I watched Wonder Woman 1984 last night. I was much less enthusiastic about the first movie than most reviewers, but still thought it was pretty good. The sequel is just downright bad. It isn't the fault of the actors, who did what they could with the lame material they were given. It would be tedious to go through all the flaws and plotholes. Here are just a few (note - there will be a few SPOILERS below).
Here goes:
As many have pointed out, the villains were lame, and the main one (shady businessman Maxwell Lord) seems stupid and incompetent.
There is no real point to the story. The (possibly unintended) message conveyed is that it's dangerous to wish for your life to be radically better than it actually is. Lord and those influenced by him get into trouble by having their wishes fulfilled, and only get out of it by renouncing them. If so despite the left-wing/feminist trappings, this is a kind of conservative traditionalist story. But it's a lame pseudo-message either way.
Some critics have pointed out that nearly all the men in the story are depicted as either malevolent or stupid. But, in fairness, the same is true of nearly all the women. Until near the end, the only good and intelligent people in the world seem to be Diana and the resurrected Steve Trevor. It's a sharp contrast with the previous movie in the series, where there are lots of admirable characters. Perhaps the screenwriters mean to convey the message that human nature got much worse between WWI (the time of the first movie) and 1984. If so, it's yet another conservative (in this case, even reactionary), message!
There are certainly legitimate criticisms of Ronald Reagan and his policies. But the movie slanders him when it claims his dearest wish was to have more nuclear weapons. In reality, Reagan had a deep visceral hatred of nukes. The screenwriters could have learned this from any standard biography of Reagan, including those by liberal scholars and journalists (e.g. - Lou Cannon). Indeed, the standard criticism of Reagan by defense policy experts is that his strong feelings on the subject led him to underrate the benefits of nuclear deterrence, and thereby adopt what they saw as ill-advised, destabilizing initiatives (most notably SDI).
Even given the intrinsic difficulties of dealing with such issues, the movie does a terrible job of trying to figure out what happens when wishes get granted, but then reversed. For example, it's not clear whether reversal of a previously granted wish wipes out all consequences of it, and whether people (other than Diana with her nearly divine powers) will have a memory of what happened. If the reversal is incomplete and/or there is a memory of what happened, the events of the movie would create a major turning point in world history.
Diana clearly hates living alone in the US, and does so only because she believes it’s her duty to do so. But between 1918 and 1984, it seems like all she does with her vast powers is occasionally fight petty criminals. If Wonder Woman had intervened in history previously, her appearance in 1984 would not be a novelty, as the news reports early in the film suggest it is.
For all its comparative cheapness and hokiness, the 1970s Wonder Woman TV series actually had better plotlines and messages than either of the Gal Gadot movies (though again, it's not Gadot's fault). It also had more of a progressive world view, for those who look to WW for that.
I'm not a comic book reader or a fan of the DC universe generally. I admit those steeped in that mythos might be able to find some deeper meaning in WW 84 that eludes me.
The last point aside, this was a generally lame movie, based on an even lamer worldview. However, reactionaries and hardcore conservative traditionalists might like the movie's implied message - if they can figure it out! All other WW fans might be well-advised to start a campaign to get this movie excised from the official canon, or at least redone with competent writers (much like the last season of Game of Thrones should be!).