i liked this quite a lot for how it fits into the existing mcu. i think it's difficult to expect a lot of the comic canon to come through when the cinematic universe has always chosen to explore characters differently. plus, if you're a die-hard fan of any of these heroes or villains, you should have firsthand awareness that the story gets changed from artist to artist, writer to writer. the movies aren't going to be any different.
plus alexei makes a very good point about his own character arc (even if he's talking about gaining weight)—he's just been broken out of prison. i really don't think he's about to be even remotely badass.
also, the mcu black widow has had a great deal of vulnerability and attachment disorder built into the character over the phases, so if this not being about her being a heartless spy the entire time is a downer, like... the movie definitely isn't for you?
ANYWAY
florence pugh hands down was my favorite part of the film, with david harbour a close second. i already loved both of them in other work, and it's a solid cast overall, but they really brought it with these two characters.
"this is a much less cool way to die."
10 year's to late
And neither here nor there
But I will say one word
YELENA...wow.. wow
And wow again.
(Total Goddess).
And may I say welcome to The MCU and I absolutely can't wait to see you with the Cool kids
in future movie's.
YELENA is super freaking awesome amazing and for me was the damn highlight of the entire movie and the only person who kept my interest and
entertained me throughout, I am in complete
Awe with her.
I hope one day she to gets her own solo movie's because I would pay good money to see them.
HELLA YEAH.
FLORENCE PUGH'S back must be killing her after carring the hole damn movie. She was an absolute scene steeler and quite right to.
If not for her this movie would have been a complete flop and a messy bore fest,
Thank-you YELENA THE NEW QUEEN
OF THE MCU.
#THENEWBLACKWIDOW
I HAVE A NEW LOVE IN MY LIFE AND IT STARTS WITH "Y" AND ENDS IN TOTALLY FCUKING AWESOME.
YELENA see you in the
D+ HAWKEYE show and in future MCU MOVIE'S
WOW I CAN'T WAIT.
I NEED MORE MUCH MORE
YELENA IN MY LIFE.
(Lots of Love heart's)
7/10
would have been a 4, 5 at best
if not for the new QUEEN OF THE MCU
It's honesty not even as close to being as bad as some people are saying it is. It's an entertaining movie, and IF it had come out sometime around 2017 it'd be much more favored and wouldn't have so much of the backlash it's received. A lot of the negative reviews are coming from people who hadn't had a marvel movie fix since Endgame, and didn't see the point of this story being told. In that respect, I can agree that the timing here is off. I understand prequels and telling stories not in a linear timeline, but that being said this was more of a tribute movie than it was any kind of real progression, and it would've fit much better if put between Civil War and Infinity War being as Natasha is just gone now. Yelena will continue in the story, so it does work as introducing her to us, it's just a failure in timing since everyone saw it coming out of their 2 year endgame hangover.
As a standalone movie, it's not bad at all, and entertaining to watch. If you, say, have never watched a marvel movie before and are just getting into them now, watching this sometime after civil war and skipping the after credits scene would really add to your overall MCU experience. The only real shame is the movie wasn't made sooner.
More like Black Widow Presents: Florence Pugh’s character.
So, after a long break of Marvel movies, with 2020 having zero Marvel properties, due to the on-going pandemic. I believe the last time we had no Marvel movies was back in 2009, but without the modern plague. It was a nice break from things and smaller movies got more of the spotlight. But now after things have calmed down a bit, Marvel felt confident to finally release ‘Black Widow’, the long waited solo movie that fans wanted since her first appearance in ‘Iron Man 2’, the fan favorite, Natasha Romanoff. Now we finally got it, and the results are...very uneven.
Before I go any further, I would like to say a massive congratulations to ‘Black Widow’ for breaking three “Guinness World Records”:
1.) The first posthumous release for a Marvel character
2.) The first female lead superhero movie ever made, because no other female led movies existed until this movie.
3.) And Asian actor Scarlett Johansson for being the first Asian superhero lead in the MCU, way ahead of the release of ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’.
Hehe
OK, let’s get serious now.
This movie came out way too late. It should’ve been released immediately after ‘Winter Soldier’ or ‘Civil War’, either of the Captain America movies. The long wait for this movie is questionable at best, since we got two Ant-Man movies instead of something that people wanted.
