The Wonder Woman 1984 has done just this, with the movie receiving around the same level of positive reviews the original movie had achieved.
However, there have been several criticisms as well, and these aren’t just one-off issues. These have to do with Wonder Woman 1984 carrying forward mistakes in execution in the DCEU as a whole, which turned out to be repeated this time around. Had these been avoided, the movie could have gone down as a flawless piece of cinema.
Reliance On Superhero Movie Tropes Over Emotional Impact
There were a number of older DCEU mistakes that the film could have learned from, and Wonder Woman 1984 overlooked the point about indulging too much in superhero tropes. This involves cliche stuff like epic entrances and uncovering sudden surges in power.
It takes away from the emotional quality if these moments are highlighted to such great lengths, and it was more in focus in this movie due to Wonder Woman regaining her powers right after Steve chose to sacrifice himself again. Fans were aware of her powers beforehand, so their return didn’t warrant the use of superhero tropes since the emotional punch was still in effect.
The Conflicts Being The Fault Of The Heroes
If one has kept count, they’ll notice that movies like Suicide Squad, Shazam!, and Birds of Prey made its events possible only because the lead characters inadvertently caused the conflict to begin, essentially making their arc an attempt to fix their mistake.
Wonder Woman 1984 brought this aspect as Diana’s wish with the Dreamstone to bring Steve back set everything in motion. Wonder Woman has already made a few blunders in her time, and using her mistake to blow things out to the heights it reached in this story was unneeded since it placed the burden of undue responsibility on her.
Presenting An Unconvincing Sympathetic Factor For The Villains
Mainstream fans were introduced to Maxwell Lord in this movie, someone comic book fans are well aware of. The DCEU has brought plenty of sympathetic qualities in its villains to unfavorable results, such as Joker, Sivana, and all of the Suicide Squad. The problem is that there’s no real balance here, giving fewer reasons to fully invest in them.
The same was the case for Maxwell Lord, who was given a level of sympathy in regards to his son. Lord had showcased his despicable nature throughout the film, only to have a change of heart. This doesn’t bode well for his staying power as a villain, and he doesn’t come across as a good guy either.
A Story With A Foregone Conclusion
The first movie was an instant hit, but among the few shortcomings was how predictable the story was. Wonder Woman 1984 continued this problem as none of the events have a bearing on the larger story of the DCEU.
There were no surprises like Steve remaining alive, or Wonder Woman using her experiences here in the future. In its place, everything is basically the same as when Wonder Woman showed up in Batman v Superman. There were no liberties taken with the plot, which is a shame since it means the movie can be skipped for those who want to see long-lasting impacts.
A Lame Way To Make The Superhero Weak
This has happened plenty of times in the DCEU, including how Superman was beaten by Batman with a Kryptonite spear, Steppenwolf being totally vulnerable around Superman, and Shazam turning his family into superheroes. All this comes out of nowhere and doesn’t feel justified.
It was felt here too, as Wonder Woman was too strong for Maxwell Lord and Cheetah on paper, so the film felt the need to drain her powers with the Dreamstone. Rather than build up the villains’ powers, the decision to make Wonder Woman weak wasn’t a worthy route to take since it felt rather lazy in execution.
ing Characters Not Fully Utilized
A mistake the DCEU continues to make is to waste the potential of characters that aren’t strictly villains or protagonists. This was seen in Wonder Woman, where the Amazons were introduced but not utilized in any real way.
The same was felt in the sequel, as Wonder Woman’s mother and aunt only had a role to play in flashbacks. Only the four protagonists and antagonists had any real contribution, while the ing characters were relegated to bit appearances when they could have been used better.
Making The Promoted Villain The Secondary Antagonist Of The Story
This mistake has the effect of undermining viewers’ expectations, since delivering a different antagonist from the promised one is a bit of a cop-out. It was seen earlier in Suicide Squad and Dawn of Justice, where Joker and Lex Luthor were replaced by Enchantress and Doomsday, respectively.
Comic books fans will be aware that the Cheetah is the archenemy of Wonder Woman. This wasn’t reflected in Wonder Woman 1984, though, where they had a friendly connection before Cheetah became a baddie and her transformation was delayed till the end. Even then, Maxwell Lord was the true antagonist, which goes against all the hype that was created for Cheetah in promotional material.
Inconsistency With Chronology
A glaring issue with the Wonder Woman films has been the difference in characterization with how she was in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It mainly has to do with the inconsistency with chronology, as Wonder Woman had character development in her solo films that weren’t felt in other ones.
Wonder Woman 1984 has made this even worse, seeing as it’s now confirmed that she had an entire adventure with Steve and had closure over his death this time. However, she was still despondent over him in Justice League, which doesn’t align with the events of this movie.
Making Characters Rely Too Much On Love
The selling point of the Wonder Woman movies has been her romance with Steve Trevor. However, the DCEU has made the mistake of making almost all the main characters steer too much into their love interests, at the cost of damaging their independence.
Where there's Superman, he’s pining for Lois Lane. The same was the case for Harley Quinn and the Joker, along with Tom Curry and Atlanna. This kind of extreme codependency isn’t very endearing in the long-run, but Wonder Woman 1984 dived hard into this aspect and the main couple now seems too embroiled in their starcrossed lovers' aspect.
Using A Previously Unknown MacGuffin To Drive The Story
It’s strange how Wonder Woman 1984 didn’t learn from Justice League’s mistake of placing a MacGuffin as the central plot device, seeing as the Mother boxes angle significantly hurt storytelling due to its sudden interjection as an important feature.
The Dreamstone turned out to be the driving force of the plot in this movie, which wasn’t as bad as Justice League but still made the story too dependant on it. Since the Dreamstone has no bearing on future films, its dominance of this movie makes it a one-time thing that causes Wonder Woman 1984 to have a thinly veiled plot.
