Mr. Movie: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ just doesn’t cut it
Wonder Woman 1984
Gal Gadot is again cast as Wonder Woman and does battle with super salesman and mega-huckster, Maxwell Lord. He wants to be the biggest oil baron on the planet and is willing to do anything to get there.
The movie picks up where 2017’s “Wonder Woman” left off. Diana still misses Steve Trevor who died over 60-years earlier in World War I. He died helping save humanity from the god, Ares.
Diana works at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and is an expert in ancient artifacts. A few artifacts from a robbery are given Barbara Minerva who is one of her associates. One of them has the power grant wishes. Lord knows about it and has been tracking the artifact.
He’s a real charmer, mesmerizes Minerva and steals the artifact. Before that happens, the lady — not knowing the power of the artifact — wishes she’d be more like Diana and gains super powers. Also not knowing how the artifact works, Diana wishes Steve hadn’t died. He comes back from the dead.
After stealing the thing, Lord uses it for his own selfish desires.
The lesson of being careful what you wish for cleverly comes home to roost for him and for the rest of humanity. For some — like me — it’s also a lesson in why comic book character movies just don’t work.
I say that with a lot of regret. At age 10 I fell in love with comic books. That love affair lasted until I was about 13. Even today I remember the comics fondly. I was 12 or so when the popularity of Marvel comics exploded. Marvel’s characters — especially Spider-man — were a lot more fun than Superman, Batman and the DC Comics heroes.
They still are but I’m not now — nor have I ever been — fond of movies about comic book heroes.
When I was a kid movies and TV shows just didn’t work. TV’s Superman, George Reeves was too flabby to be believable and into the 1970s the special effects to make them super just didn’t make the grade. Case in point? The Adam West and Burt Ward TV series “Batman” was embarrassingly bad.
Even flicks like the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeves sucked. Better effects. Horrible plots. Some of the Batman flicks have been pretty good but mostly because of the acting of villains done by Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and other actors.
However, and overall, the DC movies have been a bust.
More success and better movies came to us via Marvel. They would have been a lot better if they were shorter. Marvel’s producers tend to take plots that would be brilliant at 90-minutes and overcook them. Instead of a quick and fun hour and a half, the movies are a posterior killing 2:30 or more.
The first, and now the second, “Wonder Woman” offerings haven’t been bad. However, they — like their superhero cousin movies — suffer from padding.
Gadot goes all out to sell the character. She has looks matching TV Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter but looks aren’t everything. Gadot is not a very good actress. She is also hampered by horrible dialogue from the pen of writer/director Patty Jenkins, who also did the first film. Jenkins and her co-writers developed a potentially fun story and, other than the early 1980s spoofing, disappointingly fail to put clever and snappy dialogue into the script.
Chris Pine reprises his role as Trevor. He’s always been pretty good at comedy and plays being mesmerized by 1984 with tongue properly inserted in cheek. Also having a blast is “The Mandalorian’s,” Pedro Pascal as Lord. He’s totally over-the-top and, other than Pine in his early scenes, is the only character in the film who seems to be having fun.
Kristen Wiig’s (“Bridesmaids”) comedy skills are also wasted.
After you get past the what will from now on be an obligatory Themyscira scenes where we see Diana the child learning some sort of lifelong lesson, the first half of “Wonder Woman 1984” is lots of fun. This is especially true of scenes where Trevor discovers 1984 and the modern technology of the times. Lots of laughs there.
They make it worth sitting through the iffy second act and the totally boring third.
▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes, some violence and language. It can be seen in some theaters and can be seen view on demand (VOD) on HBO Max.
▪ Rating: 3 out of 5
News of the World
Tom Hanks is Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd. Set in the late 1800s after the Civil War, Kidd’s profession is reading news from newspapers to the citizens of towns in Texas. It costs each person a dime to attend the reading.
On his travels, Kidd finds a wagon, a dead man hanging from a tree and a frightened young girl. She was kidnapped by the Kiowa a few years before. He finds papers stating she is to be taken to her aunt and uncle in another part of the state.
Kidd can’t leave her there so he takes her to U.S. soldiers helping to settle Texas. They won’t do anything so Kidd decides to do the job himself and get the girl to her relatives. Along the way they encounter a trio of bad guys wanting the girl and other dangers.
Plus, Kidd deals with the reason he’s no longer with his wife and family.
Hanks is always — for lack of a better adjective — Hanks. All of the adventure revolves around the importance of getting accurate news and information to people who rarely hear of anything outside of their small circles. The captain’s sense of right, wrong and justice and the importance of saving the girl drives the story.
It’s another perfect role for Hanks. No actor working today does the extraordinary ordinary man better. In fact, the only rival Hanks has for being the all time best extraordinarily ordinary actor is 1940s through 1970s star, Jimmy Stewart.
The real scene stealer in “News of the World” is newcomer Helena Zengel. She has very few lines but her body language, facial expressions and beautiful blue eyes speak volumes. The chemistry between the girl and Hanks is exceptional. It also helps drive the movie.
Hanks rarely fails to find interesting projects and deep, rich, three-dimensional characters. “News of the World” reunites him with his “Captain Phillips” director, and the movie’s co-writer, Paul Greengrass.
He also works overtime to give authenticity to the story. Greengrass brilliantly engineers sets and scenes that put you into the late 1800s and gives you an authentic view of the chaos of the post-Civil War times.
▪ Rated PG-13 for some violence and mature themes. It can be seen on Netflix.
▪ Rating: 4 out of 5
The Midnight Sky
Looking at George Clooney in “The Midnight Sky” is going to shock you. Though he often does pretty intense roles, we all know Clooney as handsome, suave and mostly in control.
Gray with a very heavy beard, Clooney is nearly unrecognizable in this semi-interesting science fiction thriller. The semi-interesting comes from an end-of-the-world story that has been better done other places. What saves the film is a pretty good performance from Clooney and his directing.
Clooney’s sets, setting and use of special effects sell this thriller.
Set in the very near future, the movie says global warming finally catches up with the planet. Clooney’s Augustine is a scientist stationed at the North Pole and desperate to contact a space team who were sent to a newly discovered moon that orbits Jupiter. It’s perfect for human life.
Augustine works overtime to contact the spaceship’s crew to warn them not to return to Earth. His desperation is set in the movie’s backstory. Adding to the man’s mystery is a little girl who accidentally gets left behind when the pole’s station is evacuated.
She’s done by newcomer, Caoilinn Springall. The girl has no lines but through some good coaching from Clooney the director, she manages to speak volumes with her eyes. How the girl — Iris — figures into the story is one of the mysteries Clooney and his writers explore.
The space team’s story isn’t quite as interesting but is necessary for the predictable, easy-to-see twist at the end of the movie. It is the special effects that push their story. They work quite well and make Clooney’s movie more interesting.
Like most directors, the temptation to overuse special effects is irresistible. While they’re very good, they end up padding the movie and dragging out the story.
“The Midnight Sky” is based on Lilly Brooks-Dalton’s sci-fi novel, “Good Morning, Midnight.” The key word is based. Screenwriter Mark L. Smith’s (“The Revenant”) screenplay leaves a lot to be desired and, though I haven’t read the book, it appears that he changes things around quite a bit.
Are they for the better? Probably not.
▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes, some violence and language. It can be seen on Netflix.
▪ Rating: 3 out of 5
This story was originally published December 27, 2020 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ just doesn’t cut it."