Although, I’ve got to say, the opening credits with the cover song of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, originally sung by Kurt Cobain, playing over this chilling imagery of children being trafficked into trained assassins, which sets up a dark tone that I didn’t expect from Marvel, and it immediately got my attention. The opening credits was easily the best part of the movie, but unfortunately the rest of the movie didn’t match that tone, as it got too comical at some points and gradually fell off.
For over 11 years, we were blessed by Scarlett Johansson’s portrayal of the title character and it’s sad we have to say goodbye to her once again. Johansson herself fully commits to the role once again, even though I thought she was the least interesting part of the movie. She honestly felt like a side character than anything else, which sucks because this is supposed to be her movie.
With this movie being a prequel before the events of ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’, you know Black Widow herself is most likely going to survive the movie, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get hurt, right? Well in this movie for whatever reason she’s completely invincible and barley gets a scratch on her. There’s a handful of moments where she falls from a great distance only to land safely to the ground, which was too unbelievable to not at least suffer a bruise or a cut or any type of injury. She’s not even superhuman or anything. I guess Marvel characters are like cats with nine lives.
One of the comedic reliefs of the movie is David Harbour, who’s entertaining as the Red Guardian. Rachel Weisz is also there and she’s fine. But still, I thought Harbour and Weisz Russian accents were all over the place at certain times. However, it’s nowhere near as bad as Ray Winstone’s, aka the most British man ever, who doesn’t even try at all. And I can’t shake off that Winstone kind of looks like Martin Scorsese (thanks a lot Red Letter Media).
On the other hand, the best character and actor in the entire movie belongs to Florence Pugh, pew pew pew. This shouldn’t be a shocker to anyone if you have been following her recent winning streak. While her Russian accent isn’t what I call great, but it sounded better on her since she already has a deep husky voice that suits the accent better.
Everything on a technical standpoint is always good in these movies, expect for the action scenes which I found to be disappointing, as there was nothing memorable or exciting about any of it.
The final act is where things completely went off the rails and the CGI fight scenes looked bad. The visual effects during the final battle looked like one of those "director's cut" where they never finished the scene for the theatrical release but wanted to include it on the disc for completeness.
Oh, about the shocking reveal of Taskmaster, I really didn’t care. I guess we must wait a few years for the real Taskmaster, like the Mandarin in ‘Iron Man 3’.
Also, I feel like this movie should’ve focused more on Natasha's "family" backstory, because I think that would have been more interesting, but even with the 2-hour runtime, it felt rushed somehow. Marvel has been doing this for years now, but here I found the humor incredibly distracting and took away a lot of the serious scenes that could have had potential of being hard hitting. I just wish they let some of the tension or seriousness be exactly that, instead of throwing in a cheap joke to deflate the weight of the scene.
Marvel Studios seriously needs to shake up the formula a bit, because I’m starting to lose the will to live with these movies. Please, no more “grounded, concrete looking, superhero movies”, cause it’s getting so boring.
I'm sorry for coming across as negative, but the more I write the more negative I become towards the movie, as I can’t hide my disappointment and frustration.
Overall rating: Natasha deserves better.
Another fairly entertaining, yet mostly disposable half-assed Marvel film. Perhaps it could have been a hit if it was released a decade ago, but these formulaic superhero flicks are definitely starting to grow outmoded.
The usual Marvel template gets updated with a bunch of spy thriller stereotypes in the veins of "Mission: Impossible", together with a beating heart for family affairs that made me inevitably think of "The Incredibles" or even "Spy Kids". The ensemble cast has good chemistry, and, despite the emotional moments falling terribly flat and the gags feeling like they were written in the 90s, watching the characters interact was more than pleasant. The Russian accents coming and going for no apparent reason bothered me at first, but after hearing Ray Winstone's, I just stopped caring about it altogether.
Needless to say, the action scenes are always fun to watch. I just wish they would stop relying on confusing fast cuts and distracting CGI flourishes, though. I was actually surprised to read so many names in the special effects department as some of the chroma key shots were absolutely atrocious (the one with Yelena getting blasted away by an explosion deserves special mention). Still, the most distracting thing of the whole movie was Natasha's smart solution to resist the villain's pheromones, possibly the most WTF moment since the infamous "rubber lips" in "Batman & Robin".
