I wanted to see this movie not to just be an MCU completist (I’ve only missed one MCU movie in a theater) but as a show of support to Scarlett. The actress was a trooper in a male-dominated genre and I believe the Black Widow character receiving at least one solo adventure was long overdue. Hell, I think she should have a trilogy as the others had, especially after being in Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers and getting stuck as the, “Hey look over there!” character. The whole Russian background was always a stretch though. I’ve never understood why the people who wrote the Ultimates timeline for Marvel selected the Black Widow over the Wasp or another heroine with a more plausible origin. Thankfully, it didn’t matter much because the movie did better than I anticipated despite several annoying tropes it continued demonstrating how the MCU is starting to fall into a rut.
The story takes place sometime after Captain America: Civil War, so Natasha is on the run, dodging the world’s authorities until Endgame. While hiding out in Scandinavia she runs afoul of a weird villain we nerds know as the Taskmaster, an opponent in the comics who can imitate any physical moves he witnesses. For the film, the gender of this Taskmaster is a mystery and their mimicry power is uploaded into them via a USB flash drive. Who or why this villain is coming after the Black Widow is puzzling since the other law-enforcement agencies interested in arresting her aren’t around. This leads to her returning to Russia as all the immediate clues indicate something involving her past association with that country’s unsavory assassin-training program and/or her youth in a sleeper cell hiding in Middle America over the Nineties. Sure it’s been about a year and little I’m writing is a spoiler but I’ll leave it up to you all to watch, let you see how it unfolds. Obviously, you will want to get through the key parts at the end as per MCU tradition, hints you’ll receive on what’s coming in the next film and/or streaming TV series on Disney+.
Black Widow as a movie isn’t terribly original nor interesting which is a pisser. Again, I think Scarlett deserved better. If it weren’t an MCU flick, there’s very little separating this from every other Action Movie with a female lead over the last 20 years. It was cool to see David Harbour as the Red Guardian; Rachel Weisz as the disillusioned Russian scientist behind the program and Florence Pugh getting lined up to be (probably) the next Black Widow; I’ve heard rumors calling her White Widow. Like what Ethan Hawke said, MCU movies are the Westerns of our era, eventually everybody who is worth a crap in show biz is going to appear in one. It is a pisser Disney and all couldn’t find one actual Russian actor to play a lead role; too late now thanks to the Ukrainian invasion.
As per Honest Trailers, there’s a sky beam at the end! It’s not literally a sky beam drilling into the earth or opening a portal to some horrid dimension. It’s close though and we’re pretty numb to the threat from a decade ago when the Avengers saved NYC. The last and my biggest annoyance is the overuse of Nirvana in the opening credits; a tedious, slowed-down cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Sweet Zombie Jesus Hollywood! It’s not enough to keep reselling and recycling worn-out oldies via Guardians of the Galaxy but can there be a moratorium on the only good album Kurt Cobain had in him? I’m so frickin’ tired of Nirvana and it’s no longer 1995! Let’s move forward a culture please!
I will close with the several good things which do compensate for Black Widow‘s short-comings. The inside jokes made about the standard superhero landing stances. Too bad Mythbusters is gone, I would love to see it debunked. I was pleasantly surprised how Natasha defeated the villain, clever and painful. If you already watched all of 2020’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, you will be rewarded for getting through the ending credits. It isn’t clear what direction the MCU was going from there when I saw this last July. By the end of 2021, we definitely know. Lastly, I applaud the movie revealing a horrifyingly true statement the major villain makes about why his Russian KGB-esque organization kidnaps, buys and/or enslaves little girls worldwide and then molds them into killers, regardless of how many die in training. Paraphrasing him: Regardless of the culture, the male-dominated world sees women as a disposable, bottomless resource. A painful, painful fact I got a little sick thinking about.
Alamo Extras: Soviet-era movies showing dancers but set to awful Rap music; Another Soviet-era dance film which could be their take on Sinbad; What looks like Russia’s entry to the Eurovision song contest about 10-15 years ago, I think I’ve heard it a thousand times via Jennifer’s Tik Tok nonsense; Some Kung Fu fights starring Michelle Yeoh to update everybody on MCU Phase 3; Closed with a long presentation on the origins of the Black Widow character in Marvel Comics. She was originally an enemy of Iron Man with a lame Catwoman-like appearance. Eventually, Black Widow changed sides, got the costume we recognize when she teamed up with Spide-Man in 1970 and officially joined the Avengers around 1973.
A few summers ago, before COVID, my wife took my kid to see Endgame on a rainy afternoon. Soon she had the idea that we should watch EVERY Marvel movie, but in the historical order. A quick Internet search and the schedule was created.
I am not a huge superhero movie fan. Nor am I a huge fan of CGI spectacles. I liked a few, fell asleep through most.
I thought this was a particularly weak entry. I was once a fan of Scarlett. She used to do fun and interesting movies – The Man Who Wasn’t There, Ghost World, Match Point…to name a few.
The few movies I have seen her in recently have all been boring and her characterizations fairly dull. I hope she finds her mojo again.