By Luca Newton
This post includes spoilers for Black Widow, I'd recommend watching the film first, before reading this post..
After a year of delays, Black Widow finally came out, and a lot of the excitement had been killed with the wait, but after seeing it, it definitely exceeded expectations..
Black Widow was heavily rumoured to get a film ever since before Avengers Endgame released. At that point, it completely threw me off to when it was going to take place, given later, we had seen Natasha Romanoff killed off. However, during SDCC 2019, Kevin Feige took the stage and officially confirmed the rumours with the reveal of Black Widow. Out of all the films announced there, Black Widow was decidedly my least anticipated film, but I still thought the film would be good. However, given the trailers were never exceptional, and the film got delayed so much, I wasn't specifically excited for the film, other than it being Marvel, that I consistently like. Anyway, I was determined to see Black Widow in the cinema, as it was intended, and it honestly exceeded my expectations..
What is 'Black Widow'?
Black Widow is an family action/spy thriller, directed by Cate Shortland, set between Civil War and Infinity War, where the Avengers had broken up, and allies of Steve Rogers were on the run, and as Nat had made a last-minute turn, she was also on the run from the Government. However, the movie starts in Ohio, we see Nat and Yelena as young kids, in what appears to be a normal looking family life, which is abruptly stopped, as the family need to go on the run again, and fly to Cuba where Nat and Yelena are taken away for training in the Red Room. We then flash forward to General Ross trying to catch Natasha, and as Nat communicates with Ross on her phone, we see she is actually in a different location. However, after this, she gets attacked by the Taskmaster as her car is blown up. However, she realises that the Taskmaster isn't after her, and instead after a case given to her. Nat escapes Taskmaster, and sees red antidotes with a picture of her and Yelena. This leads Nat to track down Yelena. As long lost sisters reunite, Nat finds out that the Red Room that Nat thought she had taken down, was still in operation. With the help of Yelena, and her surrogate parents, Alexi and Melina, they work together to take down the Red Room and kill Dreykov, freeing all the Widows still under his control.
With the general premise down, I'll go over some of what I liked..
An Overarching Theme Of Family That Works
One of the prominent things going into Black Widow was this idea of family being this overarching theme that would connect the film together in a way. Honestly, from the trailers I wasn't sure if it was going to work or if it would end up being quite cheesy and completely missing. Additionally, I thought it was a little odd that this being a prequel, that Natasha had a whole family unit she was seemingly ignoring, even though she says she had nobody before the Avengers. All of this is addressed well in the film, and none of the family stuff felt forced or cheesy. Instead, I felt that the family stuff was a strong point of the film and really added to the overall experience in a good way.
This film works for me because of the huge beating heart it has, and that's thanks to this family dynamic that absolutely landed. There are several scenes where these characters interact, and it absolutely felt like a real family interaction with all the quirks and flaws, but mutual love between everyone. I think that is due to the opening scene which really sells them as a normal family, before it is changed tonally, as we see the truth behind how the family actually is. We then see the family break up, and keep estranged for 21 years, leading to multiple scenes of which we see this family that is dysfunctional and almost resenting of each other. It just absolutely worked, and it works going into the final act as well, as that also manages to keep the family theme prevalent.
I think people will generally agree that the family dynamic was a strong part of the film.
The Vibrant Cast Of Characters
In my opinion, the absolute strongest aspect of Black Widow is its cast of characters. First and foremost, Natasha Romanoff. I really thought this was one of her strongest appearances in the MCU, I'd say it's my second favourite of her appearances since Winter Solider, she just played incredibly well off of all the characters in the film incredibly well, and I bought all the interactions she did have thanks to Scarlett Johansson. However, besides Black Widow herself, the other side characters really elevated this film.
Firstly, Yelena Belova, played by Florence Pugh was absolutely my favourite part of the entire film. Thanks to the post-credits, we now know for sure that Yelena is being set up as a big new character in the MCU within the coming phases, and I'm really impressed by how they wrote her and how Florence Pugh portrayed her in this film - she truly stole the show. She strikes that balance of badass, heart-breaking and hilarious. There are moments you are rooting for her, other moments you feel very bad for her, and other parts where you are laughing because of something she said. One of my favourite parts of the film was when Yelena made fun of the pose that Nat always makes when she lands, how it looks very much like she's showing off. That recurring joke is hilarious because how accurate and self aware it is. She also plays off incredibly against Scarlett Johansson, which does make it a little bit of a shame we will likely not see these 2 interact again.
