How Wonder Woman 1984 Should Have Ended
By: Kristen Poli
Tags: Wonder Woman, Movies, Wonder Woman 1984, Opinion, Film

How Wonder Woman 1984 Should Have Ended

In my humble opinion — spoilers for the movie ahead.

Wonder Woman 1984 is the sequel to 2017’s big Wonder Woman hit. Both star Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, and were directed by Patty Jenkins. With how acclaimed the original movie was, the sequel was highly anticipated by many.

The year 2020 happened with a pandemic that ravaged the theater industry and WW84 was released last week both in theaters and on the streaming service HBO Max. My family and I took a chance on the streaming service and were excited to finally watch the sequel the day after Christmas.

And it was good.

Not great, not in the same category as the original Wonder Woman, but I liked it. I’ll watch it again some time.

While the overall story wasn’t my favorite — and the beginning mall scene was a little silly — there were plenty of details I enjoyed.

The invisible jet. Barbara Minerva’s evolution to the Cheetah. Lynda Carter’s cameo.

Robin Wright and Connie Nielson reprising their roles for an enjoyable Amazon flashback. Adorable little Diana played by Lilly Aspell.

Chris Pine returning. Subsequently, Chris Pine’s exit, and the Not-Steve character’s outfit at the end of the movie.

And, of course, the sheer joy and wonder from Diana and Steve as they experience just a little more time together.

However, there seemed to be too many moving parts in WW84. Whereas the original movie was one fluid story — and had arguably better fight choreography — WW84’s plots had more layers. Rather than fighting a physical war, WW84 dealt with emotional wars.

Everyone has a wish, an idea as to how to improve their lives, something that the main villain of the movie Max Lord exploits. They all have one thing that they truly want, with Steve Trevor being Diana’s wish. Yet, all the wishes come with a price and that price took an emotional toll on everyone involved.

Near the end, everyone seems to renounce their original wishes.

Max Lord relinquishes his power for his son.

Diana relinquishes Steve for her abilities back to enable her to help save the world.

Barbara appears to have relinquished her wish to be more like Diana and “an apex predator.” … But it’s not explicitly stated. Rather, the audience sees a de-furred Barbara at the end of the movie and more so infers that she also gave up her wish to return back to her old self.

But here’s how the movie should have ended.

One of the issues with WW84 was that it did not have as much superhero-action as its predecessor. Indeed, the original Wonder Woman shined with scenes such as the battle on Themyscira’s beaches with the Amazons and No Man’s Land where Diana comes into her own.

WW84 dealt with Diana wishing for Steve’s return at the cost of her powers. Perhaps fittingly, the fights that WW84 showcased weren’t as well-executed as the original. There was more of a risk since Diana was weaker, was able to get hurt, did not have her usual strength.

On the flipside, Barbara Minerva wished to be more like Diana and inherited the god-like powers. She only grew more powerful when Max Lord granted her second wish to be like an apex predator, fully transforming her into the Cheetah for the final battle of the movie. She was de-powered at the end of the movie, hinting that she too renounced her wish.

Yet, unless she lost her abilities because Max Lord renounced his wish — thus, negating any wishes he had granted while he had his power — I don’t believe Barbara would have had such a change of heart.

In her mind, the old Barbara did not have any redeeming qualities. Despite Diana praising her warmth and humor, Barbara showed no signs of actually believing Diana’s words and continued to be envious of Diana even during their final battle. Sure, Barbara was intelligent, she did well with her job, but despite her efforts, she wasn’t the type to make and hold onto many friends.

She enjoyed the attention — and power — that her wish had granted her. There was no point during the course of the movie where she regretted her wish and the results.

I believe WW84 should have focused more on Max Lord being the main villain of the movie. The final battle should have been with him rather than a — admittingly, lovely — speech from Diana speaking the truth to everyone who listened. There should have been more to Max Lord’s character so we actually felt relieved when he chose his son over his power.

Barbara should have been the foil to Diana in this movie, the other intelligent woman who had chosen to keep her wish rather than renounce it. Keep the White House fight in the movie to showcase the differences between the two characters, but allow Barbara to be selfish, to find nothing wrong in wanting to improve her life in the way she had.

Even at the end of the movie, have Barbara want to return to that version of herself, to stay strong and popular.

Instead of renouncing her wish, I believe WW84 should have had a post-credits scene showing Barbara desperately trying to achieve that level of power again. Show Barbara using her intelligence, show her falling to the wayside as she tries to recreate her wish.

Through experimentation and science, show the last scene as Barbara fully transforming into the Cheetah to segway as the main villain into the third movie of the Wonder woman trilogy.

This way, we’d be able to look forward to the next movie featuring one of Wonder Woman’s most popular villains, and perhaps there won’t be as much trouble bridging the gap between the two movies that WW84 had with the original.