Rant #2,560: "Wonder"-ful World

 

So how was your Christmas?
 
Ours was pretty dull over here.
 
We didn’t do much during the day, but on Christmas Eve, we did go to my brother un law’s home, where they celebrate the holiday, and we had a nice dinner there.
 
I have to tell you, I was hurting all over that night.
 
I had nearly finished my project to get all my records together on the shelves of my daughter’s old room, and let me tell you, this was a task that I had no idea would be so difficult to do.
 
I finally finished it on the weekend—I have some loose ends that I still have to get rid of, but for all intents and purposes, the room is done—but on Christmas Eve, I was really hurting all over.

There was a point that I had to move away from their dining room table, because I couldn’t sit there anymore. I did come back to the table after a few minutes, but I was very uncomfortable, and also very tired.
 
To this moment, my body still aches a bit, but mentally and physically, I am pretty much done with that room, and it is time to move on from it to something else.
 
Thank goodness!
 
Anyway, as I said, on Christmas Day, my family and I did pretty much nothing, which was fine with me after a rough Christmas Eve.
 
I did want to go out and bring in dinner, but decided not to, and we ended up eating at home.
 
But during the afternoon, my wife and I watched the new “Wonder Woman 1984” film, so we killed two and a half hours right there.
 
I have to tell you that I was not as taken with the first film that came out a few years ago as some were. I think that people were taken—I mean overtaken—by the implied them of “female empowerment” in that movie, and it made some people go overboard in praising it.
 
I thought it was a good film, not a great film, and although I liked it, I didn’t go crazy praising it as some did.

 I feel the same way about “Wonder Woman 1984,” which it seems most people did not like, or at least found fault with. It is a good film, it kept me going, but no, it wasn’t as good as the first movie, so my listing of it as a “good” film shows that the word “good” has several levels, and this “good” was not up to the level of “good” of the first movie.
 
Here is my capsule review of the film, as I posted it on Facebook:
 
“My wife and I watched it today. I thought the first movie was good, but not great as many thought it was. This sequel, again, is good but not great. Gal Gadot is absolutely gorgeous, but the film seemed to linger too much on the other characters, including Kristen Wiig, who the filmmakers seemed to be in love with. I wanted to see more Wonder Woman, but all we got was a villain with a conscience. The best villains have no conscience, which makes them what they are. The ending was pretty sappy, to be honest with you. I knew viewers like me were in a bit of trouble when the film opened up like one of those Christopher Reeve "Superman" films, and it never really resonated that much after that, although again, Gadot is not only gorgeous, she handles the role with a lot of aplomb--when she is on the screen. The action sequences are good, the story did not put me to sleep, but there wasn't anybody really "evil" in this film, just becoming evil when consumed with power and then have the sense to relinquish it all when it became too much for them to handle. All in all, two and half stars, nothing more, but the camera loves Gadot (and to a lesser extent, Wiig), so go for it, the two and half hours--which could have been cut by at least 30 minutes--wasn't a total waste. And watch it to the very end, there is a nice paean to another time in there at the tail end of the film.”
 
So while not overloaded with praise, believe me, I have seen much, much worse.
 
And just as an aside, people hated this movie so much that the producers have already announced that “Wonder Woman III” is in the works, and yes, I will see that movie, too, when it comes out, however it comes out, whether on the small screen, the big screen, one of the other or both.
 
Gal Gadot is worth the price of admission, if nothing else.
 
And her announced version of Cleopatra that some are raking her over the coals for … I can’t wait!
 
So that was our Christmas over here. We now plan for New Year’s Eve later this week, where once again, we won’t be doing much of anything … just ordering in Chinese food and maybe watching the ball drop in a supposedly empty Times Square.
 
Heck, at least I will have my feet up on the couch, I will be toasty warm, and right after the ball drops and we have entered 2021, I can watch an episode or two of “The Honeymooners” and then go to sleep.
 
Nothing wrong with that.
 
(Two asides: We mourn the death of Hall of Fame knuckleballer Phil Niekro, maybe the true master of that crazy pitch, who won over 300 games during a 24 year career and teamed with his brother Joe as two of the greatest brother pitching combinations in Major League Baseball history; and we wonder about the Nashville explosion like everyone else is doing; what possesses someone to enact such destruction?)