Like all Marvel it’s fine and easy to watch. Just didn’t blow me away 6/10
Pros are:
David harbour and Florence Pugh carry the film adding much needed excitement and comedy to what I think is quite a dull character
Some of the set pieces are quite cool
Taskmaster is an interesting villain but has limited screen time
Added a bit more back story to one of the least fleshed out characters in Marvel
Cons:
Taskmaster screen time very limited and the backstory a bit strange which means it’s hard to care too much
I felt like there was room for more story as children but they literally just imply the rest with opening credits
Suffers from Marvels tendency to assume the audience knows the wider story and exactly what point in that story it is. This is set several movies ago so is confusing even if you have seen more recent ones.
Post credits scene getting a bit ridiculous referencing a minor character from the falcon and winter soldier show.
Black widow to me is quite flawed in Marvel, they have no super powers so they need something to endear them to the audience. Throughout MCU, the performance and script for Black Widow is relatively flat.
They did Natasha so wrong with this movie. Black Widow is my favourite from the mcu and therefore I was super excited to watch a backstory and a full solo movie of her. However, it felt so meh. The plot is generic and easily predictable, the characters had no depth whatsoever, even though there was an attempt, and the villain was not even a villain? He was dead in 10 minutes? His plan was dumb? It was all too easy, especially for someone with the skills on Natasha Romanoff. She's supposed to be a badass trained killer with a difficult childhood and trauma, yet somehow they turned her into a generic spy comedy film that my mom watches after 10pm on Saturdays. No, just no. Such a shame and a waste. And to think I cried my eyes out when the character got sacrificed (or made a great exit anyway), only to be brought back like this.
Edit: would've much better preferred to see what happened in Budapest with Clint or at least show us her training and how much she went through during her time in the Red Room, that would at least have been interesting, all that exposition was unnecessary.
This movie was weird. It's by far the least MCU movie out of the bunch. It tries to both encompass the MCU style while trying to copy Jason Bourne or Mission Impossible's style but without any kind of actual spy work. I like Natasha. I like Scarlett Johansson. And a movie about Black Widow is something that I've always wanted. And I still stand by the fact that this movie should've come out instead of the Captain Marvel one. This movie has problems, but it's nowhere near as bad as that one. Its introduction is rushed. It has little to no breathing room and establishes everything in a blink. Plus, that credits montage was weird. From there on, the movie is rather smooth. I liked the dynamic of the family a lot, especially between Natasha and Yelena. Actually, I liked pretty much everything up until the beginning of the 3rd act. Easily the weakest part of the movie. Both writing (the jokes sucked) and special effects wise.
Red Guardian was also cool, although it's a shame that he never actually did anything worthwhile in the movie.
This one gets a very light 6 out of 10 5 out of 10 from me.
EDIT: The more I think about the movie, the more I realize how much of a wasted opportunity it actually was. It could've legitimately been the best Marvel movie.
I cannot give any stars to this movie to be honest. 6 is too little and 7 too much. At least, I can say, that it wasn't as bad as second Wonder Woman movie.
The "father" - Idk how the hell he has lived so many years. Most of his "friends" should kill him after listening to him for a while. The gap between his character at the beginning (even after he was done with his cover in Cuba) and when we see him next is, in my opinion, unexplainable. I was so done.
The "mother" was turning so quickly in every scene she was that after the film I could say anything about her. They could remove her from the movie and I wouldn't really know.
It could be easily the movie about the sisters, they have the strenght in their acting and chemistry to lead the movie entirely by themselves which would give us some time for the "villain" (who isn't really a villain, more like just a bad guy that has luck to not die easily) to make an impression. I didn't even remembered his name that's how I didn't feel anything from him. And it's entirely on the creators, not the actor who had to work with what he had which was nothing.
Also the final battle.... jumping from one falling part of the building to another was so laughable... We've seen thin in Captain America Winter soldier and it was similar to Dr Strange, but they are humans with some powers so it was somehow explainable. I was surprised they did sth like that with a human falling from such height, bumping into so many things, glass windows, while already been through so much biting. Because of this, I wasn't even surprised that after all of this Natasha was standing straight, without so much as limping.
I knew this movie, with its placement in the Marvel timeline, was unnecessary. I just sooo wanted to have Black Widow movie and know her roots.... It didn't get anything I wanted. even as a farewell gift for killing her. It's just... sad.
Normally, I'd have a whole much of stuff to say... but this time, I just can't. The whole tone of the movie, especially after seeing the recent string of miniseries, felt kind of underwhelming. The plot had potential though. The plot wasn't the issue. Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh's chemistry fit pretty well together. I feel like other people didn't care for David Harbour, but I get what they were going for and I think they did reasonably well but definitely could have been better. I can't even blame him. The whole movie felt more like a Bourne film than a Marvel film.