Rachel Weisz and David Arbour both played the surrogate parents of Nat and Yelena, and both worked well. I'm a fan of Rachel Weisz, I think she is a very talented actress. But David Harbour was certainly a standout, his character is a washed up Captain America clone for Russian, called the Red Guardian. As such, he is very strong, but his defining character trait is his huge heart. He is unbelievably charming and grounded but also hilarious, and it's all down to how well David Harbour acts off of the other actors, he is hilarious and has very good chemistry. He felt like a Dad character, as well as being a general badass.
Personal Stakes And Dark Themes
Besides family, Black Widow is also an action spy thriller. It's not the largest scale action in the MCU, and it's not as gritty as Winter Soldier or Civil War, but I still think the way the film paced itself went hand-in-hand with the whole idea of a spy thriller. By giving Nat personal stakes, as she actively tracks down the villain added a sense of urgency to the film. I also thought that the overall goal fit really well with the family theme, as everything happens in the film is attached to Nat's personal backstory. That made it overall feel more investing given the personal stakes that were invested into. Another thing I was a fan of was the dark undertones within the film. It always had pretty real issues and put them in an action thriller, and I appreciated it. I always think real world issues help add overall stakes for the audience as it is easier to relate to, even though it's largely exaggerated or put in unrealistic scenarios.
Additionally, I felt the third was strong with mostly intense and fun action. Using spy techniques such as the face changing mask that hadn't been used for ages, but finally was used here. The bridge scene which was the first fight between Black Widow and Taskmaster was actually the best action scene with Taskmaster by far, and nothing replicated that for me. But I definitely enjoyed that, and in third act, there was some pretty fun action, especially the fight falling in the sky, which was just so ridiculous in the best way.
However, Black Widow isn't flawless, there are parts that didn't work for me..
The Taskmaster Let Me Down
The largest flaw with Black Widow was its villains. Dreykov wasn't awful, he was very slimy like he was meant to be, but I found he felt he was way more threatening than he actually was, and the pheromone lock thing was a bit odd, and obviously only there to make sure nobody killed him before he could say his piece and have the advantage over Nat. However, he was pretty lukewarm in comparison to Taskmaster..
The problem was that Taskmaster was not only not really Taskmaster, he wasn't even a competent villain. Or should I say she. The problem with Taskmaster in this film is that she's a literal henchman only there for a single twist which I saw coming from a mile away. Like her being Antonia, Dreykov's daughter who is mentioned to be dead like 3 times. They made the reveal so extra, when in reality it was just anticlimactic. And they also treated the end of her arc as this big moment that it just wasn't. I hope that they bring back the Taskmaster tech and actually introduce an actual Taskmaster instead of a henchman only there for a plot twist. Taskmaster was absolutely the worst part of the film. I thought the bridge scene at the start was the best we saw of Taskmaster.
Just The "Standard" MCU Instalment?..
A lot of people thought it was bizarre that Black Widow is only getting her film now, after she died, this late. For me, that was never an issue really, behind the scenes usually factors into why these films are ordered the way they are, but this film does justify its existence with the characters it introduces which are probably gonna have bigger roles in the future, but the film certainly did feel like a standard MCU film. That isn't a bad thing, but it does make it only middle tier, and never really able to advance to the top tier of the MCU because it just never elevates itself to the elite. This is the first film of phase 4, but it's so clearly less ambitious than the other phase 4 films.
Honestly, what Black Widow does over everything, is gets me more excited for the future of the MCU. Black Widow exceeded my expectations, and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but the rest of phase 4 is substantially more exciting for me already, so this just reaffirms how much we still have in store in the near future for Marvel and how good it probably is gonna be. I'm aware that MCU doesn't make true cinematic "masterpieces", but I still am invested in this universe and it's impressive how consistently good their films are. There are very few true duds in my eyes.
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