Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Plot of Wonder Woman 1984: Diana Prince is working in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington while secretly performing heroic deeds, saving a bride who falls from a building, rescuing children from crooks in a mall and so on. Meanwhile in the Smithsonian she and mousy scientist Barbara Minerva confer over some artifacts which have been recovered from a robbery. One is, unknown to them, ‘the Dreamstone’, which grants wishes to those who ask while touching it. More or less accidentally Diana wishes for the return of her dead lover, Steve and Barbara wishes to be like Diana, not realising at the time that she will gain superpowers. Businessman Max Lord whose oil business is failing learns about the stone and successfully wishes to become it. Using his new powers his company becomes super rich and he becomes the most powerful man in the world even controlling the president of USA. It seems that the way to peace is for Lord to be eliminated or for everyone to reject their wishes but, in that case, Diana will lose Steve and Barbara will revert to her former self, and of course Lord will lose everything. How can it happen?

Content: Steve and Diana are seen in bed once, but we can’t imagine them doing it. Some wine is drunk at formal gatherings. We see Diana as a child failing to win a physical competition in the Amazon world. In 1984 we see her in her Wonder Woman kit rescuing people. We also see Barbara attacked by a drunk and rescued by Wonder Woman. Once the wishes have been granted Diana shows Steve round the wonderful world of 1984 and Barbara becomes glamourous and attractive, and begins to accidentally use her new superpowers. Also once Max Lord has become the Dreamstone he allows people’s wishes to be granted.  A middle eastern potentate wants his country back, and gets it, but his people trapped behind walls. The president wishes for more missiles and gets them but the Russians initiate a pre-emptive strike. Diana and Steve steal a jet and take plant in a desert car chase, but she is losing her powers. Barbara, now Cheetah, becomes inhuman.

A View: People did not like this film much and, despite taking quite a bit of money, the initial box office returns did not cover the production cost, never mind the additional promotion. I actually liked the dichotomy of the renouncing of the wishes being required in order to save the world, but it was all a bit tepid. Diana Prince is ridiculously prim and once Barbara is transformed into a slinky super being she is not evil enough, even though she is very cool. And it is far too long. We could have easily done without the initial competition with Diana as a child and probably more. The fight scenes are also endless. So if you want to watch it, maybe give the first half hour a miss.

Fun Fact: Over 600 photos have been posted on IMDb, the most of any film I have reviewed. I tried, but gave up trying to find out why.