Wonder Woman 1984 is a solid movie with an important message

I paid $16 today for HBO Max with the sole intention of watching Wonder Woman 1984. It was money well-spent as far as I am concerned. If you are still on the fences about the movie or if you’re looking for something to watch, I recommend that you give it a try.

The movie is a sequel of the previous Wonder Woman. It was in 1984 and Diana Prince was working at the Smithsonian in Washington DC as an expert. Steve Trevor was still dead and Diana still missed him dearly, wishing to have him back every day. One day, the Museum received a historical item that could grant a person with one wish, as long as the person touches the item upon making the wish and the so-called Dreamstone could take away one thing in return that the wisher might not know yet.. All hell broke loose from there. I am not giving away spoilers here, but the ending is beautifully bittersweet and the cast did a great job, especially the chemistry between Chris Pine and Gal Gadot. Plus, it’s not too often that we see a male playing a supporting role to a female hero. That is a refreshing change I can get behind. But I have two biggest take-aways from this movie.

Every one of us has something in our life that we are not pleased with, that we want changed. A bigger house, bigger eyes, more money, more time in our youth, a better paying job, a healthier body or a fancier car, you name it. The item, called the Dreamstone, in the movie grants a person the wish and takes something in return. We make trade-offs like that often in our life. Sometimes some of them are more obvious in the short term than others. Like, if you have a reasonable pay and a job that makes you happy and excited to go to work every day, would you trade it for another job with an additional $100k that yet would make you miserable every day? If an investment job paid you extremely well but took away 16 hours of your day and left you little to enjoy life, would you still be up for it?

The question would be even more profound if what you wish for was at the expense of many others. Said another way, if your refusal of one thing you ever wish for contributed to the collective well-being, would you still make that sacrifice? The movie, in the end, came down to that question. I find it very relevant with the current pandemic we have to deal with here. If many of us had made the sacrifice on the personal level and done the right thing, especially in America, we would have been in a far better situation today. If we had worn a mask and practiced social distancing…If we had put the collective well-being of the society above our personal freedom…If the politicians in charge had put their duty above their thirst for power…

The movie also reminded me of gratitude. I too have things in my life that I wish to change. Some of them remain short-term terms that keep me going every day and looking forward to in the future. But being obsessed with wishes can often carry me away from being appreciative of what I currently have. In the middle of a pandemic and a winter that is going to get harsher, I have my own apartment that keeps me warm and safe, a job that helps me put food on the table, people that I love and can reach out every day, and health that has shielded me from trouble and expensive bills. Can it be better? Sure, but a lot of people are in a worse situation.

Sometimes I find myself in a bad mood because I am consumed by jealousy of others and the wishes that may or may not happen in the future. 30 years of living taught me enough to get myself back to appreciating the present, most of the time. Books and movies like Wonder Woman 1984 do help as well. For that reason, I consider my subscription to HBO Max money well-spent, though I struggle to find anything else to watch, apart from the new Wonder Woman.

A friend asked me today how I was going to spend the rest of this eventful year. Being isolated in an apartment without much work, I answered: relaxing and self-reflecting. It has been a tough year so far, but it also came with some positivities for me in the last 300 days; which I may talk about in the next few days. The most important thing is that I am sitting here, able to blog about a new movie instead of being in a hospital or worse, dead or toiling away in a 2nd or 3rd or 4th job on a cold Friday night to make ends meet. That’s what I appreciate the most.