2020 is a year full of devastated nightmares. Some people have lost their jobs, some have lost their relatives, some have lost their self-confidence, and some have lost their ideals. The most hopeless thing is that this terrifying status quo may still exist. It will continue, I don't know how long it will last.
Under this reality, as one of the greatest artistic expressions in human history, the film seems to take on a new responsibility on its shoulders - to use the words and warmth unique to this art to comfort those injured People, regain their confidence for them. So we can see that literary and artistic creators all over the world are working hard for this. One after another "New Crown Special Chapters" are whispering to you from different angles and attitudes: Don't be too sad or disappointed, things will always get better, and a turning point will always come.
In my opinion, "Wonder Woman 1984" also shoulders such a responsibility and burden, and came to everyone.
Get back what a superhero was supposed to be
Since the birth of superheroes in the 1830s, human beings have longed for powerful things, and this symbol itself also symbolizes protection and redemption. At the end of this bleak 2020, we need superheroes even more to help us find the ideal and innocence that we fantasized about going to heaven and saving the world with all heroes. So I must first thank Warners and DC for being able to withstand the pressure of the market and losses during such a difficult time to bring this movie to audiences. This is the only and final superhero movie of 2020, and its successful release means a lot to moviegoers.
The first feeling after watching "Wonder Woman 1984" is comfort and warmth. Different from the "dark" impression that DCEU has left over the years, the overall tone of this film is bright. This bright is not only referring to photography and pictures, but more from the theme and story itself it conveys. Director Patty Jenkins uses her unique female perspective to reconstruct a superhero worldview that is more suitable for 2020-superheroes are no longer bitter, but can go to work and fall in love like ordinary people; villains are no longer Evil can destroy the world at every turn, but has the same desire as the general public; there is no absolute opposition between good and evil in the movie, and the so-called right or wrong is achieved between the characters' thoughts. For this film, superheroes and sci-fi are all shells, and the gorgeous and refreshing fighting scenes are just episodes. Its real core essence is the pursuit of the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature. It is a delicate, sensual, and human emotion. Mainline drama.
Gorgeous and charming 1980s
Different from the war background of the previous work, the story of "Wonder Woman 1984" took place in the vibrant and colorful 1980s, which also established a warm tone for the film.
Personally, I yearn for the 1980s. It is too unique, too charming, and has too much charm that cannot be replicated in this era. In the United States at the time, diverse arts and cultures flourished, and unique fashion and aesthetic styles are still imitated today. Young people who have been away from the war began to pursue ME-ISM (egoism). They advocate individuality and independence, and are willing to spend more time and money to dress themselves up. The smell of hormones is always in the air.
Denim suits, flared trousers, large shoulder pad suits, retro dresses, leather-clad teenagers with punk cockscombs, row upon row of cars and subways... We can see a lot of symbols unique to the 1980s appearing in the movie, and a special background closely related to the movie , and two more important points.
First of all, the climax of the American women's affirmative movement occurred in the 1980s. During this decade, women had more voice in society and a greater desire for social status. And the idealized image of the modern professional woman was also born in the 1980s: delicate makeup, smart suits, slender high heels, all of which have survived since then. In addition, in the 1980s, the United States was still in the period of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. It also encountered a severe oil crisis and inflation, which caused huge economic pressure. In 1982, the unemployment rate hit a historical record after the Great Depression.
The key to the above two backgrounds is that they respectively lead to the formation of the two villains in this film. It can be said that whether it is the basic service design or the main character story setting, the film has maintained a close connection with the background of the 1980s from beginning to end.
The difference of one thought, the difference between light and dark
In the first "Wonder Woman", Diana came to the human world from Paradise Island and experienced three growths.
The first time she just set foot in the human world, she found that she was no longer the pampered princess, but had to rely on her own hands to save mankind. At this time, she still believed in the inherent goodness of human nature. The second time was when she discovered that human beings were killing each other all the time, and she understood that no matter how hard she tried, there was nothing she could do. The third time was that Steve was willing to sacrifice the ego to save the big ego, and let her discover that even in the dark there is light, and that the coexistence of good and evil is the true meaning of the world. She chose to believe in love again, and use love to conquer everything.
When writing the character of Wonder Woman, the screenwriter adopted a common creative technique in Japanese comics-focusing on Diana's inner struggles and character contradictions through a large number of plots, creating one problem after another to promote the growth of the character, such a long-term, progressive The narrative technique of Diana makes the image of Diana more plump and three-dimensional, and also allows the audience to feel more empathy with the person in the mirror.
"Wonder Woman 1984" still continues this creative method, making the characters in the movie real and vivid. It is by no means the kind of popcorn hero movie you imagined from beginning to end, but it spends more than half of the time to forge the plot and shape the characters, and it also tells you through meticulous and believable character transformation: there is no absolute in the world. A good person or a bad person, what kind of person you will become is often the accumulation of 10,000 thoughts.
