When Gal Gadot was first introduced to the DC cinematographic universe as the heroin Wonder Woman in Zack Snyder's 2016 "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" audiences worldwide loved the perfect casting choice. She truly feels like the right actress for the role, much like Henry Cavill feels just right for the role of Superman. On top of that, we were given a free display of her incredible powers as she went head to head against none other than Doomsday, a mutated, Kryptonian zombie made from Zod's corpse with the power to kill Superman and devastate entire cities by himself. Not bad for her first appearance on the big screen in over forty years! The film does right to the character by showing Diana as a plausible stand-alone hero. She doesn't ask for help because she doesn't need it, she doesn't get manipulated by Lex Luthor because she is above that and she jumps fearlessly into battle against a supervillain when she knows that millions of innocent lives are at stake. Honestly, I can hardly think of a better way on how they could have show-cased Wonder Woman to wider audiences than with this amazing first appearance. That is why it is so hard and painful to ask two simple questions: Why then did Wonder Woman 1984 not show more character depth than just "being in love" and how are any of the things she faces in the film even a challenge to her?
Wonder Woman's 1984 opening scene sets us directly into Paradise Island during some sort of Amazonian Crossfit Challenge where Diana is a nine-year-old girl competing against full-grown women. This made me believe that the movie was going to be about Diana's origins on the Amazonian island, growing up among strong female role models, digging into her mysterious superpowers and how to control them, exploring her relationship with other Amazonian women like Mala, etc... I was... very wrong. Wonder Woman 1984 instead of exploring any of Diana's origin stories, brings us to the year 1984. Why? Marketing purposes is my best guess. The 80s look and sound like fun without being too much of a rip-off from "Thor Ragnarok" or "Guardians of the Galaxy" that brought Marvel, or should I say, Disney, amazing profits. The entire film then just continues Diana's fight against Maxwell Lord, who is a single dad desperately trying to prove to his son that he is not a complete loser, and Cheetah, an archeologist jealous of Wonder Woman's popularity. It comes as no surprise that both scriptwriter Geoff John and director Patty Jenkins did not want to go this route initially.
When DC Comics released "Wonder Woman Earth One" in 2016 readers were finally able to learn more about Diana's origin world, the Amazons, and Paradise Island. Greek mythology, conspiracies, Diana's bisexuality, saving both worlds, and proving oneself as a hero, are just a few of the many themes explored in this epic comic written by Grant Morrison. Few graphic novels go as deep into exploring a comic book character as this one does. A must-read for DC fans and undoubtedly a great pick-up for comic collectors, DC fan or not. If the first Wonder Woman movie was about Diana's adventures in the world of men and fighting alongside them to save the world, then maybe the second movie had the one-time opportunity to explore her origins among the Amazonians. In Marvel's "Thor" the movie, his father Odin expels him from the heavenly kingdom of Asgard because Thor had become arrogant and not worthy of the magical hammer Mjolnir. Thor thinks he is ready to be crowned king but Odin has one more humbling lesson for him as he sends him down to Midgard (Earth). Actions, not words, explain to the audience the relationship between father and son in this epic tale of a Viking family feud. Let's bring it back to Wonder Woman and the Amazonians, shall we? Who are Diana's parents? Who are the elder gods that Steppenwolf mentions in Justice League and are never, ever mentioned again? In the absence of her parents, did she have any role models growing up? Did she have to break up a previous relationship with one of the amazonian women before meeting Steve Trevor? Who exactly sent her on her mission to become mankind's savior and why? Did she on one or more occasions save Paradise Island from outside forces or maybe from enemies within? All of these questions and many more are sadly left unanswered.
As to the villains themselves in the film, I have one simple question. How are they even a challenge to Wonder Woman? We saw her go head to head with Doomsday in "Batman v Superman". Then we saw her fight Steppenwolf by herself in "Justice League". Yes, I mean what I write. She fought them by herself since Batman and the others were mostly just busy saving hostages and fighting off little flying mosquito men. How does a hero like that need fancy golden armor to fight a cat lady? As the big comic nerd that I am, I appreciate the producers and writers are trying to squeeze in characters and villains in the films such as Cheetah that are canon in Wonder Women comics. But after fighting not one but two omega-level super-villains by herself, Cheetah just feels a little underwhelming. The real problem of the movie is Maxwell Lord. The setup for this villain took up too much screen time, thus not giving space for our main protagonist to develop more, besides just eternally mourning Steve Trevor's tragic death. Pedro Pascal's villain has a much wider character arch than the protagonist, as he goes through all kinds of life's frustrations, spends too much time in the office is a supervillain that he forgets the most important thing to him, his son. He then finally finds redemption by giving up his awesome powers. Meanwhile, Diana breaks up with Trevor's ghost.
It is still unclear to me if producers just didn't believe in Wonder Woman as a stand-alone superhero movie that they didn't even give her a fighting chance to shine on her own or if they thought exploring her origins and her sexuality was too risky. What is clear is that they decided to instead go for a cookie-cutter version of Diana, one that mourns the same guy for 40 years and fights villains based on Jim Carrey's character from the 90s family film "Liar Liar". Whatever Wonder Woman's next adventure is, I hope she gets the respect that a major DC character like herself deserves, may it be in a stand-alone film or in a team-up movie.
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