I watched wonder woman 1984 and it was fascinating because in concept it was really good. But in execution it wasn't.
So they wrapped up all their themes (unlike....many many films), but the themes didn't land.
Why?
I've seen people say it's because the narrative threads were too crowded. There might be something to that, but I think the most important problem is that Diana didn't feel like the protagonist. Max Lord was the protagonist. And that wasn't just because Pedro Pascal knocked it astronomically out of the park. (Also the kid they cast for allister was really good)
They tried to make the lasso of truth an artefact of power, give it some more mythology, but despite its serious screen time, that mostly failed.
They tried to say: it is better to have the truth, reality, than to have a lie, a desire you must pay terribly for. But it didn't land.
Why? Why? Why? Because the climax of the movie did not align with the climax of Diana's story.
And because the lesson Diana drew from her youth applied most specifically to Max, not herself. They should really have put in at least two more 'bits' whether separate or part of the starting 'young Diana' sequence. One of these should have centred on the lasso in its full mythological origin and glory, and a centrepiece of Amazon culture and Hyppolita's lessons - nobody remembers what was said about it in the first movie! This should have been inserted at the least before they discover the wishing stone's divine origin so that it's explicitly paralleled as the inverse divine object.
(Also the action scenes were really bad holy SHIT. It looked BAD. And silly.)
If you have three stories of three characters, then all those stories must come together at the same moment, or they will feel like sidethreads.
Diana's story resolved the moment she said goodbye to Steve and regained her powers - the rest was denouement. That made her story the side story. That was a poor choice. The epilogue of the movie would have been bittersweet if we saw her resolve to try and learn to fly after being open to a chat with a nice man (whose body she did not involve in sex without consent....yikes) - really landing that combo on moving on but honouring Steve through his gift - flight.
Cheetah's and Diana's fight should not have resolved (or ...LOOKED like that) before the climax. Steve should have been with Diana, as she stubbornly refuses to renounce her wish, he flies her wounded to Max and Cheetah to face an impossible battle.
Diana puts on Asteria's armour (I did not like her outfits at all especially all the Focus on the heels (CLOSED! CLOSED HEELS, NOT EVEN HORSE RIDER'S HEELS!! THAT WOULD HAVE MADE SOME SENSE - they even did a little inside joke on it and I was super mad lol) but THOUGH she can deflect a missile (Diana manages to make the plane invisible but Cheetah's senses have been enhanced so much that she can pick them out bc of superior senses and Diana is forced to try and fly - Steve and Diana fly together for one moment!) - she cannot deflect Cheetah's claws - which establishes Cheetah as a Force to be reckoned with and the armour not as simply flimsy.
So she gets kicked around by Cheetah (the fight in the White House should have been shorter) even as Steve tries his absolute best to help getting busted up more and more - which hurts Diana terribly, she cant protect him again and again (I did like how his part in fights was always essential if at a different level - and they did a good job on believably weakening Diana).
They bust through to Max Lord and Cheetah is pissed that Diana is 'not taking her seriously'. She is about to kill her and Steve is like - Diana there is no choice! Look at what you'll lose!!! What is at stake! Interspersed with the rising destruction of the world because Steve takes the lasso and wraps it around HER wrist - a glimpse of Allister in there. Max is just raving. And Steve echoes Diana's mother!!!!!!!!
God. Because they did not articulate the link - it does not land.
He echoes that this is the day, the truth is that she is a hero. It is her time to win, to protect, to sacrifice, to stay behind, to be like the golden warrior. That is the second bit that should have been part of Diana's youth in this film: there should have been a flashback to the GRIEF that came with the golden warrior being left behind - of losing and being lost. Winning, being like the golden warrior, is being strong enough to stand that. It also inverts Steve/Diana's martyrdom - the martyr is the one who is left behind.) That is the truth.
She whispers soundlessly that she renounces her wish - Steve's fascilime of a body crumbles. She explodes into golden light instead of weirdly wheeling into the sky. Cheetah is thrown back.
The lasso gets a real close up and Diana loops Max and Cheetah in - just like she did with the robbers in the first scene - and shows them the truth - along with the world. We get shots of Max's past, Barbara's past, and then faster and faster the people of the world losing, grieving and people FAILING.
Because, though Diana deals with loss and grief - Max and Barbara are dealing with failure. Diana should narrate Antiope's response to young Diana's claim that things are not fair.
The order of the climax was also wrong. People in the world should have started renouncing their wishes, and Max should have protested. UNTIL, Allister comes onto the scene. This was an enormously touching sequence. It was exactly right. Keep it exactly the way it should though Cheetah should visibly lose some of her power in the shot that Max runs away. The world rights itself explicitly as wishes once granted and their effects are disappeared. Max has his touching moment with Allister.
We go back to Diana and Barbara in the ruins, both kneeling. Both lost. Diana gets up and stretches a hand out to Barbara.
But Barbara is the one person who wished on the stone before it was Max, her wish is still in effect. She's still caught on the lasso - but she looks at her old self and she despises it - she stands up herself and she refuses to renounce her wish. Not when Diana implores her to, not when she sees the nice homeless man's face after she kicked the shit out of the horrible dude - because she hated feeling weak and disliked and afraid.
Now we get the lines about Diana having it all and her being patronising. DIANA JUST LOST THE MAN SHE LOVED AGAIN. Diana should try to say: you were the only one who drew me out of my shell, you made me feel happy again. That was your power. I wanted to be your friend.
Barbara runs. A nemesis for the future.
Then there's the epilogue with the snow and the man and the learning to fly. And then Lynda Carter as Asteria because that was DOPE.
----
This would tie Diana's decision into the other two's. It would make her decision the climax - the triumphant and tragic moment - and the other two's the (inverse) parallels that they are.
Diana renounces the person she loves for her protective power, Max renounces his destructive power for the person he loves, and Barbara.... was heavily, and I mean, HEAVILY coded with romantic comedy tropes with Diana. While Diana rejected all classic romantic film tropes with dudes - she played the partner to them for Barbara (picking up her papers for her, going on a date, Steve being Diana's old friend and Barbara Diana's new friend). Barbara gives up the person she admired/could have loved for her destructive power.
