BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR (WONDER WOMAN 1984)

  

Even before it hit cinema screens in December, Patty Jenkins' sequel 'Wonder Woman 1984' felt like a bit of a game changer.

Even though Disney chose to release 'Artemis Fowl,' the live action version of 'Mulan' and the wonderful 'Soul' on its streaming service, the decision by Warner Bros to simultaneously release one of its biggest superhero franchises on HBO Max in the US and in cinemas seems like it could change the industry forever.

The studio may have been responding to the disruption Covid has caused to theatrical distribution but it incurred the wrath of filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve by deciding 16 other films will get a simultaneous release this year.

Among those films getting this treatment are Villeneuve's long awaited adaptation of 'Dune,' Shaka King's awards contender 'Judas and the Black Messiah,' Alan Taylor's 'Sopranos' prequel 'The Many Saints of Newark,' Adam Wingard's 'Godzilla Vs Kong,' Jon M Chu's big screen version of Lin Manuel Miranda's musical 'In the Heights' and Lana Wachowski's 'The Matrix 4'.

The announcement smacked of a studio gambling, even with a Covid vaccine rolling out, on movie consumption habits changing for good as a result of the pandemic.

When cinemas reopen tentatively after the third Covid lockdown, it will be against the backdrop of new releases either landing simultaneously on streaming platforms or shortly after a head start in movie theatres.

The underwhelming performance of Nolan's 'Tenet' at the box office only added to the studios' apprehension around traditional movie releases and many will be studying closely how Jenkins' follow-up to 2017's smash hit 'Wonder Woman' performs on streaming services around the world and how that affects its cinema sales.

With films like John Krasinski's 'A Quiet Place II,' Chloe Zhao's Oscar frontrunner 'Nomadland,' Will Gluck's 'Peter Rabbit' 2: The Runaway' and Carey Fukinaga's 007 adventure 'No Time To Die' pushed out to 2021, it is feasible we could see similar moves from rival studios if Warner Bros' strategy proves successful.

'Wonder Woman 1984' sees Patty Jenkins back in the director's chair after her hugely successful stint with the first 'Wonder Woman' film.

Writing the script alongside Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, it begins with a flashback to Wonder Woman/Diana Prince's childhood on Themyscira - an island nation made up entirely of Amazonian women warriors.

Under the guiding hand of Robin Wright's general Antiope and Connie Nielsen's Queen Hippolyta, Lilly Aspell's young Diana takes part in a kind of Amazonian Olympics event in front of a packed stadium.

The contest is a bit like those Quidditch games in 'Harry Potter,' with some of the action taking place outside the stadium.

However the reason for this preamble is that it enables Antiope to teach Diana a valuable lesson about playing and winning by the rules.

Cut to Washington in 1984, with Gal Gadot's Diana working in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC while secretly performing rescues as Wonder Woman.

In the opening moments of this story, we see her save a jogger from two jocks recklessly speeding through the city streets in their car.

In another sequence, she catches a child dangled over a balcony by a panicky gang of robbers who hold up a jewellery store in a shopping mall.

Enter Kristen Wiig's scatty, cripplingly shy geologist and crypto zoologist Barbara Ann Minerva who arrives at the Smithsonian with an overstuffed briefcase.

She is bowled over by the glamorous Diana when she helps her mop up the papers spilling out of her case.

Largely ignored by her fellow workers, Barbara asks Diana out to lunch in the hope of becoming a friend and they bond.

Barbara is thrilled when she is asked to identify some stolen antiquities from the shopping mall robbery that Wonder Woman foiled and among the haul is a weird stone.

Assuming it to be of no real value, Barbara does not realise it is actually a Dreamstone which grants wishes.

However the Dreamstone also exacts a price from anyone who avails of its power.

The artefact attracts the interest of Pedro Pascal's struggling businessman Maxwell Lord who has bought a lot of dry oil fields with other investors' money and runs cheesy TV commercials promising untold wealth.

Lord turns up at the Smithsonian announcing he wishes to be a benefactor of the archive and announces he will throw a party to celebrate.

While he charms Barbara, what he really wants is to get his mitts on the Dreamstone.

Unbeknown to him, Barbara and Diana have accidentally unleashed the power of the gemstone.

In return for her empathy, Barbara wishes to be like Diana and suddenly discovers at the gym she has super strength and has also become more glamorous.

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

Diana inadvertently wishes for the return of the big love of her life, Chris Pine's World War One pilot Steve Trevor who sacrificed himself in the previous film.

And so his soul materialises in the body of another man.

