Wonder Woman 1984 was supposed to be in cinemas by now, as it was originally scheduled to be released in November 2019 before being pushed back seven months to June 2020. The reason studio execs gave was that they wanted it to be their big summer superhero film, but since then, there’ve been rumors of disquiet with the direction of the movie.
Recent test screenings caused attendees to describe the sequel as overly goofy and campy and while Warner Bros. have enough time to tweak the pic (and potentially reshoot a bit if they can schedule it), we’re now hearing that a more recent test screening has gone down similarly poorly.
Speaking to someone who was a huge fan of Wonder Woman, ranking it as one of the best superhero movies ever, we’ve been told that Wonder Woman 1984 just doesn’t live up to the original. The individual who we spoke with apparently attended the latest test screening and said that while the visuals and action scenes are an improvement on the first film, the rest of the movie “just doesn’t work.” The overall story about Maxwell Lord using a wishing stone “comes across like something out of a kid’s cartoon,” and apparently, the return of Steve Trevor doesn’t make a great deal of sense, and it’s not helped by a very bland script.
Particular criticism is reserved for Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah. We recently got a look at her in some stage of transformation via a promotional mug and at the time, we theorized that she’d have a more feline transformation later in the movie. It appears that’s the case, but sadly, this final transformation apparently looks “awful” and like “something out of Cats.”
The viewer goes on to conclude:
“So, bad villains, messy story and silly plot device make this a messy sequel to the great first film. A shame. Hopefully WW3 will be better.”
Ouch. Well, at least they’ve got six months to fix it. And remember, there were similar stories going round about Wonder Woman being a mess prior to its release and that turned out okay in the end. So let’s not lose hope yet.