The VFX were pretty bad.. like CW DC show bad. If you have even an amateur level of 3D rendering experience, you'll be able to spot every little thing that is CG. Every car, vehicle, or backdrop that isn't actually there stands out like a sore thumb. Incorrect lighting, overly reflective, just.. amateur AF..
On to the spoilery stuff...
First and foremost... I don't know who did it.. I don't know who approved it.. but this movie has committed an atrocity almost as egregious as Fox screwing up Deadpool in X-men Origins or Sony with Venom in the third Spiderman movie. They completely ruined what I assume was supposed to be Taskmaster. I don't even mind that they made Taskmaster a woman. If that was all they did, it'd have been perfectly fine, but they turned the character into a gimmick that got thrown aside and left to the unknown by the end instead of the badass higher level villain they could/should have been. Sure, they said they were taking her with them but.. that didn't get explained either.
I feel like they fell short on establishing a timeline. The movie starts out in the past, in.. 1995 I believe? and things jump forward and it took me a hot minute to figure out why the hell she was running.. Maybe I missed some text saying that it was post Civil War/pre Endgame. If I did, then that's my own fault but it honestly would have only been because I had such a difficult time focusing on the movie.
The entire movie feels more like an afterthought than an origin story. Loose ends galore. This movie was delay but still somehow felt rushed.
RESPECTFULLY, I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST THAT FLORENCE PUGH PLEASE STEP ON MY NECK. Please. Please? My girl carried this movie and I'm so sorry her back must be HURTING.
Okay let me try and write a review instead of an essay on why I love Florence Pugh. Ahem. This movie was so much fun!! The plot is predictable, but the action is entertaining enough that I didn't really mind. I thought the villain was kind of weak, there are some unrealistic plot jumps, and I really don't know why Marvel has a thing for not-that-good Russian accents, but I think I was too excited to see a Marvel movie in theaters to really care. I feel like the MCU really doesn't touch on Natasha's backstory, and therefore this film had to draw a lot from comics. I think this is a con for a comic fan and a movie-only fan regardless because for comic fans you can clearly see how much is missing and skimmed over (I really mean it when I say the villain is weakly developed), and for a movie fan, you're having to fill in gaps on your own knowledge (read: I was filling in what I knew from fanfiction HAHAHA). BUT!! I had a lot of fun, and it's a joy to see all these actors together on screen. I didn't think I would vibe with David Harbour in this role, but I liked him a lot. The music is gorgeous, the sets are gorgeous, the actors are gorgeous. I would watch it again in theaters. It's still a better movie than Age of Ultron. AND you get to watch Florence Pugh for like two hours. She cancels out any flaws. You can fight me on that!
I wasn't as hyped for this as I was for other MCU-movies, but it turned out to be an extremely entertaining movie. It's not the best MCU-movie by a long shot, but the character of Black Widow deserved this sendoff imho. Unfortunately, they didn't nail everything...
During the start of the movie, I thought this was a good example of how you make a female led action movie without cringy and on the nose feminist bs (like the Supergirl series), and I liked that a lot. Then the predictable reveal that Taskmaster was Dreykov's daughter hit hard and all that goodwill went straight out the window. It felt suuuuuper forced and added nothing. Natasha and Yelena were awesome at the start, but after that reveal it felt forced and cringy again. It was another example of: let's cram as much women as possible in this movie, because we have to nowadays. It's so disappointing and completely unnecessary. What's wrong with female heroes beating up a male bad guy?
Speaking of the bad guy, they could've done much more with Taskmaster. It was great to see Bucky's knife flip (I screamed a little when I saw it), but the character deserved more screen time. Regardless of his/her gender. ;)
All in all: great ending to Natasha's arc and if Yelena takes over her mantel in the MCU for the next decade, I'm on board with that. She's great too.
"Such a poser."</b
Every time I will be watching another Marvel film with Natasha Romanoff I can not think of her other than a poser. Thanks Yelena!
Anyway, Florence Pugh rocked this one. Hopefully she will be heard of again soon in the MCU! I enjoyed what they were going for and loved all of the banter. Scarlett Johansson again did a great job as Natasha and I'm said this will be our last showing of her but her story-line is complete and Florence Pugh showed us she's more than capable to take over the Black Widow mantel. The action was solid and I liked the car/motor-chase. Cate Shortland really did a solid job because for the entire runtime I was never bored for a second.
