At Least ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Fixed the First Movie’s Worst Problem
Wonder Woman 1984 is the next installment in the Wonder Woman franchise and the DC Extended Universe. First releasing in December 2020, the movie received mixed reviews. Some critics may have found it to be cliché, and others deemed it to be the 2nd best female superhero film.
One success of Wonder Woman 1984 is it fixed one of the main flaws of the first movie. Specifically, it corrected a couple of problems the original had in its final act. However, the sequel still has issues of its own.
‘Wonder Woman’ had a CGI problem at the end
The first Wonder Woman film came out in 2017 and was directed by Patty Jenkins. It starred Gal Gadot as Diana and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor. The movie received positive reviews and became one of the highest-grossing films of that year.
Critics and the general audience found the performances to be convincing. The superhero movie has a well-written origin story in the beginning, and the main protagonist is compelling. Despite its success, the film does come with some flaws.
Many viewers found that the main problem lies in the third act of the film. In the story, Diana meets humankind for the first time. Instead of a human villain, the plot twist reveals that the main antagonist is the god Ares. Going up against such a powerful character leads to a big fight that used a lot of CGI.
While using computer graphics in a superhero movie is a given, plenty of fans agreed that the last fight looked like a CGI fest. The overuse of special effects can run the risk of looking cheesy. Some may feel the visuals are distracting.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ corrects the first movie’s CGI issue
Since Wonder Woman pitted the hero against a powerful villain, some felt that the final fight undermined the movie’s message. Humans are responsible for the war, but it took Diana defeating Ares with violence to get the soldiers to drop their guns.
Wonder Woman 1984 fixed some of the issues the original had in the latter half of the film. According to Screen Rant, the sequel has one of the main antagonists be a human millionaire with sympathetic motives. Diana mainly uses the Lasso of Hestia to fight.
More importantly, she does not use violence to win. Diana uses the Lasso of Hestia to show people the truth of their wishes. Not only does the execution of the climax support the message of the first film, but it also avoided the CGI issue.
While the third act still used computer graphics, it does not seem like it is overpowering the story. Diana choosing a nonviolent route also seemed refreshing to many fans.
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ still had its own problems
Even though Wonder Woman 1984 improved in certain areas, it still had some flaws. The final fight may not have been a CGI fest, but there were moments where the special effects looked weird to viewers. One example would be Cheetah’s appearance.
A minor villain in the film is an archaeologist who transforms into a humanoid cheetah. Critics were quick to point out how strange-looking the CGI was for the Cheetah’s new form. Several fans compared the visuals to the CGI character models in the film Cats.
Another issue with Wonder Woman 1984 is its running time. The movie takes two and a half hours to watch, which even director Jenkins agreed might be too long. She admitted that the studio gave her plenty of freedom and had only cut a single scene from the final product.
Currently, Jenkins is signed on to direct Wonder Woman 3. Fans will have to see if the third film in the franchise will improve from Wonder Woman 1984. Those who want to watch the sequel can stream it on HBO.
