Wonder Woman 1984 released worldwide a little over a week ago, and viewers have spent that time dissecting every detail imaginable about the DC Extended Universe's ninth full-length film. New additions to the universe, specifically Pedro Pascal's Maxwell Lord and Kristen Wiig's Barbara Minerva/Cheetah, have received plenty of praise for their performances, although the general agreement is that the sequel's plot doesn't live up to that of 2017's Wonder Woman.
Director Patty Jenkins and the movie's cast have been fully invested in interviews promoting the movie, all while revealing previously unknown Easter Eggs and explaining their views on what went down in the film. One of the biggest topics from this movie is the return of Chris Pine's Steve Trevor as he is brought back from the dead (sort of) and placed squarely back into Diana Prince's life.
Many critics have relayed their issues on how exactly he was revived, although Jenkins took a moment recently to defend this decision.
NEWS
In a recent interaction on Twitter, a fan took a moment to defend how Patty Jenkins brought back Chris Pine's Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman 1984. This involved Diana Prince wishing for the return of her World War I pilot, and bringing him back to Diana via a random person's body. The fan referenced an oft-used plot device in filmmaking, specifically noting the 1988 comedy Big, to prove that it's not as controversial as some people are claiming:
I’m linking the Wiki to the Body-Swap movie genre; if you can’t see that Patty Jenkins was playing with that trope, and even intentionally pointing out the problematic nature that all these movies have to skirt around, then I think you need to re-examine a beloved, 80’s fantasy movie like ‘Big’ with Tom Hanks… where he (as a 12 year old in an adult body) has sex with an adult female; making her a statutory rapist by default. Also…
2. The movie implies that if you revoke your wish, then much of the impact of your wish is revoked. Hence, even the sex Diana had with the guy possessed by Steve may have actually been eradicated from the movie’s fabric of reality.
The full tweet can be seen below:
My defense of @PattyJenks & #WonderWoman1984’s usage of the body-swap trope (plus a link to Body-Swap Movies Wiki); linking respected people I follow https://t.co/4KHQyVFc80@lorebuffay @GraceRandolph @TheDCEU @GalGadot @KofiOutlaw @davidlsims pic.twitter.com/9eHTiJYR6L
— Dustin Philipson (@DustyDontshoot) December 30, 2020
Jenkins responded favorably to this tweet with the simple response below:
Hahaha. Exactly @DustyDontShoot!! https://t.co/83cm3Uhb9t
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) December 30, 2020
WHAT THIS MEANS
Many critics lamented the fact that Patty Jenkins used this plot device to allow Steve Trevor to return in Wonder Woman 1984, specifically pointing out how strange it was for Diana to sleep with him as he inhabited a random person's body. This was made possible by the Dreamstone, the movie's MacGuffin, which caused plenty of problems throughout the fictional world outside of Diana's reunion with Steve.
Jenkins' reasoning points back to past classic movies using this idea to great success, including comedies like Tom Hanks' Big, which makes her decision feel a little more sensible looking back at how it played out. It even seems like the filmmaker understood how ridiculous it was during the process of making this movie, which helped lead to Diana's wish and the wishes from others causing such rampant chaos worldwide before all of them recanted.
These responses clearly show that Jenkins is sticking with her decisions, no matter how much controversy they may have incited, and it seems to only be a minor setback considering the success this movie has garnered thus far.
Jenkins will team up with Gal Gadot again to bring Wonder Woman 3 to life in the next few years.
