Sitting in the cinema it did not take me long to realise the latest Wonder Woman was not for me. By the end of the movie I did question who exactly this movie was for? I was surprised by how dull the thing was to watch. With the action stripped back to the bare minimum I found myself wondering how much time was left on my parking during the movie’s crescendo.

Ditching the horrors of war covered in the first outing we find that Wonder Woman has become a deity level Peter Parker. Working one street level issue at a time. A bright smile, and a flick of her lustrous hair in place of a witty Spider-Man quip.  

Wonder Woman saves kids at the mall, she saves joggers from reckless drivers, and she beats up inept robbers. Her sword and shield sit in storage because the minor threats she faces in the 1980s means she no longer requires them. She is overpowered for the era she lives in and does not have to try as hard. Someone else not trying hard is the screenwriter. You can see where every re-written sequence was stitched together with the result that the finished product feels uneven and unsatisfactory.

The issue with putting Wonder Woman in such a low stakes story as the one she finds herself in is that nothing is ever a threat. It’s the Superman problem, and just like in Superman II to meet her opponents on an equal footing Diana begins losing her powers because she chooses her lover over a wider good. Richard Donner did this 40 years ago in Superman II and he did it better.

Superman II was also set in the 80s by nature of when it was filmed and did not trade on nostalgia. Wonder Woman 1984 puts its nostalgia in the title. I would have liked to have seen the second Wonder Woman movie set in the 70s, but the era of Disco, Quaaludes, and Bill Cosby would not have been as child friendly.

That said, during the movie the spirit of Steve Trevor possess another man’s body and we are led to believe that he and Diana have sex. We are shown it is okay though because we see this meat puppet again later and he appears to be doing just fine. He remembers none of the Amazonian lovemaking. Diana flashes him another bright smile and moves on with her life. No harm, no sexy time foul. Maybe they should have set this movie in the 70s after all.

The picture opens with the message that you cannot prosper by taking a shortcut. Neither of the antagonists learn that lesson and the protagonist already knew it. In the case of Barbara Minerva, a better message might have been “you do not need to be as powerful, graceful, or beautiful as Wonder Woman to feel like Wonder Woman.”

That message would have required a bit more work on the part of the producers though.

I get why people don’t like Raised By Wolves but there was an episode early on where I could see the outline of the first season arc and it kept me watching. My suspicion was correct, and this is a set of bible stories where Satan is the author.

Sent away from an indoor garden of Eden by a creator who favoured one over the other, two androids escape a cataclysm onboard a small ark and have to scratch out an existence on a barren world.

Being barren themselves they do not go forth and multiply. All but one of their human charges, who were supposed to populate this new world, sicken and die. The Mother, a weapon of war that leaves nothing but death in her wake, has a miraculous pregnancy where she gives birth to something evil which will damn everything else on the planet. All the time voices are heard corrupting the characters and moving them as part of a larger design. This is the dark universe book of Genesis mixed with the dark universe New Testament.

There’s even a Cain and Able setup with the serpent and Campion. Mother’s biological Satanic child, the serpent, is probably going to eat anything it can get its fangs on. Mother’s chosen son, Campion, did not partake in eating any of the meat available on the planet and is therefore still pure.

Campion has to kill the serpent. Cain’s punishment for killing his brother was that he was sent into exile alone. Campion’s price of failing to kill the serpent would be the death of everyone else leaving him to wander alone.

Too much dependence on mystery box writing won't have me running to watch a new season but I may second screen it when it comes back on.

I’ve been doing my last bit of online shopping with UK retailers. I’m sorry to see this end. Every UK retailer I’ve dealt with has provided good service. That said, the new Brexit related customs charges and taxes will mean that buying from inside the EU is going to be more cost effective and EU consumer protection rules will still apply. 

The UK has run a trade surplus with Ireland since 1999. Ireland buying far more from UK businesses than it sells to UK consumers. 2019 was a high point, with £13.9B left in the UK till as a trade surplus. That’s uncommon for the UK, considering it runs trade deficits with many other nations. Nice growth too considering it started in 1999 as a £2.9B surplus in favour of the UK.

At every economic diverge between Ireland and the UK, Ireland has expanded its purchasing power and bought more stuff from the British. Be it breaking the link between the Irish Punt and Sterling in 1979, or trading in the Punt for the Deutsche Mark (The Euro) in 2002, it has led to Ireland spending more money with British businesses of all sizes.

We’re at another economic divergence now as the clock runs down on the Brexit transition. Deal or no deal, trade between both countries is going to be hard for years to come. Money, like water finds its level and things will adjust. In the future if those incredibly sharp trading edges can be sanded down I’d be happy to go back to buying from the small UK businesses that served me so well as a customer. Hoping to shop with you again soon, so long for now.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash