Thanks for the review. I loved the first one. Always loved the character and wanted a big screen version for years. This however is a disaster. It's absolutely dire. Haven't been this disappointed since Justice League. Awful writing, over the top cartoon villain, boring action scenes, overacting, cheesy lines of dialogue that patronise the audience with a message that's as subtle as an anvil to the head. I don't even care if they make a third one. At least I'll always have the first one to enjoy. Genuinely gutted .
Cheers Cas. Judging by what I've been reading in the other thread too, a 6 seems pretty fair and is therefore mightily disappointing to hear. I had higher hopes after the first film.
The first one was overrated. So this must be really bad. I’ll still watch when it comes to whatever streaming service. It’ll no doubt look and sound tremendous.
I watched it on HBO Max and this first 20 mins was awesome . Especially the young Diana section . I would love to see a movie of young Diana at that age .
a movie based on wishes just doesn’t work
The rest of it was just poor and the villain was shocking roll on suicide squad to save DC.
So with my expectations suitably lowered I think this is an OK movie.
On the positive side, the story is a bit heavy handed and has some gaps but it's OK. GG is a decent Wonder Woman and Chris Pine makes a great Steve Trevor. Kudos to Jenkins for the way she uses him in this film. It's a Wonder Woman film, she is the star, but Steve is a man. That might sound obvious but have you seen many of female led and directed films recently? I personally liked Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord, even though the arc was simplistic I still liked it.
The Picture quality is very nice, bright and colourful. The Atmos picks up when the action sequences start and there are one or two nice effects, especially the lasso which swings above your head around the room. But overall it's just the music which isn't Hans Zimmer best, but it's still Hans Zimmer.
Speaking of action, what little there is of it is very poor. There's one sequence where she is running and her feet literally miss the ground. There was no point removing the wires because you can always tell by the way she ran, jumped and moved. The mall fight, cheetah fight, all the fight sequences were wired messes. I've not seen action scenes this bad since Birds of Prey. Absolutely awful. Cas and others say that Jenkins was trying to recapture the spirit of Christopher Reeve's Superman. I think she over achieved because they also picked up the '78 film's stuntwork, SFX and CGI too.
I was happy to see Linda Carter again. Yes it was totally out of place and the cheese factor was off the scale but it almost worked. If it was a better film, then this would have been a nice coda.
Overall I've read and listened to the negative comments and negative reviews, I agree with some, disagree with others. I could forgive some of the weaker aspects if the action wasn't so poorly executed. Also that golden costume looks good until she put it on. Bacofoil?
The first was a 7/10 for me (and pretty much the best of the current DCU films imo)
This? This was dire. 1984 is in the title, yet it never feels like it is the 80s at all, I think there was a single 80s song in the whole thing, the rest was orchestral stuff (but I guess if Zimmer is on board you make the most of it). Villain was awful as well.
I watched this today on HBO and have to agree with the 6/10. It was an ok film, there was very little in the way of action until later in the film. 2 1/2 hours was far too long, there was so much that could have been cut out to help the pacing.
Picture good in places (first 10 mins) but hardly a 4K showpiece, barely any discrete surround of note, bass was lightweight. I can put some of that down to it being streamed, but still. Was very excited for this, but was all a bit meh...
Bit disappointed but I did Like it by the end. Kristen Wiig was my favourite addition, I also actually liked Pedro in his role, he was fully committed, in less capable hands it would’ve been an absolutely terrible part.
Just a side note you mentioned the score at the end was from kick ass & sunshine..it was actually ‘a beautiful lie’ from BvS by Hans Zimmer/Junkie XL which I really appreciated & a nice little bit of thematic linking in the DC universe but why the hell didn’t they use the WW theme more...? What a missed opportunity to use one of the best new superhero themes & an awesome chance to utilise Tina Guo again???
The film had a lot of missed opportunities I feel I’ll enjoy it more on repeat viewings though,
6/10 for now.
Ive just noticed the soundtrack version is quite different to the film version, guessing it was used as a temp track & got stuck in on the edit of the film...in fairness it worked well
The first was a 7/10 for me (and pretty much the best of the current DCU films imo)
This? This was dire. 1984 is in the title, yet it never feels like it is the 80s at all, I think there was a single 80s song in the whole thing, the rest was orchestral stuff (but I guess if Zimmer is on board you make the most of it). Villain was awful as well.
Pretty much agree with you, the first was ok watchable (6/10) but this was terrible after all the hype...I looked forward to it being set in the 80s but it was done in such a bad way especially at the start it was like some sort of cheap spoof of an 80s movie. CGI and green screen work were pretty poor too more so the end fight with cheetah.
I would agree with the 6 too, it was entertaining enough but way too long. Also, the Rampage arcade machine came out in 1986, it shouldn't have been in a 1984 arcade, totally unwatchable
I can enjoy pretty much anything superhero related, and I did enjoy this in parts but I can only echo the above comments, overall it was a bit of a mess. GG was good again and I enjoyed the performance from Pine, Wig and Pascal but it just didn't come together well.
I also thought some of the CGI was terrible, very TV level as well as WW's awesome theme not being used anywhere near enough. I know it wasn't but this felt like a Netflix straight to streaming level of competence. Decent idea's, poorly executed but still well acted. I was really bored and also cringing in certain parts.
I enjoyed the first WW but I do think the WW1 setting helped escalate it as otherwise there wasn't much new but with that backdrop it came across better (also I sort of think that people in the early 1900's would be more open/accepting of superheros as so much hadn't been discovered then) but it seems odd that everyone is so accepting of things in '84.
6/10 - I find most superhero films very re-watchable but this is one of the least as I know it will be a bit of a slogfest were I to watch it again.