Black Widow - Review
When Marvel revealed that they were going to do a movie around the Black Widow, one of the MCU’s most dangerous spies, there were a lot of theories as to what it could be like, then we got Endgame and the end for Natasha Romanov. Thankfully, Marvel don’t make movies in chronological order, so slotting in after the events of Civil War, we finally got to see what the Black Widow could do on her own, but was it worth all this waiting?
The movie doesn’t hold back, it starts out with an idyllic family setting, with a couple of young girls playing outside, before heading inside for dinner, but before that can start, the father arrives home and we soon discover that they are not what they appear to be. Leaving everything there, the family makes a desperate escape from someone, only to arrive at an airfield on the outskirts of town, and after a dramatic chase, they escape and fly down to Cuba. The family, as it turns out, wasn’t a real family, but instead were a unit of Russian spies, living the American suburban life, in order to steal classified secrets, it was a nice touch to the start of the movie, given that during that time, reports of real Russian sleeper cells were happening, that I didn’t like was the scene that took place once the family landed the plane, it feel pointless and in the grand scheme of things provided nothing for the movie.
I think, what the makers were aiming for, was that Natasha was a protector from an early age, but the thing is, we already know who she was, at least as far as the movies showed us, so having another reason to do so, felt pointless. But with that done, it brought us back to the present, or at least a few years in the past, but it has Romanov hiding in a bathroom, attempting to evade capture from Secretary Ross, but as the ultimate spy, she easily evades the man and his army. We then cut to a squad of folks, chasing down someone in the streets of Morocco, and while the target is captured, it gives them a moment to break a vial and spray a red mist into the face of their capturer, which inadvertently breaks them out of the mind control that they are under, something we didn’t know was happening at the time, but without any plans to be made, the rest of the vials are quickly picked up and they flee.
The two individual setups come to fruition when Natasha and the blonde agent from earlier are reunited in Budapest and we learn that they are the same girls from the opening of the movie. The movie then quickly escalates things to the point that the Red Room, where Natasha was trained in how to be a spy, was not destroyed like it was thought and the man responsible is still running it. That man is Russian General Dreykov, who was thought dead for the longest of times, as Natasha’s defection mission to S.H.I.E.L.D. would end when he was dead, a bomb took care of that, or so was thought. Once the ‘sisters’ realise that he is not and they decided to take him down, things ramp up from there, with a prison break, an avalanche and then a family dinner.
This was something that I enjoyed, not the juxtaposition of a family dinner after a prison break, but more that the movie was willing to slow thing down, to show these characters most of which we have only known for a short time, in a setting where it has a real sense of normalcy. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had those moments as well, showing that while they might be heroes, they are not always going to be suited up and ready to go and are behind it all, real people and here we get that same effect. What is a problem though is that their family dinner is ruined by Melina, who has alerted the Red Room of their presence, after it was revealed the theft at the start of the movie, was the tech that helped the new Black Widows be programmed, by her, a former Red Room participant herself. Of course, that does push the story forward, but it was so clear as to what was going to happen and by using that same tired story trope, it left me hoping that Melina wouldn’t survive, just so she could provide some semblance of recompense for her actions.
The thing that really confused me though, was the Red Room itself, not a secret facility that trained assassins, that I was ok with, but a mega floating secret facility, that I don’t agree with at all, for one very big reason. There have been countless times when things have taken to the skies in the MCU and no-one ever noticed a giant floating city, or the countless planes flying up into the skies and vanishing, or how about when Ultron raised Sokovia up into the air, along with the old S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, no one noticed a floating city a thousand kilometres off to their right? If there was a line about how it was a newer facility or something, then sure, that could explain why no one had seen it before, but it lacked the retroreflective panels that we saw in the first Avengers movie, so anyone near it, only needed to look up.
