Three years after the release of the first Wonder Woman movie, after multiple theatrical release delays due to the pandemic, DC Comics and director Patty Jenkins are back with a sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, now showing and theaters and streaming on HBO Max.  

The film sees the return of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in her fourth formal appearance in the role so far. Chris Pine, her temporally transposed boyfriend, Steve Trevor, also makes a return in a questionable storyline.

I can’t discuss many plot points without spoiling the film. But suffice to say, if you enjoyed the first movie, go ahead and pretend this one doesn’t exist. I’m willing to bet DC will, too, by the time their next attempt at a big movie comes out.

The movie seems cut together in post at best and isn’t fun, even as a bad movie. It is just generally draining.

The central conceit of the film is that a magic wishing rock has appeared and gives its holder one wish. Sometimes a wish will hurt someone, sometimes it won’t. But ill-defined wishing rules are the least of the problems the movie faces.

Pedro Pascal plays villain Max Lord, who lacks needed character design and development. In the film, Lord, who is nothing like his DC Comics counterpart, is a failing businessman who wants to do right by his son, and he seeks the power of a mysterious wishing rock to do so. While I wouldn’t consider his acting great, Pascal’s effort with a rough script carried my interest for much of the movie. 

While I could complain about the slew of unimaginative fight scenes, shots and strange editing that leads me to believe this is yet another DC movie cut together in post, I find myself just far too disinterested with the movie to bother. The only emotion I felt at the end of the movie was drained—the kind of drained that really only comes from spending over two hours watching a movie—and getting nothing out of it. 

To all my other movie lovers out there, I suggest you save yourself some time and watch the original movie instead.