WONDER WOMAN 1984

★★★

Like so many movies and TV shows before it, “Wonder Woman” has discovered the secret recipe for fun: Just set it in the ’ 80s.

The first film took place during the happiest time in human history:

World War I. A tormented Wonder Woman took to the trenches and endured a solid hour of smoke and soot.

Squint and you could maybe spot a character.

“Wonder Woman 1984,” by contrast, is visually dazzling with kaleidoscopic color and buoyant action sequences. The plot, thank Ares, is no longer so selfserious, even if it is a bit knotty.

Amazonian Princess Diana (Gal Gadot), who does not age, still looks catwalk-ready in her new life as a Smithsonian scientist in 1984 Washington, DC. She studies rare antiquities there, and is taken aback when an ancient wishing stone with a Latin inscription shows up.

Not realizing the extent of the object’s destructive power, she casually wishes that her dead boyfriend Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) would come back to life. He does! Her demure coworker Barbara (Kristen Wiig) asks the stone if she could become more beautiful and confident like Diana.

Then a sleazeball named Max Lord (Pedro Pascal) gets his hands on the rock. He’s a failed businessman who’s attempting to get rich quick. He wishes to become the wishing stone itself, thus turning him into a maniacal genie.

After Barbara makes her wish, she morphs into Cheetah, a super ally of Diana’s who later chooses villainy. It’s some of Wiig’s best film acting since “Bridesmaids.”

The finest moment of “Wonder Woman 1984” sees Diana discover a new superpower. Gadot’s vulnerable face and the graceful movement of the camera around her as Hans Zimmer’s thunderous score crescendoes is powerful.

Running time: 151 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sequences of action and violence). On HBO Max Friday.

— Johnny Oleksinski