Patty Jenkins
Wonder Woman 1984

If you start with the idea that the DC Comics character created in the early '40s of the 20th century is a feminist heroine, you're starting off very, very wrong. Wonder Woman is not a feminist, and she has nothing to do with feminism; interpreting this character through a late '70s lens of the last century clouds the mind. The character created by Marston grows in a misandric, violent, and muscular society. This heroine was meant to serve American women engaged at home during World War II to carry on with their lives and that of their country by doing male jobs, she was to be a reference point and an incentive to give more. The first film from 2017 is undoubtedly a beautiful film, far, in its balance between a vaguely historical and comic-book film, from the silly Marvel productions of recent years, good only for the current hyper-cast involved to pocket some money.

In the parallel universe of this second film, we plunge into 1984, the last truly cold year of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR, dominated by talk shows, hedonistic advertising, and Simmons' rolls. Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is a Smithsonian anthropologist engaged in cataloging ancient artifacts of our species with some concessions towards the study of her people's objects, focusing especially on the research of the legendary warrior Astoria, who saved the Amazons from men by sacrificing herself with her golden armor. Deeply alone, destined for an empty eternity, she fights ordinary crimes committed by humans without attracting attention. Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) is a televangelist buried by debts in search of a mysterious gem capable of turning his life around, his frantic search is the obsession of the 'do it yourself' society prevailing in the turbo-capitalism of the '80s. The clash will be inevitable.

The critics did not appreciate this second chapter signed by Patty Jenkins that much; it lacks that veil of muscular feminism that caressed the first chapter. It lacks the epic scene worthy of the advance in the "no man's land" that had so exalted in 2017, it has been written. Here the heroine is guilty of selfishness, she wants her love back, which is not very feminist, desires a normal life, and suffers the consequences of her actions by taking hits, getting beaten, struggling, and showing herself increasingly weaker in the confrontation against the obsessive desires for strength and beauty of her colleague Barbara (Kristen Wiig). The film flows quite well, in the original language obviously with the seductive voice of Gal Gadot; some have perceived plot holes, where it is not known as everything is quite clear in the scenes and dialogues, but some subjects undoubtedly lack the ability to focus on the details of a film between one text message and another. The opening sequence is definitely successful, very spectacular and with an obvious recourse to special effects (as if that were a flaw in these films), the "romantic" flight sequence on the F 111 bomber is very beautiful and visually poetic. The antagonists, sufficient's Wiig but decidedly better Pascal, who, in his Max Lord, puts a mix between the brash Trump of that decade and the tragic protagonist of "The Network," a cross between a TV evangelist and a used car salesman on cable TV, tragically started on the path to the most destructive madness. There's the ending with the moral, light and right. After all, it is still a fantastic story of good feelings.