‘Black, Black Widow, baby.’ I’ve been a naughty Marvel fan this year; I’m still yet to sink my teeth into WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or Loki. But considering this movie was supposed to come out last year and was delayed, I still feel like I can celebrate that I’m aligned with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s chronological order of release … Go me! The trailer for this movie makes the movie ahead of us look excellent – Florence Pugh and Rachel Weisz are out-and-out stars, and I think we’ve all felt for a very long time that Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanov deserves her own story, hinting at a troublesome and dramatic past several times. I’ve heard people suggest that this is the movie that should have come out in the place of Captain Marvel, and I’m looking forward to using hindsight to see how very right they are.
Taking place amidst Captain America: Civil War, Natasha Romanov (Scarlett Johansson) is on the run and plans to lay low, until she receives a package that gets her messed up with a secret assassin called the Taskmaster. Our Black Widow, traces the package back to her ‘sister’, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh); a former Black Widow herself, Yelena more recently defected thanks to the effects of a toxin that breaks down the evil organisation’s sinister mental programming. Belova berates Romanov for never coming back to look for her, but informs her that the Black Widow program, that takes orphaned girls and turns them into weapons, is still active. The pair decide it’s time to thwart the organisational chief, Dreykov (Ray Winstone), and dismantle the program once and for all… They just may need some help from the pair of Russian operatives that once posed as their parents many years ago – Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), and Russian ‘Captain America’ equivalent, the Red Guardian’s Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour). Black Widow is directed by Cate Shortland.
I’m going to jump straight on a negative right from the start because I feel like Black Widow is shot, or edited, like crap; it’s not the first time I’ve had trouble with an action sequence in a stand-alone Marvel movie, but it’s the entire movie here that appears rushed and shoddy in its execution. I’m sorry director Shortland, I only just discovered that you’re Australian and I want you to do well, and I will be complimenting your movie later on, but I often found I had to look beyond the delivery of Black Widow to enjoy it. I look at the credits and I see all the film and stunt units on location – Morocco, Budapest, Norway – and it just disappoints me that their work is not more on show. I doubt that any of these action sequences will be memorable for years to come, and there are a lot of them. It’s disappointing that in an action movie, the action is not properly the focus. It’s ironic that Black Widow is watching a James Bond movie, Moonraker, when her generator goes off, because there is a series of movies that prided itself on practical stunts and visual spectacle for a long time. Maybe it’s because so much is brushed up with CGI these days, movies don’t want to linger on an action shot for too long, worried that people will figure out that it looks fake, or the action, although essential, is not valued as important. But this alternative, of quick cuts to spinning vantage points, makes what’s happening look chaotic and extremely hard to follow.
Anyway, put that aside for now and let’s talk about the story. The story is great; I think it covers a lot of what we really want to see in a Black Widow movie, showcasing her durability and determination. I love all the characters, with Florence Pugh and David Harbour’s performances seriously threatening to outshine our titular hero. The pre-credit introduction could be the best in the entire MCU; the three years this ‘family’ spent together, posing to infiltrate the American government, really meant something different to all of them; Melina was there for the cause, and Alexei, the glory. For Natasha, it was a break from the regimented torture she was accustomed and would provide the source of the life she would covet for years to come. And for sweet innocent Yelena, it was the only life she knew and her happiest memories. Any time these four characters are interacting opens up the movie to an intriguing emotional depth that these big franchise movies often navigate around; it’s terrific.
I think we all also wanted to see how the Black Widow organisation is run and we wanted to see our Black Widow take it down. I would have expected Clint Barton by her side her in the process, but instead, the movie includes a short flashback to indicate that her first attempt to destroy her past life was ineffective. The movie clearly had some decisions to make as to when the movie would be set – there’s a few Black Widow time-periods I’d like to see; one before the Avengers and her early days with S.H.I.E.L.D, and another after the blip, where Black Widow claimed the mantle of Avengers director. It’s an interesting choice setting this during Civil War – does it fit neatly with Captain America: Civil War; honestly, I don’t know. I’d have to revisit Captain America: Civil War, and revisit it I should because that’s an awesome movie. All I know is that Romanov was surely one busy laddie for a short while around that time. I would worry that the Civil War adds a distraction to the stand-alone mission in this movie, but that doesn’t matter too greatly. I doubt they’d put an Iron Man mission amidst a Spider-Man story, but anyway. This spot in the MCU timeline allows Taskmaster the catalogue she needs to be an extensive copycat, and I guess Black Widow, as the womanly stereotype would suggest, can multi-task.
The third act takes a few rushed conveniences – digital face masks, severed facial nerves and gas deactivating chips. I was actually applauding this movie for containing a little of the red-stuff, but when Black Widow slams her face on the desk, her nose should be gushing blood, right? It’s a nit-pick, sure, but it would also have worked as a great visual identifier for the lengths Black Widow will go to defeat her villains. But beyond all that, at least the villains are good – it’s hard to make ‘evil-comic-book-guy-in-a-suit’ stand out these days because there’s been so many of them, but I thought Ray Winstone as Dreykov was different enough, helped masterfully by a menacing opening credits set up like a ruthless European gangster series. Taskmaster has a bit of a Darth-Vader-like presence about her, and giving her the ability to imitate the other Avengers we already know and love allowed the movie to recycle moves and poses from other movies for us to appreciate again. Taskmaster isn’t that to dissimilar to the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Deadpool, you think? Amalgamating the abilities of others with a silent stealth? But I shouldn’t insult her like that. She’s also kind’ve reminiscent of similar MCU villains we’ve seen before (Ghost in the Ant-Man sequel, and Yellowjacket in Ant-Man) but Taskmaster still brings her own spin, and tops that pile for me. Yet, adding another to the third act conveniences is who Taskmaster is, letting Black Widow off the hook for the most callous decision she is thought to have done in her past, and Taskmaster, along with Dreykov, reminded me of that weary Luke Skywalker line in Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker; ‘no one’s ever really gone’. However, as Black Widow is already up there as one of the grittiest superheroes under the Disney umbrella, I suppose we couldn’t have this ex-assassin hero kill a child too.
3.5
P.S. Since Black Widow gets a post-credits scene, I want my own post-review paragraph to discuss it. I didn’t know who Julia Louis-Dreyfus was playing but it’s interesting enough that she is joining the MCU; welcome aboard! (If I was up to date on my television shows like a good boy, I’d know she is Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, working for some very important people). As for the scene teasing that Yelena will go up against Hawkeye, I feel like we already know how that’s going to go down – both characters are awesome, we like both characters, so they may butt heads but they aren’t going to spar to the death and they will eventually be on the same side; I could be wrong. But I guess if their future works as an in for Hawkeye to introduce Yelena into the fold of the Avengers, then that can’t be anything but good. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. But get Florence Pugh in the wider MCU immediately! When I think back on her movies like Little Women and Midsommar (and Black Widow), those movies are twice as good because she’s in them. She’s a treasure. And she’s even such a fan of Scrubs that she’s dating Zach Braff; talk about taste.
P.P.S Does this movie ever reveal who is creating this gas for the Widows to break free? It’s Miranda, yeah? I thought it was Miranda; it’s got to be Miranda. But I’m sure the movie never confirms this.
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