10 Recent Movies With One AWFUL Subplot
2. Steve Trevor Hijacks A Random Guy's Body - Wonder Woman 1984
Wonder Woman 1984 was one of last year's most disappointing movies, in large part due to its deeply troubling subplot involving Steve Trevor's (Chris Pine) revival, courtesy of a wish inadvertently made by Diana (Gal Gadot).
Rather than just magick Steve back to life out of thin air, the film jumps through wildly unnecessary dramatic hoops to insert Steve into the body of a random dude (Kristoffer Polaha).
Steve effectively hijacks this man's body and consciousness for his time back among the living, during which time he has sex with Diana and is put in frequent danger, all acts that the poor guy locked in there somewhere is unable to consent to.
The film does nothing to ruminate on the ethical issues involved and largely just sweeps them under the carpet like they're nothing. Ultimately if a superhero movie makes the audience debate how "rapey" a subplot was, then it's clearly done something very wrong indeed.
The script could've sidestepped this issue altogether by just having Steve be wished back out of nowhere and then evaporate when Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) is defeated.
Note that our final entry will contain MAJOR SPOILERS for Cruella if you haven't seen it yet...