Wonder Woman 1984’s a far from super sequel; Superintelligence a smart choice; Croods come back

It is the one and only superhero movie blockbuster of 2020, but the latest Wonder Woman film is slightly sappier and far more crappier than its predecessor.

Let’s kick things off with a big statement, shall we? Wonder Woman 1984 is the best superhero movie blockbuster of 2020.

Let’s kick things off with a big statement, shall we? Wonder Woman 1984 is the best superhero movie blockbuster of 2020.

Now let’s add one small detail.

Wonder Woman 1984 is the only superhero movie blockbuster of 2020.

If you have spent the year stressed out and messed up by the absence of any big-screen, brand-name saviours of the world, then Wonder Woman 1984 will just about put things right.

Not by means of quality, mind you. This sequel to Wonder Woman’s billion-grossing origin story (released in 2017) is slightly sappier and far more crappier than its predecessor.

However, when it comes to quantity, Wonder Woman 1984 has got y’all well and truly covered.

Gal Gadot is back as the butt-kicking superhero in the overlong Wonder Woman 1984.

Clocking in at a mammoth 150 minutes plus, nobody can accuse the filmmakers of not giving fans every possible chance to worship their favourite lariat-twirling heroine.

The new movie kicks off with a cheesy, yet mildly exciting prologue set a few thousand years ago. You know, when Wonder Woman was just a kid. She almost wins her home island’s version of Ninja Warrior, until she is disqualified late in the event for taking an unauthorised short cut.

We are then fast-tracked to Los Angeles in 1984, where Wonder Woman’s glamourzon adult alter ego Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is working as head anthropologist of the city’s leading museum.

Diana really misses her late, great boyfriend Steve, and hasn’t dated anybody since they were an item back in World War 1.

Long bouts of loneliness are interrupted only when Diana can switch to costumed crime-fighter mode, belting up bad guys as Wonder Woman, with LA police and media none the wiser.

Pedro Pascal at oily, Trump-esque businessman Max Lord in Wonder Woman 1984.

From here we proceed to the main plot, where a prototype Donald Trump named Maxwell Lord (played by Pedro Pascal) is cornering the world’s oil market with a magic rock that grants all wishes in seconds flat.

Lord’s ever-expanding megalomania knows no bounds, triggering everything from a possible nuclear war with the Russians to the surprise reappearance of Diana’s late, great boyfriend Steve (Chris Pine).

The deranged supervillain Lord also becomes responsible for the unlikely transformation of Diana’s dowdy co-worker Minerva (Kristen Wiig) into a deranged supervillainess.

On and on this wonky, barely coherent tale goes, weakened further still by the wonky, barely expressive acting skills of Gadot.

Wonder Woman 1984 opens in general release on Boxing Day.

Director: Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman)

Starring: Gal Gadot, Pedro Pascal, Kristen Wiig, Chris Pine.

**1/2

Not always a blast from this past

SUPERINTELLIGENCE (PG)

***

General release.

Melissa McCarthy in a scene from the surprisingly sweet comedy, Superintelligence.

Whenever Melissa McCarthy collaborates with her writer-director husband Ben Falcone, it is usually time to hit the exits.

Movies like Tammy, The Boss and Life Of the Party are comedy calamities of the highest order.

Well, surprise, surprise, the couple’s latest work does not give off even the faintest whiff of debacle as it goes about its low-key comic business.

McCarthy plays Carol, a Silicon Valley tech exec who notices her appliances are beginning to talk to her in ways that are clearly not programmed. Turns out Carol has been selected by a rapidly evolving form of artificial intelligence to act as a guinea pig for the future of the human race. If the AI likes what it sees, the planet can go on spinning. If it doesn’t, we are toast.

There is both an unexpected sweetness and relaxed energy in play here that realises the movie’s limited ambitions with ease.

McCarthy is also far more generous with her co-stars than is usually the case (as evidenced by some wonderful scenes here with Bobby Cannavale as Carol’s ex-boyfriend).

THE CROODS: A NEW AGE (PG)

**1/2

General release from Boxing Day.

The Croods: A New Age took a long time to get here, but doesn’t really go anywhere new.

While it did take Croods producers over seven years to drum up a sequel to their 2013 animated hit, it’s clear they didn’t spend much of that time thinking up a fresh scripting idea or two.

The new movie is always bright and colourful in the visual department, but often dim and drab in the story sector.

This time around, that caveman clan the Croods is pitched against some better-resourced rivals named the Bettermans. From their posher position up the evolutionary scale, the Bettermans keep looking down upon the Croods until both must join forces to stave off the looming threat of attack by a weird super-species known as Punch-Monkeys.

There are fleeting sequences charged with undeniable fun children will truly love, and flat spots where parents will wish the blasted thing would hurry up and end already.

Originally published as Wonder Woman 1984’s a far from super sequel; Superintelligence a smart choice; Croods come back