But! I do not like what they did with Taskmaster. There was so much for to get out of this. Which for me, took the movie down a notch. It's not that I hated it but it didn't feel right. And before I forgot damn, what did they try to do with that Nirvana cover? DAAAAMN.
Anyway, if you are into the Marvel Cinematic Universe you will not be bored. Really interested how they'll build up Phase 4.
A Black Widow movie is long overdue however it should've came out before she got killed off. I was expecting some spy espionage stuff, sadly it ended up being a generic action movie. That does not mean it was bad but I feel like it could have been better, especially when it came to the pacing and story. Some of the jokes didn't feel forced and the fighting scenes were top notch which is always a plus. Florence Pugh nailed her role as Yelena, definitely a highlight and I am looking forward to seeing more of her. The taskmaster reveal was a flop, marvel kept the identity under wraps to the point that when you look up the movie there is nothing about them just for it to be that?? Also, please tell me why the big bad was hyped up throughout the movie as this villain that no one can take down or find and then turned out to be a disappointment, LIKE I AM SO TIRED OF ONE-DIMENSIONAL VILLAINS. I said it before and I will say it again, it should've been Clint that died in Vormir and not Nat
Story = 7
Cinematography = 8
Soundtrack = 8
Production Design = 7
Acting = 7
Overall score = 7.5/10
I looked forward to this not because I've been blown away by the recent Marvel films - by the time Endgame arrived, I was past humouring the franchise if I'm honest - but because Scarlett Johansson deserved a standalone film before her time was up.
The worst Marvel film so far for me was Captain Marvel. Just tedious, inconsequential, Marvel-by-the-numbers. This is now 2nd on their list of piss poor films.
The opening 20 minutes were really good. Setting a scene that could have rivalled Winter Soldier - for me, the best of the franchise so far. But once the sisterly reunion was over, it went downhill fast. I think it was the cumulative effect of so many ropey accents. Even cockney geezer Ray Winstone shouldn't be given a role if he refuses to do voice lessons... Quite unforgivable.
I liked Olga Kurylenko, as always. I disliked that her stunt double was clearly a man for the first 2/3 of the film. How is that meant to be ratified by the viewer?
I thought the constant humour was an effort to be Thor Ragnorok-like because, you know, "all Australians are funny"... but that didn't work. And jokes about involuntary hysterectomies don't fall right 99 times out of 100, I'm guessing.
The plot was staid. The action generic. The script fine, I suppose, had it not been for those dreadful accents throughout. And the confinement of the time line needing to fit in with the rest of the franchise meant it was always going to end at a point we all knew it needed to. So the ending really was a damp squib.
5/10
PS. One thing that irked me a little was the unnecessary complaint by SJ during press for the film about feeling sexualised (though I don't recall where in the myriad plots) . Clearly the director and her had an agreement to do tracking shots of her arse several times during this film. If that's not hypocrisy, I don't know what is. For a film this average, I won't be holding a grudge though as I won't remember a single thing about this movie tomorrow.
Started out alright, a bit different from usual Marvel movies. Continued to be alright, though definitely had its issues, but then the third act turned into a generic, uninspiring superhero movie. I liked Florence Pugh as Yelena, and I think she'll be good in the MCU going forwards. I was never particularly a fan of the Black Widow character, and I always felt that she was a bit out of place in the main Avengers line-up (same with Hawkeye). I'll feel the same if Yelena is put into that role, but at least she seems to have a bit more charm/sass to her that I think I'd rather have. I had mixed feelings about David Harbour's character. On one hand, I quite liked him, and I found him amusing. But I was annoyed that he was only ever used as comic relief and never really got a moment to shine. A lot of the action in this movie feels quite silly, and the main characters have really ridiculous plot armour, surviving horrible car wreck after car wreck. It makes sense when someone like Captain America survives these situations, but when a regular woman with literally zero super powers or physical enhancements survives, it's downright annoying. It's a superhero movie, I get it, it's not supposed to be over the top realistic. But this was just too much.
Overall, the movie wasn't a bad way to spend two hours. It was alright, and it's nice to see the Black Window character get her own movie as a sendoff. Just don't expect anything more than a generic action flick.
