Soul/WW84: Fatal Attraction.

Wonder Woman 1984 and Disney/Pixar’s “Soul" are two entirely different movies that suffer from the same problems, which is they anchored themselves to simplistic but sweet sentiments but took a very long and unnecessary route to get to the core idea. They fall in love with weak subplots or tired tropes and lose steam on movies built from strong if not necessarily fresh concepts and ended up with final products that underwhelmed, and underperformed as it pertains to what was possible.

Soul is a gorgeous movie. The animation is big and lively just like some of the movies ideas. The music is not only fun, but moving, and really acts as another character from within the film, and when one half of the double entendre in the title “soul” appears in the movie it is really heartwarming. It's not easy to describe the way it feels to finally see such intimate portraits of black life depicted in and from an animation studio that spent so much time ignoring it, but as brilliant writer Angelica Jade Bastien always says representation is not enough, and it’s the other half of the double entendre - the more strict definition of soul where the movie loses it's way. It swallows and envelops portions of the film like the one that takes place in a barbershop, which are in my mind far too few, and interrupted and consumed by a storyline of finding Tina Fey's “22”’s purpose. That entire storyline for me is a fault of the movie. Put simply I don't need it to get across the point that the film is trying to bring. What has happened in and to Joe's (Jamie Foxx) life is enough. There's a great story to be mined here about how Joe's obsession with his own purpose disconnected him from hearing and understanding anyone else's story of life, whether it was his Barber or his mother. We could have been introduced to other players from within his neighborhood as well. There's a character who seems to like to undermine Joe's ability that could have been explored a lot more, theres the friend/student that provides him an opportunity, but instead a large chunk of the movies running time is deviated towards a subplot about a character that though interesting belongs in another movie. It's not lost on me that in Pixar's first venture into black life, a character coded as white ends up bulldozing its way into the story. I understand that he's meant to see the folly of his own ways through her, but it’s this pull, this attraction to the typical, to the “done before” that upsets the “newness” of this film. Joe ends up helping her and once again we see another black man sacrificing himself for a white woman on film and most importantly it was just an unnecessary and distracting additive to a film that has a great premise going for it. Simple as the sentiment was, it's something that I think especially for a person like me I definitely needed reminding of, and I found it very sweet and in certain ways empowering once it found its way back into telling that particular story, I just wish they wouldn't have took such a scenic route this time to get there.

Wonder Woman 1984, is a strangely titled film, other than aesthetics the year makes no real difference to what the film does, says, or is, but more importantly it like “Soul” takes a scenic route tying itself to another character which takes away from its pardon the pun ..soul. Unlike “Soul” it anchors itself to a pretty goofy premise which even for comic books feels ridiculously silly. The plot which centers around wish fulfillment and ultimately the “Truth”, (which is an extremely broad theme) has some places it could go if it streamlined this into something more refined and less convoluted, but it stays with this, giving each of its players a wish they want more than anything, and never really exploring that in any interesting way. This sucks, because the actors are ACTING. With all their heart - Chris Pines charm, and new players Kristen Wiig (Barbara Minerva/Cheetah) and especially Pedro Pascal (Maxwell Lord) try to bring some life into this film, and in bits and pieces, fits and starts they do, but they can never quite get this Frankenstein to live. Still their performances, along with a wonderful Zimmer score, and what I thought were entertaining enough action sequences (until the finale which borders on despicable ) do make this a lot more watchable. Funny enough it is Chris Pine who is also obviously part of the distinct charms of this movie who has to do with a large part of what I didn't like about this movie or what I thought could have been better, which is that the character of Steve Rogers like Tina Fey's “22” in “Soul” is an unnecessary distraction. I don't think it needs to be there, I don't see why it needs to be there. I think it would have been much better if Diana had a better wish than to see Steve Rogers again. I know love is a powerful theme and draw, but I think it's the obvious reason. I understand the incentive to want to bring back Chris Pine because they're chemistry was so good in the first one, but as Jud Crandall once remarked in “Pet Sematary” “Sometimes dead is better”. Time spent on Steve's inexplicably silly “All of Me"- like resurrection, could have been better used digging deeper into Kristin Wiig's neurosis and trauma. Flashbacks and/or current timelines of how she's dealing with her newfound confidence in ways that didn't feel tacked-on or cliche. They take away from a great complex story sitting there about female companionship and/or love under duress of patriarchal vanity, mediocrity and mendacity. If it talked more about the god that created the item at the center of it all, and then tied it to that theme along with Max Lord I think you have something. Maybe even if you go along the lines of talking about their friendship forming and what lies behind Barbara having to choose between a new boyfriend prospect and a friend, or hell even lover like Diana and you have something there, and you can still tie in wish fulfillment to all of this. Instead we get Barbara cheaply despising Diana, jealous of her because shes pretty? Barbara quickly throws away Diana - the one, the first one who's ever noticed or really seen her for Maxwell Lord a man who only paid attention to her once she started to become, and again nothing is made of it . Then there is Diana choosing her own happiness with basically the ghost of Steve Rogers over the well-being of millions of people on earth and nothing is made of it! The movie has no commentary about it, or about her budding friendship, sexual tension between with Barbara. There is no commentary about this, no underlying theme. These are points that are worthy of some kind of notice from those making the movie but there is none. In fact there is no meaningful exploration at all. By the time the movie comes around to the end and we see the decisions and the rot that they have created and ultimately the peace and resolution the characters find, it doesn't connect emotionally. Nothing is given, because nothing was earned. Ultimately for both of these movies I ended up with the feeling of “meh". They both lost the better plot in favor of giving into tried and true cliche's and tropes. That attraction is harmful, some would say fatal to these films and it would serve the creators and folk behind it to remember to lean in on the difference and uniqueness of their characters in the writing. I didn't find either of these films to be bad, but they weren't great either. I don't know that I even want to say they were good, they just weren't bad. When I search for the words that I want to use to sort of summarize my feelings on both of these films I would say that they ended up missed opportunities which is a shame because admittedly I was rooting for both of these movies to be a whole lot better.