There's no blaming studio interference for the disappointment that was Wonder Woman 1984

F or a studio that prides itself on letting directors get on with the job, Warner Bros sure is prone to the odd jot of heavy executive interference. Or so it might initially appear from recent comments made by Wonder Woman 1984’s Patty Jenkins on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, which have subsequently been picked up by media outlets across the globe.

Discussing Gal Gadot’s first turn as the Amazonian superhero in 2017’s widely-acclaimed Wonder Woman, Jenkins revealed she initially battled the studio to get her vision of a warm-hearted, loving Diana of Themyscira across, ultimately winning out over an approach that would have seen the character engaging in extreme ultraviolence.

“I felt like they wanted to hire me like a beard; they wanted me to walk around on set being a female director – but it was their story and their vision,” said Jenkins of her first experiences with the studio.

“Even when I first joined Wonder Woman it was like, ‘Uhh, yeah, OK, but let’s do it this other way.’ But I was like, ‘Women don’t want to see that. Her being harsh and tough and cutting people’s heads off … I’m a Wonder Woman fan, that’s not what we’re looking for.’ Still, I could feel that shaky nervousness of my point of view.”

I felt extremely supported in my vision on both films by @wbpictures, @ZackSnyder all the producers and everyone on board our eventual team. Just was a long road to get to make it. Let's chill the dramatic headlines like "war". https://t.co/V7Tj1rOTBS

Jenkins has since taken to Twitter to point out that she was rarely “at war” with Warner Bros and was discussing conversations that took place over a decade ago, (presumably) with very different executives to those who eventually greenlit Wonder Woman. The Monster film-maker first began talks on taking on a Wonder Woman moviein 2007, but it wasn’t until the best part of a decade later that she was invited to finally make the film with full creative freedom. That makes sense when you watch the 2017 movie, which feels like an entirely different beast to other episodes in the early DC “extended universe” such as the dark and knuckle-headed Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Even the later Justice League, a lighter-toned affair clearly influenced by the success of Wonder Woman, didn’t depict Gadot’s battling Amazon the way Jenkins would have. The film-maker told Yahoo recently that she was “uncomfortable with who she was and how she was seen”, after director Joss Whedon oversaw scenes in which the superhero is over-sexualised compared with her appearances in other movies.

All of which brings us to Wonder Woman 1984, a so-so affair that, while entertaining enough for hardcore fans, seems to have fallen into the typical superhero sequel trap that previously affected Marvel’s Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World. Here is a movie where Jenkins clearly had full creative control following its predecessor’s impressive box office take and almost universal critical acclaim. So why has it left such a sense of “meh?”

The set-piece sequences are spectacular – in particular, Jenkins’ bravura opening vision of a cross-Themyscira athletics marathon that makes the modern Olympics look like a toddler’s egg and spoon race. The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal brings an unusual blend of humanity and furniture-chewing bad guy brio to the role of villain Maxwell Lord, Gadot is as splendidly statuesque as ever in the lead role, and her fish-out-of-water badinage with Chris Pine’s miraculously revived Steve Trevor is a thing of joy.

The sequel also cleaves closely to Wonder Woman’s essential mantras, her powerful, independent femininity, kindness and grace. It does not pull its punches when depicting masculinity at its most toxic, yet utterly avoids any descent into myopic misandry. These are nuances to treasure.

So what’s not to like? Perhaps the only criticism that can be levelled at Jenkins is that there is little new other than the 80s-setting and a freaky new MacGuffin to the essential makeup of Wonder Woman 1984. One can’t help feeling that if this had been a Marvel movie, there would have been scope to introduce other superheroes to lighten the load on the other princess Diana.

And yet Jenkins has always preferred the standalone approach. Ultimately the film-maker got to make the Wonder Woman movie she wanted to make, without any studio interference – again, a rare achievement in Hollywood. It’s just a pity she didn’t – quite – manage to pull off the same trick twice.