After a long day of opening presents and eating Christmas dinner with my family, I was excited to watch Wonder Woman:1984 the day of its release, Dec. 25, especially after months of the date being pushed back. I had high expectations for the film since it had big shoes to fill after the smashing success of Wonder Woman in 2018. After sitting through the two and a half-hour film, I came to the same conclusion as most others: that it kind of sucked. 

The main plot of the film revolves around a wishing stone, which main antagonist Max Lord, portrayed by Pedro Pascal, uses to wish himself into becoming the stone. This allowed him to grant wishes for his own benefit and others. Saying the exact powers of the wishing stone are confusing would be an understatement. For example, in the final act of the film, Max uses his power to allow people all around the world to make wishes by broadcasting himself because, now bear with me, the particles in TV’s touch people, which touch Max, which allow them to make wishes through the screen. While somethings just can’t be explained when it comes to fiction, this seemed like a downright reach. After all this, we are all expected to believe that the entire world just renounced their wish at the end of the film? Yet another reach. 

One of the things I was interested to see in the film was how the writers would bring back Chris Pine as the loveable and dead pilot, Steve Trevor. They do this using the increasingly puzzling wishing stone, which is used by Wonder Woman herself, Diana Prince, portrayed by Gal Gadot, to bring back her ex-lover. When we meet Steve, he is in the body of another man, waking up in that man’s apartment, and seemingly replacing that man from existence. If you think about it, that man has essentially been killed, being ripped out of his life with no consent. This raises tons of questions the movie doesn’t bother to answer. It felt like a feeble attempt to bring back the character, one that did not have much thought put into it, which was disappointing. 

Part of what made the first film so great was all the action, which is almost a requirement for a superhero movie. While the movie did have its moments, fight sequences and fast-paced moments, they were lackluster and missing suspense. The competition between the Amazons at the beginning of the film was action-packed and entertaining while also introducing the theme of lies and cheating, a theme seen throughout the rest of the film. It just might have been my favorite scene, leaving the rest of the movie in a downhill spiral from there. However, including this opening scene, the movie only has 5 total fight scenes, with two happening in the first 15 minutes. For an action film, I expected more. 

The movie did have some redeeming qualities. I never felt like the movie was slow or boring, and the cast put on amazing performances. If a third Wonder Woman film does get made, there is no doubt that I will tune in to see what happens next.