‘Wonder Woman 1984’: Early Reactions Are Positive

The massive success "Wonder Woman" had two summers ago must have given director Patty Jenkins a sweet feeling of revenge on the industry, after they shunned her for 13 years following her 2004 Oscar-winner “Monster”. The WB-produced superhero movie turned out to be the second highest-grossing title of 2017 and was met with rave reviews. Now, a sequel, titled “Wonder Woman 1984” is about to be released on Christmas, with Jenkins and star Gal Gadot returning for more pesos.

First reactions to “Wonder Woman 1984” are good, but, be warned, they do come from “critics” who have a tendency of harping glowing praise towards just about any new superhero movie that falls on their laps. Most especially, a certain Erik Davis — the go-to guy for big studio machinery to get word-of-mouth rolling for their next big tentpole. He, obviously, dug the hell out of “Wonder Woman 1984.”

You also have movie geek site Joblo.com praising WW84, “calling it a joyful, thrilling and engaging sequel.” Meanwhile Gizmodo reporter Germain Lussier is calling the film “hugely ambitious, incredibly exciting, and full of much needed hope.” There are other fanboys, and girls, with their uber-positive reactions and those include Nerdist’s Amy Ratcliffe, ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis and IGN’s Terri Schwartz.

I thought the first “Wonder Woman” was, mostly, fine. Gadot and Chris Pine’s scenes were solid, but, given the fact that this was a DCEU movie, there wasn’t much risk involved in the storytelling. Robin Wright‘s Antiope was unfathomable, ditto Connie Nielsen‘s Hippolyta. Danny Huston‘s Erich Ludendorff and David Thewlis’ were underwhelming as well. However, this sequel’s trailer had eye-popping colors and somewhat sold me to the idea of a second movie — ditto its meta-humor and ’80s setting.