While there are ways to get around the Red Room, you can’t ignore the fact that they managed to screw up yet another iconic Marvel villain in Taskmaster, yes, the abilities were the same, but that is about it. In the comics, Taskmaster is known as someone who trains baddies, but also uses their skills to go after The Avengers and heroes on their own, if the price is right and that is not what we got here. I have no issues with the MCU version of the character being female, in one of the earlier fights with Taskmaster fighting against Black Widow, the silhouette appeared to be female to me, but I have issues with the origin story. Taskmaster has always been one to use his abilities to further his own goals, whatever they happen to be at the time, but here, Taskmaster is nothing buy a puppet to be used by Dreykov and the creation also makes little sense, watching the movie highlights this. Taskmaster could have been an incredible adversary for the MCU to enjoy, in the movies and shows to come, but instead, we got a watered-down version of them, with little reason to care about the character.
This brings us to the new additions to the MCU, without a doubt the star of the newcomers is Florence Pugh, who played Yelena Belova, Natasha’s younger sister. Both David Harbour and Rachel Weisz deliver strong performances as the ‘parents’ of their little family dynamic with Harbour’s Red Guardian always trying to have an emotional moment, but never really understanding that the timing might not be right for them. Even though his character picks the wrong times to try and be honest and open, Harbour manages to make each attempt feel genuine and you really do feel for him, even if he fails more than he succeeds. Weisz’s performance is a little less balanced, there are a few moments when you feel for her, given her characters background, but most of the time, she plays things in such a stoic way, it is hard to tell what she is thinking, which makes decisions that she makes feel a little random.
Ray Winstone is a solid actor, he portrays a lot of great characters in a lot of movies and shows, but here, he is not interesting at all, his portrayal of Dreykov is marred by the fact that he sounds more South African than he does Russian. It also doesn’t help the situation that he isn’t imposing as a character, physically he doesn’t pose a threat and even when he gets angry and rages against Natasha, it doesn’t come across as anything more than a bully who is being ignored. Taskmaster, brought to life on the screen by Olga Kurylenko also fits this mould, there are moments when the character is super imposing, the motorbike chase is one example, but for the rest of the movie, they feel more like a scarecrow, meant to be threating whilst standing still. While Kurylenko clearly had limited ability to showcase her acting talents, the few times we get to see her face, there is never enough time to connect with the person inside the suit.
As far as action goes, this movie has a lot of it, some moments, like the motorbike chase reminded me a videogame series, but due to most of the fights being close quarters combat focused, some of the action is a little too choppy for the screen. Watching the fight between the sisters when they reconnect after all those years, the camera work was so jumpy, that it could have been a fight taken from the Borne series of films. Director Cate Shortland has a history of creating movies that dive into the mind of their female leads, but those movies have never been as action focused as this one is and it shows that she doesn’t quite understand the flow of fight. The sequences are fine, there is a lot to enjoy in all of them, but at times the flow is a little disjointed, even the big fight at the end between Natasha and the many Widows, is harder to keep track off.
As the movie that kicks off Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow is a solid addition to the Pantheon of Marvel movies, not to be confused with the Pantheon in Marvel Comics. While I have trouble accepting that after all the good Natasha has done in the movies, she still felt that her ledger was red here, her acceptance of her past puts her in a good spot for her final showings. While most of the new characters are good, Marvel didn’t make for compelling baddies across the board, which undercuts some of the tension the movie is aiming to build and though I would have liked to have had Taskmaster be a long-term antagonist for the MCU moving forward. As the movie that brought Marvel back to the cinema, we got a nice outing, not stellar by any stretch of the imagination, but still a fun ride and while the action is a little jumpy at times, the movie has a fair amount of heart to compensate and it feels all the better for it.
The Score
8.0
The Pros
+Adding more explanation about the Red Room and Natasha's expereince within it is very welcome
+Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh have a fun dynamic from the outset
The Cons
-Neither of the two baddies of the film feel like they are imposing, outside of one specific moment
-A lot of the fighting is done hand-to-hand, which is fine, but the edit makes everything hard to follow
