Wonder Woman 1984 Blu-ray Review

The following Blu-ray was provided to my by Warner Brothers for review. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

The DC Cinematic universe has had its share of problems. A lot of them are based on the fact they don’t have much continuity. Others are because they are simply all over the place. One film is made for families, the next is a hard R, there’s no rhyme or reason to the mapping to them. However when Wonder Woman hit in 2017 audience reaction changed. People fell in love with the Patty Jenkins film and critics and fans alike called it DC’s best film to date (I disagree w2ith that). It was a no brainer that a sequel would be coming and people around the world waited. Unfortunately the pandemic hit so we waited a little longer. Then longer again. Then in the smartest move I have seen WB announced that their new releases would stream on HBO Max the day of the theatrical release. It was fantastic. No more waiting till God Knows when to see a film. I mean a few I have been waiting for are almost 2 years delayed at this point. HBO Max garnered tons of new subscribers as Wonder Woman 1984 was going to be the first blockbuster to hit the service.

Wonder Woman 1984 takes place in 1984 of course. Gal Gadot returns as Wonder Woman and Patty Jenkins returns to the directors chair. This time we find Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince working at the Smithsonian where she pines for her lost love Steve Trevor while being envied by a new shy co worker named Barbara Minerva. Wonder Woman comes in hot stopping a robbery at said museum. The bad guys were trying to steal a Dreamstone. It’s a real ugly crystal with a inscription caved into it. Diana and her Barbara are asked to identify the stolen items and they both essential are granted one wish. Barbara wants to be like Diana. Not knowing that Diana is Wonder Woman she is given super powers. Diana wishes that Steve wasn’t dead, so he gets brought back to life in another person’s body.

Now while this is going on an evil businessman named Max Lorenzano manages to steal the stone from Barbara. He wants to absorb its powers so he can grant himself wishes, and he wants to become rich and powerful. He actually has the best plan for the item, and it works. Problem is the stone was made by Dolos, the “Duke of Deception” and every time you use the stone bad things will happen to you. Max begins to grow old, bet he has a plan because he’s the smartest character in this film. He will grant wishes to steal life force from people to get back to normal. Barbara begins transforming in a cheetah human hybrid for some reason, but she keeps the super powers. Wonder Woman is slowly losing her powers however and gets a nice beatdown from Barbara, who is now working with Max in the process. Luckily new Steve tells her to wish him back to being dead so she can regain her powers and save the world.

I wont lie, this film is a mess. Its colorful, which I believe was one of the high marks for the first film, and the acting is good, it’s just not a very exciting film. The set pieces look good, and it has that 80’s vibe that’s so popular these days but the lack of action really hurts it. It has a good opening, middle, and end, but with close to a 2 hour and 30 minute runtime there is just to much dead time in between. Kristen Wiig is the high point as Cheetah. I would have loved to have seen more of her, or at least been given more insight into her backstory. Gal Godot does a fine job again as Wonder Woman, and the two action sequences the two ladies have against one another are both great. The story of bringing Chris Pine back as Steve Trevor was flat in my opinion. I see from a storytelling standpoint why it was done, it just didn’t work for me, and that could be because I was an avid reader of the original run of comics.

If you didn’t not go to the few theaters that are open, and you missed its run on HBO Max you now have a chance to pick it up on Blu-ray from Warner Brothers. I watched it streaming, and again on Blu-ray and I must say this Blu-ray is gorgeous. The film may lack action, but its visuals are outstanding. This is a true comic book film. The special effects are mind blowing. Everything comes to life in terms of the picture and the sound. You can hear Wonder Woman’s Lasso whipping around in your surround sound. This is a visually stunning film, that makes for an amazing disc.

Not as exciting as the first, but die hard fans will enjoy it. Like I said, great acting and effects, just not enough action for the run time. I =f you’re a superhero fans its definitely something to watch, I just found it to be inferior to the first film. Hopefully part 3 which has already been greenlit will pick it back up.

Overall 2.5 out of 5 Stars!​