Diana and the audience mostly see Steve in the form of Pine except when he is looking in the mirror.

However the price the Dreamstone exacts is a sapping of Diana's powers.

Disaster inevitably strikes when Lord gets his hands on the Dreamstone, stealing it while seducing Barbara.

Consumed by megalomania, he sets out to become the Dreamstone - granting wishes while destroying lives.

But can Diana and Steve recover the Dreamstone and save the world from wishing itself to destruction? 

Jenkins, her writers, cast and crew have a blast reimagining Wonder Woman in the 1980s.

But that's part of the problem - they are simply having too much fun.

As a result, 'Wonder Woman 1984' becomes a baggy addition to the DC Comics movie stable.

In fact it is so baggy, it becomes baggier than many of the 1980s clothes Chris Pine is forced to wear throughout the movie.

The film turns out to be about 30 or 40 minutes too long and it takes an awful long time to get to the action.

When it does, it's a glorious sight to behold, with bravura action set pieces.

However the preamble in Themyscira feels like it's there for the sake of it and it also takes a while for Lord, in particular, to get firing on Lex Luthor style cylinders.

As a consequence, 'Wonder Woman 1984' is very much a game of two halves.

The first plays out like a dull goalless half in a National League match on a wet Saturday afternoon in Stockport.

It suddenly erupts in the second like a seven goal Premier League thriller at Anfield.

And when it does, Jenkins handles the action sequences superbly.

'Wonder Woman 1984' sparks into life with a thrilling Egyptian desert highway convoy pursuit in a sequence that is pure 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'.

A showdown at the White House involving Wonder Woman, Steve, Barbara, Maxwell Lord and a squad of Secret Service agents doesn't disappoint.

Credit must go to the 75 strong special effects team, the 624 person visual effects team, the 141 strong stunts team and the Director of Photography, Matthew Jensen for the superb look of the film.

As for the cast, Gadot underscores once more in the second half just why Wonder Woman still remains the best of the recent DC Comics adaptations in the Zack Snyder era.

Pine also emerges with much credit, playing second fiddle once more as the love interest - although Jenkins and her screenwriters overdo his wide eyed sense of wonder at how much the world has changed.

Pascal makes for a rather patchy villain - channelling Lex Luthor and Gordon Gekko from Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street' with more than a hint of Donald Trump thrown in for good measure.

However he falls short by some distance of the scene stealing heights Gene Hackman scaled as Lex Luthor or Heath Ledger in 'The Dark Knight'.

Wiig, however, is the real revelation in Jenkins' film and is clearly having a ball in a role that is reminiscent of Michelle Pfeiffer's turn as Selena Kyle/Catwoman in Tim Burton's 'Batman Returns'.

Barbara is by far the most interesting character as she wrestles with her new found super powers and abundance of confidence - especially when she becomes loathe to give them up.

Now that the Trump Presidency has reached its conclusion, the comparison with Lord's grifter persons is particularly striking, as Pascal's character spends the film promising various people their wishes will come true while simultaneously destroying the world around them.

Some may even see Barbara's transformation from a largely anonymous, sometimes downtrodden worker to angry avenger as having contemporary relevance.

All of this, however, contributes to a feeling that this sequel sags under the weight of too many ideas.

It could have done with a bit more trimming.

With too much baggage, Jenkins' film is more leaden footed than the original but it does just about enough in the second half to suggest that a third outing of Wonder Woman could yet work.

A smart cameo in the credits sequence hints at where the third installment and the spin-off movie about the Amazonian warriors of Themyscira might go.

However it will require Jenkins and her fellow screenwriters to be a bit more ruthless with the script during pre-production and a lot less sentimental.

'Wonder Woman 1984' offers audiences escapism in the comfort of their homes at a time when it is badly needed.

However it undoubtedly loses out being screened in your living room as opposed to the multiplex.

If Jenkins' sequel achieves anything, it is that it increases that yearning, as the Covid vaccine rolls out, that we will all once again be able to enjoy the latest blockbusters and arthouse movies in their natural habitat.

Films like 'Wonder Woman 1984' belong in the cinema.

But it may be the movie that changed film distribution forever.

Whatever path the studios take, one thing is clear - when it is safe to return to something approaching the life we had pre-Covid, we cannot allow the cinema experience to wither away. 

We owe it to ourselves, future generations and the filmmakers who have entertained us over the years to support our cinemas when they reopen and when lockdown eases.

('Wonder Woman 1984' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on December 16, 2020 and on streaming services on January 15, 2021)