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Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Terribly Disappointing to Watch
The movie is just bad from the very opening scene itself. In the prequel, it was made adequately clear that Diana was never allowed to receive any formal warrior training as a child, and even though Antiope trained her in secret, the Queen was never made aware of it until Diana was a young-adult. The Queen was especially protective of Diana and was strictly against her participation in any kind of martial sports. Yet, in WW84, the movie opens with the Queen proudly watching child Diana compete in a vicious Olympic match with Amazonians far older than her. It just feels distasteful, to say the least.
And that's just the beginning. The movie is completely pointless, devoid of all logic or even philosophy. So the FBI asks a newbie scientist at the Smithsonian to help them with an investigation into the origins of a stone. The scientist, Barbara Minerva, has full access to the stone and does whatever the hell she wants with it without any oversight from FBI. She even goes on to sell off the stone to some random televangelist and literally no one bats an eye. No one from the FBi ever asks anything more about where the hell the stone went. Nothing. So, yeah the stone grants wishes. How original! There's a scene from a 1994 episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S where Rachel mocks Chandler for saying "if I were omnipotent for a day, I'd make myself omnipotent forever" pointing out what a cliche that is. Again, that was in 1994. And exactly that is Patty Jenkins' big fat idea for a 2020 movie!!
Diana's character has no consistency whatsoever from the last movie. This demi-goddess who was beyond human emotions of lust and attachment is now seen to be still pining after Steve Trevor. So much so that she wishes for him to be back to life, and even after she finds out his presence is a lie, a delusion, she goes on with it. This moral ambiguity, even if temporary, makes no sense given the fact that Wonder Woman was created by Zeus to protect and defend truth and morality. The entire philosophical premise of the franchise was just thrown out to the trash to make this plot that has no point to make. And the disgusting implications of these scenes on sexual consent and male sexual assault are irrefutable. The movie deliberately denigrates the disposition of Wonder Woman's identity, I don't know why. It was just grossly offensive to the character itself.
Barbara's story arc makes no sense. She is exceptionally qualified in her work but still, no one knows her, apparently - not even the woman who interviewed her a week ago. Why? Because she doesn't wear heels. That's literally all that's wrong with her, as seen in the movie. So, she wants to be strong, sexy and she goes on to wish to basically fit into society's expectation of a woman. Wow how feminist! Somehow she likes Maxwell, no one knows why. A smart highly-qualified woman likes a dumb guy who's just famous for his face - makes sense! Somehow Maxwell, a failed businessman, knew everything about the stone and even the fact that Barbara has it. The claimed "modeling" of Maxwell Lord on Donald Trump is so superficial and distasteful it's very offensive. Meanwhile, the FBI has clearly forgotten all about the stone and so they don't care when Barbara just sells it off. Maxwell literally abuses her to get the stone. And even after Barbara fully realising her powers, she continues to help Diana to stop Maxwell from abusing the stone. Then, all of a sudden, she is in team Maxwell and all-so-anti-Diana - why? I could repeat the logic as presented in the movie, but since it makes no sense I'd rather not. Barbara wanted to be respected, to be famous. But she is literally okay with this guy that abused her to get all his powers and become famous. Maxwell wishes to become the stone itself, but doesn't turn into a stone (Shocking!) - basically becomes omnipotent. Becomes more and more famous. While Barbara still remains a kinda nobody - at least outside of her own circles. Why wouldn't Barbara be furious at Max for tricking her? Also, she clearly understood the consequences of Max misusing the stone and there's no reason why she would want those consequences. One moment she's motivated to stop him, the next she's on his team. She could have had all that Max has, and given how vengeful she has now become, it would have made so much more sense if Barbara went after Max trying to steal his powers and destroy him. But nope... She gets a second wish and wishes to be Max's pet cat instead. No joke.
For a few minutes amidst all the chaos, Wonder Woman becomes Superman learning to fly. Don't know why!
The main threat in the climax seems to be of a nuclear war, but there's absolutely no reason why either Barbara or Maxwell would want this. In fact, it would be more in their interest to stop the war, which they very easily could. But... Nope... you gotta have your cheesy evil villains that make no sense.
All Wonder Woman had to do was destroy the satellite dish and then kill Max, which should have been a pretty easy task given her powers. But hell nah! She's fighting the cat. Oh and by the way, did you know that granting the wishes causes a hurricane? Yeah, a hurricane so strong that even Wonder Woman can't withstand it. But walls of the dish tower, or the dish itself, that would collapse in a normal category 5 hurricane somehow withstand all that storm. It's only papers flying around. That's enough wind to stop Wonder Woman. Cool!?
To be fair, this ending - with this emphasis on Wonder Woman's super-power of truth over her strength felt endearing, but it just doesn't work with the rest of the story. The entire premise that if everyone in the world were allowed to have one wish, they would all be selfish and wish for destructive things is just so pessimistic and dumb. A lot of people would wish for an end to hunger, poverty, or curing cancer, or world peace, economic growth, and the fact is most wishes would contradict each other. This is the greatest failing of WW84 - a story with the maturity of a 6-year old. There's no depth, no philosophy, no large-scale vision. And so even as Wonder Woman's anti-climax monologue about truth and sacrifice tries to shove a moral down our throats it just chokes and makes us vomit more. I could go on and on and on and on about everything wrong with this terrible garbage of a script, but you get the idea. Gal Gadot shines in her performance. Despite the criticism, I think Kristen Wigg did her absolute best and was excellent. It's not her fault they gave her a character that makes no sense. You can't say "I want to be an apex predator" without sounding a little ridiculous.
The script is just trash. The CGI and technical stuff aren't up to 2020 standards either. Even the hair-&-makeup isn't good in a few scenes. The film feels incredibly cheap. As someone who whole-heartedly loved the Wonder Woman (2017) film, this was just terribly disappointing to watch. This is so bad, it even went back in time to ruin the first film with that opening scene. That in particular is my reason for a 1-star review. While, I would rate Wonder Woman (2017) at least 8-9 stars, WW84 doesn't deserve anything more than 1 - for Gadot and the rest of the cast.
Patty, leave the writing to people who know how to do it, please. You should be deeply, deeply ashamed of ever making this film that literally ruined the best DCEU franchise.
Bhalobashar Shohor: Kolkatar Kobitara (2019)
A Brilliant Take on City Kolkata's Love-Hate Relationship With the Concept of Love itself
Perhaps the most beautiful part of this 41 minute film is that there's absolutely nothing superfluous about any of it. Yet, it leaves a lasting presence in the minds of the viewers. A story that may seem so distant, yet is so very personal. The script is very strong, considering the fact that this is only for a bengali TV movie. The cultural capital of India, Kolkata - a beacon of cultural progress in the country? Or just a collection of families torn apart between the concepts of socially acceptable "culture" and what "progress" is supposed to mean? This is the question that lies central in the theme of the movie.
It is a rather beautiful ode to the LGBT communities and their struggle to live with dignity.
On performances, Ishaa Saha shines bright in an exceptional performance. Other performances are quite good too. If I were to be too critical, I'd have to say Gourab Chatterjee could have done a bit better job (IMHO).
Cons: Parts of the starting scenes may seem a bit unreasonable, but that may depend on personal perspective.
Pros: A riveting ending scene and a very sincere effort to do justice to the fight for love (+1 * just for the effort).