After being delayed multiple times, Wonder Woman 1984 was finally released last week and has proven to be much more divisive than most people were expecting. The first movie is regarded as arguably the high point of the entire DCEU, but the general consensus seems to be that the wheels have started to come off a little bit.
There’s plenty to enjoy about Diana Prince’s second solo outing, but the lengthy runtime sees it frequently border on overindulgence, while there are some gaping plot holes you easily could fly an invisible jet through. Director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot have clearly opted to make the most hopeful and optimistic $200 million blockbuster that they could, but based on the middling reception from critics and fans, the duo have apparently failed to stick the landing.
Wonder Woman‘s signature set piece saw the title heroine storm through a World War I battlefield, and while Diana does get to suit up in the Golden Eagle armor for the climactic third act showdown against Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah, the sword and shield that had previously served her so well in battle were nowhere to be found, and in a recent interview, Gadot explained the reasons behind the deliberate creative decision.
“This is part of the reason to why we decided that she shouldn’t have a sword or a shield. Diana is not aggressive. She’s not there to fight. She’s a peacemaker. Also, she has the higher understanding that people are not bad, per se. We’re all the same. We all have our moments when we don’t do the right thing in order to fill this hole. So she assumes the best out of people, and so her default is always to protect them. She leads by example. So, for her, humankind, they’ll get it. They’ll understand it eventually, but she always will do and give everything she has in order to bring goodness to humankind.”
Gadot and Jenkins may have opted for non-violent resolutions to the central conflicts in Wonder Woman 1984, and the director even revealed that not a single person dies on or off the screen throughout the entire movie, but Diana clearly had no issues with Steve Trevor taking over the body of a completely innocent man who was presumably banished to some realm of purgatory for several days as the story unfolded, which is pretty selfish behavior for a so-called hero.