Wonder Woman 1984
Plot
In 1984, after saving the world in Wonder Woman (2017), the immortal Amazon warrior, Princess Diana of Themyscira, finds herself trying to stay under the radar, working as an archaeologist at the Smithsonian Museum. With the memory of the brave U.S. pilot, Captain Steve Trevor, etched on her mind, Diana Prince becomes embroiled in a sinister conspiracy of global proportions when a transparent, golden-yellow citrine gemstone catches the eye of the power-hungry entrepreneur, Maxwell Lord. Now, as a dear old friend from the past miraculously enters the picture, and Barbara Minerva, Diana's insecure gemologist colleague gives in to desire, suddenly, deceit, greed, and false promises catapult Maxwell into the limelight. More and more, cataclysmic events push the world to the brink, and emotionally vulnerable Diana must address a cruel dilemma. Can mighty Wonder Woman save humankind once again?
Overall Series Review
Categorical Breakdown
The film’s central villain, Maxwell Lord, is portrayed as a white male 'media-savvy fraud' and 'Donald Trump stand-in,' creating a narrative that targets a specific caricature of a corrupt white male figure of authority and capitalist excess. The plot features sequences in Egypt and the Middle East that are criticized for 'lazy Orientalism' and using 'noxious ethnic stereotypes' to set up a conflict that only the 'white feminist icon Wonder Woman' can resolve. Furthermore, the casting and set design are noted for depicting a 'mostly white D.C.,' which inaccurately represents the city’s majority-Black population in 1984.
The main plot is an outright critique of American culture in the 1980s, framing its greed, consumerism, and 'have it all' mentality as the source of global chaos. The villain, a white American businessman, is the embodiment of this corruption. The solution to the world's self-destruction is found in the 'truth' championed by the Amazonian culture, a spiritually superior, non-Western society, which acts as the moral corrective to Western excess.
The core dilemma places the female hero in the position of needing to sacrifice love to maintain her power and heroic purpose, suggesting women cannot 'have it all'. The arc of Barbara Minerva, the other main female character, is framed around her insecurity, wishing for Diana's confidence and power, only to become a monstrous villain (Cheetah), a trajectory critics note as 'anti-feminist' by implying that power corrupts women. Diana herself is the ultimate 'Girl Boss,' perfect and independent, but the storyline surrounding her relationship with Steve Trevor's resurrected body raises ethical questions about consent and bodily autonomy.
The movie does not contain any explicit LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or messaging. The narrative maintains a normative structure with the hero's primary emotional attachment being a heterosexual pairing, and there is no lecturing on alternative sexualities or gender theory.
The film operates in a largely secular space, with the underlying spiritual foundation being Greek mythology and Amazonian ethics. The central moral message is the importance of objective 'Truth' as the transcendent principle that saves humanity, replacing a traditional religious moral framework. This reliance on a pagan-rooted morality, while not explicitly hostile to Christianity, places a non-Western religious structure as the superior moral authority. A neutral score reflects the absence of direct critique or promotion of traditional religion.