I don’t know if any of you have heard of Jill Bearup, but as an expert in stage combat she has a lot of interesting things to say about the action in Wonder Woman 1984.
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Wow, I didn’t know that she did her own combat stunts. Will definitely give this a watch, thanks!
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I really like Jill’s channel - I’ll have to check that out. Honestly, I didn’t hate WW84 as much as a lot of people seem to have.
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Same- I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her learning to fly scene was the best I’ve ever seen it done in a superhero film.
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I liked it just as much as the first WW film, for totally different reasons.
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Had a chance to watch the video, and I think it’s fair enough about not enough weight simulated in the action scenes - though I’d argue that a LOT of superhero films suffer from this problem these days.
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Yeah, I get what she’s saying and I think there’s definitely some truth to it. I wonder if maybe Jenkins and crew decided to work with a different stunt company in 84 then they did on the '17 film? That might explain things.
But yeah, I think that’s kind of a thing with superhero stories in general. Most characters with superpowers are like:
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That is very true. Honestly, I didn’t notice any of these issues in my viewings. Action scenes in general don’t stick in my head very much at all. Funny, considering I am fan of superhero stories. I love WW84, not much as the first one, but I enjoy it very much.
I was just really interested in the criticism that it didn’t have enough of action or action wasn’t good. This helped me get a perspective on it.
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The only DC film where the action scenes really stood out for me was Birds Of Prey. Those ones were so well choreographed they felt like an action movie with DC characters in it vs a DC movie with fights, if that makes sense.
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Makes sense! I wonder if the difference between the action in BOP versus WW84 is that the characters aren’t metahumans? I know Dinah is one but her ability is only the Canary cry which we only had a glimpse of. So the action happened on the ground and in real time.
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It is so nice to hear someone put more accurate words to my generic “dissettling CGI” complaint. I actually loved WW84, and thanks to HBOMax I think I’ve watched it more than the original. (IMHO, what sets Diana apart from other superpowered heroes is that while she can punch her way to victory, she’s all about empathizing with others, so the way this movie was resolved felt much more “Wonder Woman appropriate” than the first.) But the parts where the CGI just makes the action feel fake (in so many movies) always takes me out of the moment, so it was nice to hear that expressed in a logical way of why my brain does that.
This is a great point. I think that’s certainly part of it. There are non-superhero movies that do the same, so I think it’s more about how the scenes are filmed and how much of the stunts are practical effects versus CGI. There’s still CGI in BOP, but used more sparingly. (Granted, largely in part because nobody needs to fly or leap multiple stories high.) I believe Margot Robbie wanted to put an emphasis on “real” stunts, so the cast did more than they might have otherwise swapped for stunt doubles, and that probably steered the fight designs to more realistic styles. (IIRC, the actresses did a majority of the funhouse fight themselves, too, particularly the multimove continuous takes on the turntable, resulting in many bruises.) The whole funhouse scene is straight out of classic kung fu movies - they’re not really hitting each other as hard as it looks, but they’re really throwing themselves around and bouncing off the set pieces. Look at the effect of the Canary Cry, even - it’s the polar opposite of what Jill was pointing out about the mall scene where the guy is pulled straight back on a wire - there’s initially wind machines where the thugs are trying to resist the force of the cry before they get launched in the air in different vectors according to where they’re standing, tumbling with the “pitch and yaw” she speaks of. Likely, these are stunt guys launched from air boards, really flailing through the air.
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Very entertaining video! I was much more bothered by the magic lasso physics than what she is talking about. I agree that there was too much flying wire work in the finale and elsewhere. On the whole, I thought WW84 was an enjoyable film, and a good fit for a Christmas release.
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