into our world (inhabiting another man’s body, but in the eyes of his smitten beholder, he is the same old Steve all right), but soon it occurs to her that this miracle has a price to pay, the star-crossed lovers have to brave another adieu when Diana must choose to do the right thing, the emotional crunch is well-wrought, and Pine’s soulful blue eyes are too irresistible to take our eyes off, and Gadot also passes muster to act out some real affect other than her acrobatic fighting showmanship.

Unlike the assembly of JUSTICE LEAGUE and AVENGERS, Jenkins astutely trims down secondary characters, only offers munificent screen-time to the two villains, Wiig’s Barbara Minerva aka. Cheetah (more akin to Catwoman, but it is nice to see Wiig kick some ass here) and Pascal’s Maxwell Lord (a conspicuous analogy of you know who and Pascal is delectably unselfconscious to roar like a power-thirst loon). Both are exempted from one-note characterization, and their motives, oscillations and struggles are spelt out eloquently.

However, prefigured by Steve’s banal depiction of the afterlife, WW84 is nothing if not cookie-cutter in its core, its preachy message (the paramount importance of 「truth」 foregrounded in its prologue in the Amazonian turf, still the best visual effects in the whole movie) can only work for anyone with an inchoate mindset (pre-teens preferably), and is better to be assigned to educational function in a high school or detention center than for mass consumption, Jenkins and her team’s creative vision is hindered by their noblesse oblige to put our cartoon heroine on a pedestal, a flawless Wonder Woman is too good for the world we are dwelling in now.

Besides, is there any general precepts applying to the practice of wish-renouncement? How does it works to put the pandemonium to rights in such a short time span is perfunctorily executed (hey, we didn’t see the guy who wishes for a cup of coffee renounce his wish! he is the patient zero here), WW84 sags momentarily when the story enters its third act, we are all safe in the knowledge that everything will be fine no matter what, that’s the scourge of our superhero excesses, for all its good intentions and finely crafted spectacles, WW84 isn’t a game changer, merely a Dutch uncle who beneficently preaches to the converted.

referential entries: Patty Jenkins’ WONDER WOMAN (2017, 7.1/10); Ryan Coogler’s BLACK PANTHER (2018, 7.1/10).