Just when you thought that the DC Extended Universe (DC) is done and dusted, it was given a surprising lifeline. The DC TV ventures have always been more successful – from Arrow, to Supergirl and The Flash, they all command a good following. However, it was due to the Crisis on Infinite Earth crossover TV event that the DC and Warner Bros finally had a chance to fix all their messy franchising practices into something that could make sense and be more coherent (though we still do not know whether Warner Bros is going to scrap Joss Whedon’s Justice League canonical status for Zack Snyder’s version). Ezra Miller’s Flash cameo in Grant Gustin’s Flash word at the end of the crossover event allowed multiverse, or multiple versions of the same character to coexist. Thus, the grand plan of bringing Michael Keaton’s Burton-verse Batman into the current timeline with Ben Affleck’s Batman in the Ezra Miller’s Flash movie. So now both DC and Marvel are chasing after the multiverse, would non-comic book background audience get more confused than ever? That yet to be seen.
Then the question would be – where does Wonder Woman 1984 (WW4), a movie made during the verge of DCEU’s death stand?
The story of WW84 moved time forward for almost 70 years. That’s a good move as it can provide a completely different take on Diana Prince’s life after she lost her friends and old comrades through time. This part of her story was dealt with via a series of photo montage in her apartment. Almost 70 years later, Diana is alone and withdrawn. The fact that she still performs occasional lifesaving stints but making sure nobody could see her face showed that she hasn’t given up humanity. But she is lonely and unhappy in life. She became distanced among people around her.
That’s when the story geared up to a number of coincidences that she got to know co-worker Barbara Minerva (played by Kristen Wiig) through a coincidental deposit of the ‘Dreamstone’ from an FBI’s raid of a jewellery shop for artefact trafficking. Because of these chance encounters, her new friendship and her dreams were challenged and thus forcing her to learn how to let go, no matter how hard things seemed to be.
WW84’s story was not very complicated. You know things that happened at the start will be recalled later (maybe we are getting used to superhero movies formulars now), so all I need was to pay attention to what happened throughout at the beginning to get those satisfying ‘aha’ moments later. Nonetheless, there were still moments I found things were cleverly planned, such as the ‘Dreamstone’ being of citrine nature – a stone long being regarded as the Merchant Stone that creates and maintain wealth. When I heard that, I really thought that it was a nice touch – the stone composition was unremarkable but yet it represents so much in the movie as to what it does. Further, the easter eggs for the upcoming Cheetah’s appearance were foreshadowed everywhere with animal prints on different characters throughout the movie. Also, I quite like how certain homage to the comics were being paid in the film in a very subtle way, and not to mention how Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor could come back to life. However, what I respected most was how director Petty Jenkins dealt with the full Cheetah scenes, especially after the CATS debacle last year by some other production companies. The fact that Barbara did not show her full Cheetah form until it was dark and most of the scenes were battle scenes with just enough lighting that you can really manipulate CGI to the fullest was an ingenious move. The only still close scenes were done in a way that you can make things realistic. The close up of the face (that stay so close to the comics!) and the few still scenes that you can get away with point of view shots made this Cheetah so much more believable and fearsome than all the cats together in CATS.
If 2017’s Wonder Woman is Diana’s coming of age WW84 is her real lesson to learn about life and her place in this world – being different. And the only way to live through this is to be truthful to yourself and those around you.
At the end of the day crisis was averted but of course it still left quite a few plot holes, which I suspect (or I could be wrong) were left open-ended for the next movie to deal with. So, if I mention them now, I will be giving out spoilers for those who haven’t seen it.
For me WW84 was not ground breaking, but it was still a more than decent follow up to the first film. It also, to my surprise, helped you understand a bit more about Diana’s view of the world in Justice League, which for me was a nice touch. Also don’t forget to stay for the mid-credit scene or you will miss out something good.
