WONDER WOMAN 1984 : Tuesday 5th January 2021.

'WONDER WOMAN 1984' is the M Rated ninth instalment in the DCEU which finally arrived in Australian cinemas on 26th December 2020. This sequel to 2017's 'Wonder Woman' which grossed US$822M off the back of a production budget of about US$140M, is once again Directed by Patty Jenkins, and has been the subject of numerous delays to finally get us to this point. Originally announced for release on 13th December 2019, before being moved up to 1st November 2019, then it was delayed to 5th June 2020 and delayed again to 14th August 2020 while the world rode out the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, a further delay saw the film's release pushed to 2nd October 2020, before it was moved to this Christmas date. The film also streamed on HBO Max in the US and through Premium VoD in Canada from the same day as its theatrical release in those countries, while the rest of the world can enjoy the big screen cinematic release from anytime between Christmas 2020 and the end of January 2021. Costing US$200M to make the film is not expected to be profitable, needing to take US$500M to break even after marketing costs are factored in. That said, this sequel has generated mixed or average Reviews, and at the time of writing has grossed US$119M. A third film in the franchise was greenlit on 27th December 2020 set in the present day with Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot returning. 

The film opens up with the young child Diana Prince (Lilly Aspel) taking part against much older Amazon contestants in an athletic race on Themyscira. Looking on, but secretly not holding out much hope for her young daughter is the Queen of Themyscira, Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) and her sister Antiope (Robin Wright). After being knocked off her horse having led the race up to this point, Diana takes a short cut to make up for lost ground and to remount her horse which has run on ahead, riderless. However, just as Diana re-enters the stadium and is about to throw the final javelin through a target making her the winner, she is grabbed from behind by her Aunt, Antiope, and lectured that any goal must be achieved through honest effort and truth comes above everything else.   

We then fast forward to 1984 and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot who also Co-Produces here) works at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. In between her routine work at the Institute she also saves and rescues people often from life threatening situations, wearing her WWI outfit. One such set piece comes in a busy shopping mall when a gang of four thieves rob a jewellery store of various ancient artefacts, but are quickly foiled by Wonder Woman. 

Following this Diana introduces herself to the hapless Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) - a highly insecure geologist and gemologist recently started at the Institute, who most of her co-workers ignore because she is socially awkward, unassertive and just plain. Barbara befriends Diana whom she comes to admire and envy because she represents everything she isn't. The next day Barbara is asked by the FBI to identify several stolen and recovered artefacts from the robbery that Diana had foiled at the Shopping Mall. Barbara and Diana notice one artefact in particular which contains an inscription written in Latin claiming that anyone holding it will be granted one wish. Diana unknowingly uses the stone to wish her deceased lover Steve Trevor back to life, while separately having been saved by Diana from an attempted sexual assault, Barbara wishes upon the stone to become like Diana. 

Meanwhile failing businessman Maxwell 'Max Lord' Lorenzano (Pedro Pascal) visits the Smithsonian Institute under the guise of being a wealthy donor. He had previously arranged for the stolen artefact with the Latin inscription, known as the 'Dreamstone' to be delivered to him in the hope of using its power to save his struggling oil company, BlackGold Cooperative. Diana uncovers a connection between Max and the stone and attends a gala at the Smithsonian to investigate. There, she is reunited with Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), whose soul inhabits another man's body, but only Diana can see him as Steve. 

Attending the gala himself, Max seduces Barbara to gain access to her office and steal the Dreamstone. With the Dreamstone now securely in his possession he later that night uses the stone to 'become' the stone and gains its wish-granting powers, along with the ability to take whatever he desires from others in return. Max very quickly becomes a successful and powerful figure whose oil business takes off, and who is hell bent on assuming control of his competitors oil business, ultimately taking over half the world's oil production. In his wake however, he leaves a trail of destruction and chaos and his powers create instability on a global scale. 

With Barbara's help, Diana and Steve discover that the Dreamstone was created by Dolos, the God of lies, treachery, deception, and mischief and is referenced in various historical records down through the ages. The stone grants a user their wish but exacts a toll, and the only way to reverse the exchange is by renouncing the wish or destroying the stone. As the stone crumbled to dust when Max was granted his wish to become the human embodiment of the stone, there is no chance of now destroying it. Steve quickly comes to the realisation that his existence comes at the cost of Diana's power, while Barbara's newfound life has taken away her humanity. Neither woman is willing to renounce her wish.

With every wish that Max grants, so his new found powers begin taking a toll on him physically as his body slowly deteriorates. He bleeds form the nose, the ears and the eyes and his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic and unhinged. He learns from the President of the United States (Stuart Milligan) of a satellite system that broadcasts communication signals globally, using a technology that touches every electrical communications device on the planet - telephones, computers, televisions. Max plans to use it to grant wishes to the entire world simultaneously to rid himself of his power and restore his health. Diana and Steve confront him at the White House, only for Barbara to joins forces with Max. She defeats Diana, allowing Max's escape. 

Steve convinces Diana to renounce her wish and to let him go, restoring her strength and discovering an ability to fly. Diana returns to her apartment and dons the gold winged protective suit of armour of legendary Amazon warrior Asteria. She then heads to the satellite headquarters and confronts Barbara, who has mutated into a cheetah-like creature after wishing to become an 'apex predator'. After defeating Barbara in a closely fought battle, Diana confronts Max and uses her Lasso of Truth to communicate with the world through him, convincing everyone to renounce their wishes. She also shows Max visions - first of his own unhappy childhood, then as a teenager at College and then of his young son, Alistair (Lucian Perez), wandering the streets crying for his father amid the chaos he has created. Max renounces his wish and reunites with Alistair, promising to be a better father, and one day to make his son proud. 

Some months later, in a street market at Christmas time, amidst a light flurry of snowfall, Diana encounters the man whose body Steve possessed, providing her with some closure and a determination to continue safeguarding humanity. Meanwhile, in a mid-credits sequence Asteria (Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the 1970's television series) is revealed to be secretly living among humans, having saved a young child from a falling power pole, and saying to the startled but grateful mother that it's only weight displacement and she has years of experience.

'Wonder Woman 1984' suffers from sequel-itis as it fails to live up to the expectations set so handsomely in the 2017 first instalment. Sure many of the usual characters are there for the purposes of continuity and familiarity, and they all perform their respective roles with aplomb as do the two baddies in the piece played by Wiig and Pascal who both add weight to the storyline which at times falls into cheesy territory. The action set pieces are well choreographed, the look and feel of 1984 is reasonably well recreated, but I was left wanting to see more action from this woman of wonder and less corn (after all she learns she can fly in this sequel - a la the man of steel, and, render inanimate objects - as large as a jet fighter - invisible just by rubbing her hands together!!) 'WW84' is entertaining enough even if it does plod along in places labouring in at an elongated 151 minutes run time, and it has enough emotional heft and escapism to be engaging, but the storyline leaves much to be desired and we have seen it played out many times before in both the DCEU and MCU when nefarious ne'er do well megalomaniacs try to take over the world and eventually succumb to our trusty superhero/ine who is on hand to save the day beyond the eleventh hour and restore some semblance of status quo.  

'Wonder Woman 1984' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard out of a possible five claps.       

-Steve, at Odeon Online-