Black Widow Review (with Spoilers)

[jimhines]

My son and I went out with a couple of friends last weekend to see Black Widow. First movie in a theater in well over a year.

The short review: I liked it. Fun, fast-paced, with lots of action and some humor. And it’s well past time Black Widow got her own movie.

Longer review will have spoilers…

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This felt a little smaller than some of the recent Marvel movies. There are no universe-threatening villains, no collapsing timelines, no magic or spaceships. And that works. It was almost refreshing, to be honest. It’s nice to not feel like we’re constantly trying to top the last spectacle.

We finally get to see more of Black Widow’s past, starting with a deep cover assignment when she was just a kid with her family, living in Ohio. The family dynamics were my favorite part of the movie. I loved that they all have some level of the same “real vs. fake” struggle we’ve seen with Natasha all along, and the actors do a wonderful job with it.

I particularly loved David Harbour’s take on Red Guardian, aka Natasha’s fake father. He dove into his character, growling and chewing scenery and being a clueless super soldier dad. The best parts were when the whole family came together, whether it was over a meal or working to take down (literally) the Red Room.

Then there’s Yelena, the younger sister. She was the most invested in their family, insisting it was real for her even as the others deny it. So it’s fitting that she’s the one who started the whole reunion into motion. And I loved watching her banter with her sister and call out Black Widow’s habit of posing.

Melina didn’t work quite as well for me. I think in part it’s because we didn’t see as much of her. Unlike Red Guardian, who’d been stuck in jail, Melina spent many years doing some Pretty Evil Crap. Despite her redemption bit at the end, it didn’t feel as believable or as earned.

The movie’s set after the events of Civil War, and I wish it had come out back then. The stakes didn’t feel as high, because we knew nothing would really change in the larger Marvel universe. Except maybe for that credits scene, where Yelena and her dog visit Natasha’s grave (which was beautiful), and we discover Yelena has been working for the Countess, who assigns her to go kill Hawkeye.

I know we’re setting up the Hawkeye series with this, but it felt…off. After all the good Yelena’s done, how does she end up working for a villain? And why would she accept an assignment to go after Natasha’s best friend without even asking any questions? Maybe the Hawkeye series will explain that better.

Thematically, I really liked the ending, and having all of the Widows come together to take care of each other–even Taskmaster–and to go after the deep-cover Widows that are still out there.

I know there have been complaints about Taskmaster’s character being 1) untrue to the comics and 2) a woman, but I thought it fit really well into the movie.

All in all, a fun movie. Some fun lines, entertaining (if a bit over-the-top) action, and good characters. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing more of Red Guardian and Yelena.

What did the rest of you think?

Comments

[swan_tower]

I very much liked that this one was more personal. Yes, at the end there's the reveal of "omg so many deep-cover Widows!," but it isn't something where Drakov is thirty seconds from using them to take over the world; they're just out there. And prior to that point, the reason for going after the Red Room is simply because it's evil, not because there's an impending apocalypse. So much of the story gets driven by the character interactions -- including the stuff with Taskmaster, which I came to with no knowledge of comics canon and therefore no opinion except that I liked what I saw on the screen.

I agree on the counts of Melina and it being better if this had come out after Civil War, though for me that didn't affect the stakes (I'm perfectly capable of enjoying movies where I know what the outcome will be, e.g. historical pieces -- Apollo 13 still has me on the edge of my seat even though I've watched it a dozen times). I do think the writers did a nice job of slotting it into that gap, though. My main gripe was that it took a bit too long to get its feet underneath it. In particular, I think the credits sequence could have been a bit less impressionistic and conveyed more of the intervening story.

As for Yelena, we'll see where that goes. If she's gotten a sufficiently biased story about Hawkeye and doesn't know the Countess is a bad guy, then I could see her actions making sense; the tag scene didn't give enough context to say for sure.

[offcntr]

I enjoyed the heck out of this, loved the family dynamic, and yeah, not having the fate of the world hinge on it. Appreciated the graveside scene, as it never felt like Endgame spent enough attention on mourning Natasha.

And then, as I was getting in the car, my brain sez HOLD ON... If Nat and Melina were wearing each other's faces to infiltrate the Red Room, having put on the masks at Melina's... How did Nat know where to fly the jet? That whole exchange between pilot and prisoner--"Now you know how they stayed above the radar"--makes no sense.

Did I miss something? Or did they miss a plot whole big enough to fly a QuinJet into?

[solarbird]

My thought on that is, "coordinates are coordinates."

[solarbird]

I really liked it. Much much more than I expected to. I'm glad to finally have an understanding of Black Widow in the MCU - a better one, I mean - and I really enjoyed the dynamics between the various characters. I just thought it was pretty great.

[thewayne]

Sadly, I was kinda *meh* about it. It was a good action movie, but I think it was far too late in being made/released. I think had it been made/released when it was set, I would have enjoyed it more. Perhaps? Hard to say.

As it happens, I just finished Falcon/Winter Soldier last night, so I sort of reverse-learned about the Countess, which was interesting. Unfortunately F/WS is not going to continue for a S2, which I think is a pity.

But back to BW. Good threads to link back into the MCU, lots of Widows to be rescued, we shall see what happens.

[jeliza]

We're getting a Cap 4 movie with Sam and Bucky, with a lot of the same writers.

[thewayne]

Cool! I’ve been wondering how they’ll bridge continuity between what’s shown on Disney+ and theatrical releases. Not everyone is going to subscribe to their streaming.

[jeliza]

I've been waiting for this movie for YEARS and was not disappointed, albeit not copmletely thrilled. They invented the midquel instead of paying attention to what the fans were asking for ages ago. (Yes, I'm bitter.) Like you, I liked that it was more of a spy movie, similar vibe to Winter Soldier instead over the top like most of the others.

The alternate take on Drakov's Daughter and Taskmaster seemed a reasonably clever way to fit that within the constraints of a world in which actors age, though Nat being emotionally tortured most by the death of one child in a universe where she also did the hospital fire is a little dubious. I still wanted born in the 40s Natasha with a nat/bucky relationship but oh well.

I don't think the Countess is really advertising herself as a villain to her recruits, and I get the impression they aren't going to use either of her canon backstories. I also wonder if that was the original end credits scene, since originally it was going to be released in May 2020, three months before the planned premiere of FatWS.