exactly like other girls + ww84
Strange Fixations, Vol. 13 — when will they let Wonder Woman be great?
Hello friends!
Happy New Year! Goodbye to 2020, and thank fucking God. Even though we’re still fully in the middle of this whole pandemic situation, I hope you find a moment to breathe, relax, and enjoy the potential and promise of the new year.
But for now, let’s get nice and comfortable and wallow in the past, shall we? Specifically, 1984. Wonder Woman, 1984. Released on Christmas Day on HBO Max and in theatres, “WW84” follows the continuing story of Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman. An immortal demigoddess, Diana has outlived all her friends (including her lover Steve Trevor) from the previous film, and finds herself dealing with loneliness when a new threat to the world emerges. I have a lot of feelings about this movie so this week’s post is basically going to be a breakdown of why I continue to be disappointed with the stories the DCEU gives to Wonder Woman, and it will probably include some spoilers. Ye have been warned.
So, listen. I didn’t like the first Wonder Woman. When I first saw it, I thought it was basically “ Captain America: The First Avenger, but with a girl this time.” The World War setting, the fish-out-of-water story, the “band of brothers” that join together to help the lead carry out their plan, even the way the film looked just felt like a retread of what Marvel had done six years prior, and the things that were different… were bad. Gal Gadot was okay in the role, mostly shining in the moments where Diana is amazed and delighted by the new world she finds herself in. She’s competent in action sequences, but is often failed by special effects that have a tendency to show their cracks. Ultimately, I felt like the movie went out of its way to make Diana mundane and relatable even as it tried to thrill by showcasing her super abilities.
Unfortunately, despite Diana having decades to grow and adapt, she still suffers from the same simplistic characterization. I can understand mourning Steve Trevor. He was the love of her life! Her connection with him helped her to become more human! But apparently this one relationship and the idea that she will “never love again” is all she thinks about, the only thing she cares about. Diana is a literal goddess, but in order for her to be a character us normal human women can identify with, we find her at the beginning of the film, stuck in a rut, hung up on a guy. Sigh. Who hasn’t been there, amirite ladies? I find the implication that Diana can’t move on from this grief in a healthy way ridiculous. She really hasn’t made any other friends in all this time? She has no other interests? Her amazing crimefighting and super cool curator job that allows her to share her knowledge and passion with others really gives her no satisfaction or joy? All these ideas feel even more pointed in the setting of the 80s, when women were entering the workforce en masse and the question of “can you really have it all?” was a hot topic. When the opportunity arises for Diana to make a wish on a mysterious stone, bringing Steve back is the first thing she thinks of.
That mysterious stone is the Dreamstone, coveted by flashy businessman Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) and examined by the museum’s new gemologist, Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig). The stone… is what it is, but Pascal and Wiig do a great job, with Pascal bringing the strongest performance by far in his portrayal of Max Lord. His sympathetic villian introduction-the moment we learn why he will go to any lengths to realize his dreams-is one of the best I’ve ever seen in a superhero flick. Watching his desperation to succeed and prove himself worthy and important in the eyes of his son, I was completely on board. I get it, Max! You’re right, let’s do this thing! As he desires more and more power and begins to lose sight of the man he once was, I found myself more invested in his journey than whatever was happening with Wonder Woman and her boy toy. Which sucks because it’s her movie!
The situation with Steve Trevor takes on an especially bizarre angle because when Steve is brought back to life by the power of the Dreamstone, he doesn’t come back as Zombie Steve. No, his consciousness simply takes over the body of an existing random man. We see him as this man for the first few minutes, and then we only see Steve, as Diana does. This is fucking creepy! The movie implies that the man has no awareness of what is happening. His consciousness has been entirely eclipsed by Steve’s. When Diana sees the man later, as himself in his own body, they share a moment together that is meant to be cute and provide closure, but it only reminds us that Diana has boned down with this man’s body while he doesn’t even know who she is. Weird! Creepy! Flirting with non-consensual bodily autonomy shit! When other people’s wishes seem to come true out of thin air, why did this particular one have to be this way in the script? Why would Wonder Woman do this, with no qualms about the fate of this man, when we’re also supposed to believe she cares deeply about the lives of everyone on Earth?
Which brings me to the main problem with WW84: the writing is simply a mess. Every beat follows long-worn conventions and is telegraphed so far ahead I found myself watching certain moments and wondering when they would pay off later in the film rather than just being along for the ride. Everything is a choice, which constantly forces me to wonder, why this one? The major instigating event of the movie is Max Lord trying to bolster his failing oil company by offering a wish to an Arab sheik, which is for his land to be returned to him and “heathens” to be driven out of it. Why this? Why oil? Given Gal Gadot’s Israeli heritage and very public history with the IDF, even touching Middle Eastern relations in this story feels irresponsible at best and blatantly imperialist at worst. Max Lord’s persona clearly draws on characters like Gordon Gekko and his story would have worked just as well with something like a junk stocks scheme (which also suits the 80s setting) so falling back on racist caricatures just to get a big military caravan fight and see Gal Gadot swoop in to save some poor Arab children feels cheap.
And this-the weak characterization, the lazy plot points-stings all the more because the opening scene appears to introduce a determined and motivated Diana, but none of that character shows up in her older self. Again, we’re left with a Wonder Woman who feels like a minor character in her own feature. Wiig’s Barbara Minerva is presented as an awkward and insecure loser, but actually she has more ambition than Diana, more interest in proving herself and making friends. In WW84, the big hurdle that Diana has to overcome is sacrificing her personal wish for the greater good, and inspiring others to do the same. The message is actually no, you can’t have it all. (Again, a choice, one that is clearly aware of its cultural meaning and impact, especially as it relates to women in the workforce, so I again have to ask, why this?) But for my money, the Wonder Woman we all know and love would do such a thing without question, not taking a movie’s whole runtime to accept that she doesn’t have an ordinary life.
The Wonder Woman I know, and have longed to see on screen, would understand that she already has it all. She loved deeply and lost, as many of us do, and isn’t that better than never loving at all? She can hide in plain sight, honoring the memory of her native Themyscira and her Amazon sisters with a day job that excites and enriches the people around her. She learned much about life, love, and humanity from Steve Trevor and remembers those lessons always, carrying his memory and spirit with her. She is strong, beautiful, smart, kind, and beloved by all for her wisdom and courage. Barbara Minerva understandably looks at Diana with awe, wishing she could be more like her. Fans of Wonder Woman appreciate that she can be more diplomatic and delicate than her Justice League counterparts, but her main appeal is that she is larger than life and kicks ass! Unfortunately, the Wonder Woman movies seem to think that audiences won’t accept a Diana unburdened by human limitations and weaknesses, that we need to see her as relatable and “just like us” to be a truly inspirational hero. So, I’m left to wait and hope for the day when Wonder Woman will finally get to be… wondrous.
Originally published January 2nd, 2021 at https://elyse.substack.com.
