Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) review

The Princess of Themyscira, Diana (Gal Gadot), finds herself in Washington, D.C. in the mid-1980's working as an anthropologist at the Smithsonian where she has to battle against a failed businessman named Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) who steals an artifact called the Dreamstone to give himself total control of the world ... after using said object to "resurrect" her dead boyfriend Steve (Chris Pine).  It, like so many movies the studios have been cranking out, expends too much energy to try to "Check All the Boxes" of progressive politics (mansplaining, cat-calling, turning Pascal into a young Emperor 45) and never sheds any of the bloat that keeps it from being a brisk and engaging action movie (instead, it's an over-the-top and nonsensical waste of time).  The less said about Gadot's acting the better (she tries), and Kristen Wiig's "final form" looks like every woman over thirty that I've seen at a noise rock show ... minus the tail (usually).