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WW84 is a beginning-to-end condemnation of Trump, with the main character being a failed businessman who takes over and ruins the world by getting everyone to project their mean-spirited wishes onto him, and the critique falls apart by trying to make him sympathetic.
If you turn your head and squint, Kristen Wiig's character, who starts off a wonderful and sympathetic person who Diana admires before losing her capacity for empathy and gradually giving in to ugliness and hatred, is a good metaphor for right-wing radicalization.
Wiig's arc falls flat because as a woman, her arc gets tied up in a lot of historically-misogynist story beats, like this idea that because a woman becomes cool and sexy and powerful that means she must have gone astray from her intended place in society.
Chris Pine's character showing up is understandable - he's hugely charming and gets a lot of the movie's best moments - but he feels weirdly disconnected from the rest of the movie in a lot of ways, never much interacting with any of the other characters.
So here's what I'd do:
So here's what I'd do:
I'd replace Cheetah with a guy character.
I know that's cutting down on Bechdel numbers, so bear with me for a second:
I know that's cutting down on Bechdel numbers, so bear with me for a second:
A lot of Wiig's early story beats kinda follow a courtship. Awkward person meets glamorous person out of their league, glam person recognizes the sweetness of character inside them and takes them out, they're out for hours just talking, it's great.
Now imagine if that had been a guy taking Diana out for the first date she'd been on in decades. Kinda getting her out of her shell, kinda making her think maybe she could have something like that. And then he almost gets mugged, and Diana saves him easily.
He's embarrassed. Saved by a girl.
And then, Steve Trevor shows up. This dude was already insecure, and now this girl's ruggedly-handsome pilot ex-boyfriend shows up, and they've clearly still got feelings for each other.
And then, Steve Trevor shows up. This dude was already insecure, and now this girl's ruggedly-handsome pilot ex-boyfriend shows up, and they've clearly still got feelings for each other.
So he gets ahold of the wishing stone, and instead of wishing to be like Diana, he wishes to be like a weak man's idea of a strong man. A stereotypically manly man, tough and cold and cool and callous.
Wiig attacks a dude who catcalls her and we're supposed to think it's horrifying, but that guy was an attempted rapist and largely deserved what he got.
If it's a guy, suddenly it's a dude beating the shit out of someone because that's what tough guys do to minor slights.
If it's a guy, suddenly it's a dude beating the shit out of someone because that's what tough guys do to minor slights.
A guy villain in that part would be someone who had real qualities of sweetness and sensitivity throwing the best parts of himself away in order to embrace a radicalized version of toxic masculinity and become what society expects of him — a monster.
The problem with Wiig's character as a girl is that she decides not to be what society wants her to be and the movie declares that to be monstrous, they want to squish her back into her meek little cage.
Catwoman in Batman Returns had a similar problem.
Catwoman in Batman Returns had a similar problem.
The difference of course is that Catwoman was treated very sympathetically by Tim Burton, who highlighted all the ways she wasn't that different from Batman, and let her hold on to her humanity throughout. She was a VERY popular Halloween costume that year.
A guy, insecure and jealous, could also spend a lot of the movie specifically targeting Steve Trevor, which could heighten the amount of destruction Diana is wiling to put up with in order to protect one guy who shouldn't even be there.
Of course, what I'd really like to do is just let Kristen Wiig stay where she is in the story and let *her* be the rival love interest for Diana's affections. Diana grew up on Lesbian Warrior Island, of course she'd date a girl. Their early scenes in the movie have real chemistry
But there's like several layers of problematic that would pop up there, like the idea that a woman like Wiig couldn't compete with a real man like Steve Trevor, plus Wiig going all unstable jealous lesbian lover would be very early-90s erotic thriller and not a great look.
You *could* potentially salvage it though, if Diana renouncing her wish for Steve's return wasn't just motivated by her desire to save the world, but also by her acknowledgment that she could move forward again, happy, with Barbara.
Like, if WW and Cheetah's final fight had been resolved by having Diana admit her feelings for Barbara and Barbara renouncing her wish because of that? Maybe?
Also, the "renouncing your wish undoes it" thing is a little weird as a practical matter - what trickster god accepts refunds like that? But works well as a metaphor.
Because it's never too late to renounce hate.
Because it's never too late to renounce hate.
Like, it can be too late to undo the damage you've caused, certainly, but you can never be too far gone to admit you were wrong and try to do better going forward.
Oh also, "The Monkey's Paw" was only published like ten years before WWI, so Steve Trevor is remembering that story as a current pop-cultural reference.
