Lessons of Joy, Hope, and Love: The Gift of Wonder Woman 1984

This month marks the 80^th Anniversary of Wonder Woman!!!  I didn’t read her comics as a kid but Diana of Themyscria is a character who’s come to mean very much to me.  As Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman (2017) was my gateway to Diana and her world, it felt apropos to mark this occasion by (finally) posting the piece I wrote after seeing Wonder Woman 1984.  I LOVE the movies.  Since I got my driver’s license, rarely more than a week went by in between trips to the theatre.  However, after a 10:05 pm showing of Brahms: The Boy 2 on 7 March 2020, lockdown hit.  So when I saw Wonder Woman 1984, it’d been over TEN MONTHS since I’d went to the movies.  I wanted my return to be special and WW84 was the logical choice.  I wasn’t disappointed!  Wonder Woman 1984 was a worthy successor to the masterpiece that was Wonder Woman.  Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot did it again!  They captured lightning in a bottle twice…at least as far as I was concerned.  I was stunned when I began talking to friends – close friends who often share my opinion of films – and learned not everyone felt the same.  Some did, but some didn’t.  Granting all art is subjective, I still became curious, wondering what they saw in this film.  Many conversations followed and this piece was born of my side of those conversations.  This is an exploration of all I see in WW84.

Wonder Woman: A Salvific Triumph

Even with the Rotten Tomatoes score, I wasn’t ready for this.  Wonder Woman is a revelation.  We now have a new standard bearer for what a superhero movie can do.  There are no spoilers here, obviously.  The movie just came out last night!  Everyone needs to see this and experience for themselves just how inspiring a comic book movie can be.  Marvel, and the world, need take notice too.  DC’s cinematic comic book universe has arrived and Wonder Woman is their flagship hero, carrying both the DCEU forward and the possible potential for all comic book movies.  Finding what I did in watching Wonder Woman was the most incredible surprise.  And you deserve that surprise too!  So I’m not talking spoilers but I will speak of the film thematically and speak to how it managed to move me so profoundly.

Wonder Woman…YOU’VE GOT THIS!!!

Okay, I shouldn’t be writing right now.  I should be going to bed.  Tomorrow night’s Baccalaureate and Thursday night’s graduation.  And my homeroom kids are graduating!!  Aaaahhh!!  I’ve had these kids for four years and I’m an emotional and nostalgic mess.  I should be in bed.  BUT I just read that Wonder Woman is currently sitting at a superhero-movie-record-setting 97% on Rotten Tomatoes!!!  To give context, the best the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done on Rotten Tomatoes is Iron Man at 94%, The Avengers at 92%, Guardians Of The Galaxy at 91%, and Captain America: Civil War at 90%.  (And nothing the DCEU’s offered has rated “Fresh” so far.)  Now, I make no attempt to hide that I’m a Marvel guy through and through.  I also can’t say I’ve been a huge fan of what the DCEU’s offered so far.  But I want Wonder Woman to hold this place and take this title.  DC deserves this.