We can see that at the beginning of the movie, there are no good people or bad people in this world, some are just a group of ordinary office workers. And the heroine is not busy saving the world, Chaoying's job is nothing more than saving robbed children in the store.
But as the plot unfolds, a choice is placed in front of the protagonists. If I could help you make one wish come true, what would you choose?
Everyone's choices are very realistic. They want to revive the lost, become as powerful as those they admire, and have the ability to help others realize their wishes. No one has made a wish such as "I want to make the world a better place" and "I want the world to be destroyed immediately". This also shows from the side that even a superhero as strong as an ordinary person has the same ability as an ordinary person. personal desires.
Then, like friends of the characters, we watch them go their separate ways. She will be sweet because of her long-lost love; she will regret every wrong choice she makes; she will feel embarrassed because he is stepping into the abyss step by step. It can be said that this highly immersive character depiction method finds a balance between traditional superhero films and drama films, and also makes it easier for ordinary audiences to immerse themselves in the situations and events of the film. Therefore, it can be said that this is a superhero movie without any threshold, and you can enjoy it easily without having to read the DC family tree.
Dare to face the truth, everyone can be a superhero
As we mentioned earlier, in the last work Diana experienced a cognitive transformation from "human nature is inherently good" to "coexistence of good and evil". In this work, she once again completed the choice from "small self" to "big self", from "human nature" to "divine nature".
In Wonder Woman 1984, the role of Steve is just as important as it was in its predecessors. He not only worked with Diana to compose a warm and romantic love story, and contributed a lot of laughs to the movie, but also threw Diana the ultimate problem that is more difficult to weigh than "Save me first or your mother when I fall into the water" .
At this time, Diana's thoughts were probably the same as most people - satisfying my own selfish desires should not have much impact on the world, right? It's the same reason that some thieves say "I just stole a pack of biscuits, and the store didn't lose much" when they are questioned. It's true that a person's desires may seem insignificant, but the movie makes the assumption that if everyone in the world could fulfill a desire, what the hell would the world look like? As everyone knows, such a crazy assumption gave birth to the biggest Boss in the film at the end.
That's right, the final Boss of "Wonder Woman 1984" is neither the Leopard Girl nor Lorde, but the human desires that gather in the face of temptation. These desires can be big or small, from wanting to own a country to wanting to own a pistol. In short, all kinds of desires pile up at the end of the film and become a devastating disaster. Previously, "the desire to gather" was just a purely philosophical concept in my mind, and there was no concrete picture. But this time, the director presented this concept with crazy realistic images, which made the whole earth face an unprecedented crisis-because of the imperial power struggle in ancient Egypt and the expansion of politicians' ambitions, the city wall was built from the ground in an instant. Since then, the confrontation between the different camps has become increasingly tense. In addition, all countries have issued a gauntlet against each other, more than a dozen nuclear bombs are ready to go, and they have reached a state of anxiety. People only care about fulfilling their own wishes, big or small, but when the selfishness and desire in the depths of human nature are magnified to the extreme, it is equivalent to sounding the prelude to the destruction of the earth... This absurd and chaotic scene is like A fable, intertwined with the reality of breaking the wall in 2020, performed a surprising drama, which made me have to admire the ambition and imagination of the director.
But even at this time, Diana could not make up her mind to give up her lover. In the end, the words of the female military attache of Paradise Island and Steve woke her up - a lie can't make a hero, and it can't make the world a better place, you must be yourself, embrace reality and truth, and use your own strength and love to go change the world. Here, Steve once again acted as an important signpost responsible for guarding and guiding Diana, allowing Diana to grow and transform again.
After Diana awakens, the film brings us a rather divine climax. Like a living Virgin, she healed every corner of the world with her understanding of the world, her understanding of truth, and her understanding of love. A climax scene of sacredness, warmth and no fighting, this is not only the director's subversion of the form of superhero films, but also the absolute sublimation of the symbol of superheroes, and also makes Wonder Woman, a rare female hero, shining intellectually and gentle golden glow.
At the end of the movie, Diana completely regained her true self and changed back to the simple girl in reality. The Christmas tree behind them shone brightly, and the bustling crowd announced that the world had finally returned to peace. The footage here is once again connected to the real world—Christmas is just around the corner, and we’ll be celebrating New Year’s Eve. For you and me in the world, this year's New Year's Eve has a very different meaning, and many people think it's just a transition from a bad year to a possibly even worse year. But since we, as small individuals, cannot change the status quo of the world, why not just do what Director Jenkins hoped—accept the reality, reject lies, cherish the family love and friendship around us, and try to find a way to find the truth in this broken world Back to everything that is true, good and beautiful. Perhaps only by choosing to believe that "the world will be changed by love and kindness in the end" can we go on stronger and bid farewell to this year better.
After all, the real world may never have Diana, but you still have yourself.
Finally, I would like to thank "Wonder Woman 1984" for being able to appear at the end of 2020 with such a warm and beautiful gesture. It is a very correct choice to bid farewell to 2020 with such a warm superhero blockbuster.
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