Hi! No need to be sorry for asking a question—I’m more than happy to answer! 😊 Unfortunately, I am unable to respond directly to my original post. Tumblr will not allow me to reblog, so I suspect that OP blocked me.
In regards to your question, it appears that you may have misunderstood my statement. I actually agree with you that the movie was very easy to follow. After all, it’s heavily inspired by W. W. Jacob’s The Monkey’s Paw, which many viewers are already familiar with. The movie told a story, but I do believe the end product could have been more polished.
In regards to the plot being messy, three things jump out to me:
Plot Holes/Inconsistencies/Suspension of Disbelief
Starting with pacing, it took us nearly 50 minutes to get to the actual plot. While the opening scene in Themyscira and the mall fight scene were enjoyable, it left the remainder of the film in an uncomfortable tug-of-war between a sense of urgency and indifference to learning about the Dreamstone. By the time we reached the climax, the ending felt rushed and Cheetah’s appearance left the impression of being shoehorned in rather than being the long-awaited outcome of Barbara’s actions.
Diana’s characterization is this film was perhaps one of the biggest aspects that disappointed me. I doubt it was intentional, but this movie really centered her personality around her love of Steve Trevor. It’s understandable that she misses him, but it’s been nearly 70 years since his death. After all, we never see her mourning the loss of her sisters on Themyscira whom she can never see again. It just doesn’t make sense to me that Diana’s life and happiness must be tied to a man. By nature, she is loving and sociable, and she finds joy in human life. I really do think that within those 70 years she should have made more friends long before Barbara enters the picture. It might have been better for the movie if it took place in an earlier time while her feelings are still fresh and she is still adapting to the world of man, but then producers wouldn’t be able to milk that good ol’ 80’s nostalgia.
Onto the third point, many beloved movies and books require suspension of disbelief to be enjoyed properly; however, there must be a limit. I felt that WW84 pushed that limit too far. Without going into excessive details (as this post is probably getting long enough), we have:
Steve occupying the body of an innocent. Neither he nor Diana appear to give this more than a second thought.
Steve’s body switching also breaks the rules of the Dreamstone. We see everyone’s wishes appear in the most literal sense no matter how ridiculous they are. If the stone can make walls, live animals, and money appear from nothing, surely it can make a human appear as well. It should be able to overcome death otherwise not every wish could be undone by the end (as we were shown a woman wishing for a man to “drop dead.”)
Diana stated that many great civilizations disappeared overnight, when we know for a fact that most of the ones listed didn’t (Rome probably being the one most viewers are knowledge of).
Asteria’s golden armor was supposedly strong enough to let her fight off hoards of men, but is easily destroyed by Cheetah.
The somehow fueled and perfectly operational museum jet was able to be flown by a WWI pilot who had no experience with that technology.
Cheetah is willing to die rather than give up her wish, but in the end she simply does so because Diana asks everyone to do so. It’s a sudden and quite jarring change in her character.
So in answer to your question, these are the main points that come to my mind. As for the tone, I think we are in agreement that it was clear. It differed greatly from that of the first movie, but a tone was present. All in all, there’s going to be differences of opinion for WW84 just like there are for any movie. As I said in my original post to OP, WW84 is strong enough to stand on its own. It doesn’t need to be protected from criticisms whether they come from “straight men” or anyone else for that matter.
While I am personally disappointed with the end result, I am glad that you and many others enjoyed it. It’s these differing opinions that allow us to have discussions about movies and share our own perspectives. I hope that I was able to throughly answer your question! 😄