Wonder Woman 1984 released on December 25, 2020, and has met with a set of mixed reviews. As the movie still continues to be perceived by the audience, easter eggs and explanations about some of the major moves are still being put out. Warner Bros. released the movie in theatres, and on HBO Max for streaming. This comes in with the fact that Wonder Woman 1984 was supposed to be released in 2019, and with the fear of it going stale, they released the movie on Christmas 2020. Even after the mixed reviews, the film has surpassed both Tenet and The Croods: A New Age to become the current box office leader during the pandemic.
People have enjoyed Wonder Woman 1984 as an ideal antidote for 2020, as it conveys the message of love and hope, which is in line with Wonder Woman’s core beliefs and values. In contrast to the original Wonder Woman, which ended with a massive battle against Ares, Wonder Woman 1984 sees Diana save the world by appealing to the best of humanity through compassion and understanding, giving everyone a chance at redemption. While the film still has plenty of action, it was an intentional choice to downplay the violence, as notably, no characters die.
In an interview with JoBlo, Jenkins and Gadot wanted to make a film that didn’t prioritize superhero violence, stating how it was a purposeful choice not to have any characters actually die during the film:
Gadot: “This is part of the reason 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. She also has the higher understanding that people are not bad per se, you know? Continuation to what Patty just mentioned, we’re all the same, we all have our moments where we don’t do the right thing in order to fill this hole. She assumes the best out of people, and her default is always to protect them and she leads by example. For her, humankind, they’ll get it, they’ll understand it eventually, but she will always do and give whatever she has in order to bring goodness to humankind.”
Jenkins: “And not one person dies in the whole movie. You may or may not notice, but we went out of our way, because if all these people were under the power of something else, then it’s not their fault. I loved dealing with that. It’s not their fault that they’re attacking you, so it became hilariously entertaining…”
It becomes evident quite early on in the blockbuster that nobody was going to die in this film when Wonder Woman stops a jewelry store heist, throwing the thieves around and around inside the mall with her Lasso of Truth, constantly catching them before they smack into something. But killing some thieves might seem cruel to do, especially so early on in the film, so the filmmakers double down on this idea when Diana’s chasing after the main villain, Max Lord. Lord has insulated himself with soldiers and even though they attempt to shoot and crush Diana, she stops their vehicles or knocks them out. During one instance, she rips the steering wheel out of an armored vehicle and tells the driver, “The brakes still work.”
By having one of the main characters of the DC Extended Universe not kill anyone for the entirety of the film, it shows how restrained and protective she is, even when placed in her enemy’s crosshairs. Wonder Woman, like most other heroes, is meant to save and protect those who cannot do it themselves, but if she was constantly killing everyone that stood in her way or who decided to do a petty crime, she wouldn’t be much of a defender. Even with the filmmakers making this decision, the action sequences are still well-developed and at times jaw-dropping, never taking away from the content but instead giving them a creative way to show how Diana Price will solve the issue at hand.
After all this, we can say that Wonder Woman 1984, despite having the action, still decided to lean on the softer edge to provide people with an uplifting thought and smoothness. The movie is readily in theatres and for streaming on HBO Max.
It will be a while till Wonder Woman 1984 truly settles with the audience and the world decided if the movie is a hit or not.
