With even the likes of ‘Dark Knight’ failing to make a mark at the Oscars, we wonder what Warner Brothers are betting at by pushing in ‘Wonder Woman 1984’.
Oscar season is closing in, and the studios are betting on their best work of the year. However, it’s the superhero genre that always struggles to figure out what could be worthy enough. Oscars has always seemed to be looking down at the genre. In the past two decades, since the superhero movies started getting traction, there had been only a few instances when the genre got an Academy Award nomination, and fewer instances when one won. In such a scenario, Warner Brothers trying to push ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ for Oscars, while it couldn’t even hold its head high among the fans, poses a big question on the predictability of the outcome.
Highlights —
- Warner Brothers are pushing ‘Wonder Women 1984’ for Oscars
- The Oscars and its superhero love
- The reception and ratings for ‘Wonder Woman 1984’
Warner Brothers are pushing ’Wonder Women 1984’ for Oscars
If you will head to Warner Bros. 2020 Awards site, for a moment you will find yourself scratching your head. Finding ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ listed “for your consideration in all categories” could even make you read the name twice, thinking you might have over read “1984”. But no, you read it just right.
Warner Bros. has put up ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ for Oscar consideration in all categories i.e Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and so on.
The Oscars and its superhero love
In the history of Oscars, only a handful of superhero genre movies received nominations for the Academy Awards. With only 10 movies among them eventually winning. The list includes, ‘Superman’ (1979), ‘Batman’ (1990), ‘Spider-man 2’ (2005), ‘The Incredibles’ (2005), ‘The Dark Knight (2009), ‘Big Heroes 6’ (2015), ‘Suicide Squad’ (2017), ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2019), ‘Black Panther’ (2019), ‘Joker’ (2020).
To note that while Heath Ledger posthumously won an Oscar for his iconic portrayal of Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’, the movie which is still considered as one of the greatest movies ever made, was shrunk to only two awards, with none for the Best Picture category.
Also, Marvel’s many biggies including ‘The Infinity Saga‘, ‘Guardians of The Galaxy‘ series, and ‘Captain America‘ trilogy, which were loved by the audience and praised by the critics, failed to win any Oscar nominations.
So, amid so much resistance for superhero movies on the road to Oscars, how much sense does ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ make?
The reception and ratings for ‘Wonder Woman 1984’
‘Wonder Woman 1984’ was under the immense pressure of bringing the audience to the theaters after an entire year of lockdown. Even though the movie released during the Christmas season, it failed to cash the opportunity on Box-office given the simultaneous HBO Max release.
However, the movie also failed to impress the DC and superhero fan base in general. The Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb ratings of ‘Wonder Woman 1984’, which stands at 60% and 5.4/10 respectively, narrates the tales of disappointment.
Even the critical response to Patty Jenkins’s ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ ranged mostly from average to negative. “Slate” termed the response as “lukewarm”, while “Newsweek” described it as “mixed”. “The Washington Post” precisely reported the response to have changed from “early praise to precipitous decline”. While most of the critics praised Gal Gadot and the “escapist qualities” of the movie, it was claimed to be lacking the substance.
Compared to the sequel, the Original ‘Wonder Woman’ (2017) was praised as one of the best superhero movies to come out of DCEU. The movie has a terrific fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 93% and was also critically acclaimed. Yet, the film failed to receive a single Oscar nomination. There had been debates about Warner Bros. giving up on the movie for ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’.
However, keeping the number of movies released in 2020 in mind, some believe that ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ can still bring home an Oscar despite all the things it did wrong. What do you think? Does ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ deserve an Oscar? Comment below.