I've said on many occasions I had zero interest in a Black Widow movie. In the first place she makes much more sense as a interstitial character gluing the MCU together. In the second place her story is over. What is the point of this?
I've also said that I've been wrong in so many occasions I'd be delighted to be wrong again here. For the most part I was. This is a movie that should have been made ages ago and it's a solid MCU film as good as any of the others. It does better than a lot of them in some ways. It doesn't throw in unnecessary love interests, it doesn't end in a giant CGI battle against anything much less a CGI bigger better version of herself.
Taskmaster is an interesting villain. They've flipped his character a lot which is kind of a shame because I think the mercenary that trains henchmen would fit rather nicely in the MCU and this movie in particular..
The final sequence involves a falling airship but having rewatched it I'm still unclear why the entire airship was exploding. The area was only losing a single engine, even our smart character acknowledged it was functionally a controlled descent. I can believe you can take down an airship. I can't buy the whole thing collapses with a SINGLE engine blowing up. Commercial airplanes won't self destruct with a single engine failure.
The whole movie I was convinced that they hired some unknown Russian actress to play Elena, right until I saw the credits. And so Florence Pugh is freaking amazing in this. Didn't expect that level of authenticity even in small gestures, she truly felt Russian. If she acting this way in her normal life too than give casting director a raise
Chemistry between sisters worked perfectly. I wish whole movie was centered only around them and close combat bad guys.
Overall style of the movie was uneven. It started with over the top action scene and ended with one. And those were the weakest parts of the film. The rest felt surprisingly grounded, even through none of the action scenes were. But they didn't break suspension of disbelief for some reason unlike the grand finale. Close combat scenes outshined any explosions around them anyway.
Russia as a backdrop was utilised as ridiculously and shallow as was expected. Don't know about the accents through. Would have to wait to watch english version for that. But hey there were no bears or balaika only Gulag. They even ate Olivier salad instead of Borscht. Small victories)
It's hard not to compare it to Winter Soldier. Both based on genre that I personally hate. Both movies had twists that were obvious. Both had ridiculous scenes in them (Zola and security design respectfully). Both pretty much hinted at countries real practices and policies as "main villains", but put the blame on a single individual and sadly didn't go anywhere with the critique of the whole system. And both movies I enjoyed despite their flaws thanks to characters and their interactions between each other, comedic one included.
Much like most of Marvels output, Black Widow is an action-packed comedy-drama with zero stakes, charming interplay between all the main characters, and fan favourite characters turned into one-note plot devices. (Why Taskmaster Marvel? First Mandarin, now this?!)
Interesting themes are punctuated with "nose exhale" inducing jokes and a vapid storyline that you'll be hard pressed to remember the specifics of following the post credits scene. Much of the screen time is given to loud, bombastic set pieces, with the more challenging character driven scenes cut short to make way for the next hand to hand fist fight or vehicle explosion. Black Widow has the oppurtunity to explore some interesting topics; a sleeper agent family struggling to understand whether the family bonds they share were merely theatrics or genuine. Child soldiers and the theft of their youth. Damaging human trafficking operations and Russian shadow war operatives. There's much to work with here.
Alternatively, Black Widow decides to squander all these avenues, leaving aside 5 minutes to address, work out and conclude each of these broad, challenging topics. Granted, other shows and movies have tackled these topics with much more tact and finesse, but it would have been interesting to see how Marvel could weave them into the core fabric of one of their main heroes.
All of this isn't to say Black Widow is a bad movie. Far from it. It's textbook Marvel formula. If you're here for a loud, action-filled romp made for the big screen with some decent quips throughout, you'll be more than satiated. The intro and final action sequences were very good. Naturally, Florence Pugh was great. Just don't expect anything to be explored past the booms and the bangs.
The things they did to Taskmaster are unforgivable.
I actually enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the movie. There is a lot of unexpected humor. Florence Pugh and David Harbour really knock it out of the park, but it fails to bring it together in the end. The result is a bunch of scenes that are intended to be emotional, but ultimately play out as forced and borderline cringeworthy.
Black Widow is not a Torretto. Turning this super spy into an emotional vulnerable individual searching for family plays out as disconnected as you'd expect. Even worse is the lack of a present villain for the first half 2/3rds of the movie makes their confrontation feel less poignant despite the supposed deep ties.
