WHIP IT GOOD
We’re guessing they’re not prepping for a game of Double Dutch…
The purity extends to the filmmaking. Cutting-edge FX aside, this is a blockbuster that might have been made in the decade it’s set in, taking its time to establish story and characters after the one-two punch of those opening action sequences. The palette is warm and the cutting is clean, and the set-pieces, when they do arrive, prove you don’t need post-Michael Bay migraine-inducing edits to whip up huge excitement.
ROPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
Fans of the first Wonder Woman will be delighted to know Gadot once more slides and kicks to (a variation of) her electric cello theme, while her Lasso of Truth gets multiple workouts, all of them giddily inventive. And while scraps featuring Wonder Woman’s arch nemesis The Cheetah let CGI fakery creep in, a chase sequence featuring a humble taxi taking on an armed convoy in the Middle East is sensational. Might it be a tip of the fedora to the truck chase in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, just as that one referenced the jaw-plummeting horse-and-carriage stunts in John Ford’s Stagecoach? One piece of exhilarating choreography would suggest yes.
Also pleasing are the fish-out-ofwater moments. It’s no spoiler to say that Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) returns from the first movie (just how, you’ll have to see for yourself), and there’s much fun to be had from the WW1 aviator fixing his sky-blue peepers on aerobics sessions, bum bags and modern art. Viewers’ eyes will likewise widen at a couple of scenes of pure, well, wonderment – something Spielberg excelled at in the ’70s and ’80s, but neglected by most blockbusters since. Consider all of this and then add in Gadot at such ease in the role, and Jenkins dealing with the everyday harassment of women (male oglers at parties, greetings of “Hey babe” and “Sexy”) with such a loaded lightness of touch, and you have an event movie that really is just that.
Wonder Woman 1984 effortlessly lassos the truth of the here and now, even as people in shell suits walk past gigantic music stores. It’s time to flip the record, it’s saying – time for sacrifice and kindness. Now that’s music to the ears.
‘THIS IS PRETTY MUCH THE BLOCKBUSTER WE NEED RIGHT NOW’