When Wonder Woman 1984 dropped on HBO Max, my family immediately watched it. While it will set no new standards for sequels or superhero movies, I fully believe that it was everything it needed to be: an entertaining action movie with a story and plot worth telling.

The movie starts with Diana as a child in her homeland Themyscira, competing in a race of sorts against older Amazons. She falls behind, but finds a way to take a shortcut to put her back into first place. She is removed from the race, however, before she can complete it, because anything worth earning must be earned honestly. Yes, you already know exactly what this movie is going to be about.

The movie then jumps to 1984, around 65 years after the 2017 movie Wonder Woman is set, and Diana is an anthropologist at the Smithsonian, where she meets a new socially awkward coworker Barbara, played by Kristen Wiig, and a mysterious stone with the power to grant the holder one wish. The curse of the stone is quickly revealed, as those who use it find the things most precious to them are taken as a result. Even worse is that failing oil businessman Maxwell Lord, played by Pedro Pascal, seeks to use the stone to attain all the power in the world, at the price of exploiting the desires of everyone he encounters. 

The costumes, the settings and the characters were so colorful and engaging that they probably hold up most of the movie. There are plot holes, there are pacing issues and there is one villain too many, but the movie is still an eye-catching piece worth your time. You will find a lot of criticism for this movie online, but I found it perfectly fine. Continue watching through the credits, and you’ll even catch a cameo of Lynda Carter, star of the original 1975 Wonder Woman tv show, hinting at another installment in the franchise to come.