This could have been solved somewhat through a Taskmaster that actually talked, but instead they decided to do what Wolverine: Origins did to Deadpool and take one of the more talkative characters and turn them into a soulless robot that only follows orders. I mean that almost literally.
As a result, the shifts of allies and the end confrontation just ends up falling flat and irrational. There is a lot of good substance here that rewrites could have saved, but the result we're left with here just feels ill conceived and weirdly placed, like a Black Widow movie getting made in the first place after the main character has already been killed in the future.
In Captain Marvel, I didn’t like the main character, but I thought the movie around her was quite solid.
Black Widow is the exact opposite: I quite liked the two leads, but the movie surrounding them doesn’t really work.
Pros:
- Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh are easily the most entertaining part of the film.
- I liked the first act. It feels like Cate Shortland is trying to do an impression of a Jason Bourne movie. It’s fairly humourless, the cinematography is bleak, and the score is intense. It has a tone that no other MCU film has.
- The action (minus the final battle) is fairly well done. As per usual, less editing would’ve made it better, but at least it feels weighty.
Cons:
- The story itself isn’t that interesting. The themes and main mcguffin are oddly similar to Captain Marvel, though it’s not executed as well. The villains also fail to make an impression.
- This movie really loses its identity as it goes along, to the point where it turns more into a generic Marvel movie as it goes on, and eventually a generic action blockbuster by the third act. Everything gets way too big and bloated for its own good.
- Not a fan of the Russian accents, they sound very tacky. Just let everyone speak with a normal American accent, I can look past the fact they’re Russians. Besides, they even had a story based reason to ditch the Russian accents entirely.
- I found David Harbour quite cringeworthy in this.
- The main characters are protected by strong plot armour. Most characters should’ve been killed 3-4 times based on the things that happen during the action scenes. This isn’t even a ‘suspend your disbelief, it’s an action movie’ situation, it gets really ridiculous, to the point where it’s almost Fast and Furious level.
- The pacing is a bit inconsistent, you really feel it slowing down during the second act.
Finally, I want to address that I already find the use of Nirvana songs in movies like these quite distasteful, but the cover that's used during the credits literally sucked all the life out of the song.
4.5/10
Review by ALAMLEDPVIP 5BlockedParent2023-01-11T19:01:11Z
Black Widow is the long-awaited solo outing for Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff, taking place after Captain America: Civil War. The movie centers on Natasha's past catching up with her in the form of Russian 'super'-soldier Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Weiss), her surrogate parents, and Yelena Belova (Pugh), her 'sister'. The film focuses primarily on the family drama between Natasha and Yelena, and is at its strongest when it does so. However, the villainous side of the story is lacking, with Ray Winstone's Dreykov, his mind-controlled Black Widows, and the underwhelming Taskmaster (Kurylenko) falling short. Pugh's debut in the MCU is a standout aspect, positioning her for future stories, but the film suffers from a lack of focus on Natasha and a surplus of backstory, exposition and set-ups. The first half of the movie is stronger than the latter stages, with a larger scope in the third act, but still lacking in spy elements. Although the positives of strong performances, good visuals, and action sequences outweigh the negatives, Black Widow ends up feeling average in comparison to other MCU productions.
Black Widow es la tan esperada salida en solitario de Natasha Romanoff de Scarlett Johansson, que tiene lugar después de Capitán América: Civil War. La película se centra en el pasado de Natasha poniéndose al día con ella en la forma del "súper" soldado ruso Alexei Shostakov/Guardián Rojo (Harbour) y Melina Vostokoff (Weiss), sus padres sustitutos, y Yelena Belova (Pugh), su "hermana". . La película se enfoca principalmente en el drama familiar entre Natasha y Yelena, y es más fuerte cuando lo hace. Sin embargo, falta el lado malvado de la historia, con el Dreykov de Ray Winstone, sus Black Widows controladas por la mente y el decepcionante Taskmaster (Kurylenko) que se quedan cortos. El debut de Pugh en el MCU es un aspecto destacado, posicionándola para futuras historias, pero la película adolece de una falta de enfoque en Natasha y un exceso de historia de fondo, exposición y escenarios. La primera mitad de la película es más fuerte que las últimas etapas, con un alcance más amplio en el tercer acto, pero aún carente de elementos de espionaje. Aunque los aspectos positivos de las actuaciones sólidas, las buenas imágenes y las secuencias de acción superan a los negativos, Black Widow termina sintiéndose promedio en comparación con otras producciones de MCU.