Revenge with family is sweet… kinda.

“At Some Point, We All Have To Choose Between What The World Wants You To Be And Who You Are.” - Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow)

The Broken Hearts Gallery Poster — Black Widow Movie Poster (c/o IMDb)

Black Widow

PG-13

9 July 2021 (USA)

2hrs 14 mins

Available on Disney+ and theaters worldwide

Directed by Cate Shortland

Story by Jac Schaeffer & Ned Benson

Starring Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, Rachel Weisz

Synopsis:

Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy, and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

Plot

The film starts off with a flashback to 1995, Ohio where a young Natasha and her “family” are going undercover to retrieve secret files from a HYDRA-infested S.H.I.E.L.D. After their mission, Natasha and Yelena were taken to the Red Room to be trained under Dreykov’s command. 21 years later, the main plot follows Natasha after Captain America: Civil War where she and Steve have gone into hiding after escaping the government and Tony Stark. While she’s laying low, she encounters the Taskmaster and almost dies, who is after something that Yelena left with Natasha unknowingly. After the encounter, Natasha goes to find Yelena, and together they decide to find the new location of the Red Room that Dreykov has hidden from the world. Along the way, they seek the help of their “parents”, Alexei who is stuck hiding in a Sokovian prison (srsly, what is up with David Harbor and Russian prisons?), and Melina who’s doing experiments on a farm outside St. Petersburg. With the four of them working together “as a family” once again, they try to take down Dreykov and the Taskmaster, to save the remaining Widows stuck in the Red Room.

Warning: violence and death.

Also, a pretty long review ahead.

This is a mostly, spoiler-free review.

Ria: Black Widow is probably one of the longest awaited movies. The reasons are as follows: Black Widow is the only woman in the original six Avengers and has never had an origin movie, the bloody pandemic. I have waited for so long to get the backstory of Black Widow. She’s one of my favorite characters ever mostly because she’s carrying the feminism in the group. She’s so badass and I just love her character of being so confident and strong on her own.

Jhanya: Cheers to another Marvel movie! It may have been delayed, but it didn’t disappoint. Underwhelming and mid-tier? Maybe. But not too disappointing for sure. Black Widow follows the typical Marvel Superhero Movie format of “getting your chance to keep important object X out of the hands of military leader Y by taking down massive airship Z” (“Honest Trailers | Black Widow'' via Screen Junkies). But, if I’m being completely blunt here, Black Widow doesn’t center around Black Widow or Natasha Romanoff’s backstory. It’s mainly a setup for Natasha’s MCU Phase 4 replacement, Yelena (Florence Pugh). Harsh, I know, but it is what it is. Black Widow lacks the Natasha Romanoff we all wanted to know more about for the past 8 or so years.

Don’t get me wrong. The film isn’t short of the MCU charm we’ve learned to love, the usual superhero plot, and epic, well-coordinated stunts from the cast, especially Natasha herself. Black Widow is an overall, good superhero movie. BUT (of course, there’s a but), it is anything but a Black Widow solo movie.

Ria: Similar to Jhanya, I’m also quite disappointed that Black Widow still isn’t an origin story of Black Widow. I really wanted to know what happened in the famous Budapest, more of what happened in her childhood and such. I didn’t want the quick montage that showed basically everything. It was kinda disappointing for me also that they focused more on introducing the new character for Phase 4 – Yelena. Don’t get me wrong, I love her so much (maybe as much as Natasha), but the movie I expected was supposed to be about Natasha, Black Widow. What made up for that small sadness are the awesome stunts throughout the movie. I really do love Black Widow for her awesome stunts and being such a “poser” hehe.

Jhanya: The film mainly follows Natasha’s adventure post-Civil War to take down supposedly dead Dreykov and his also supposedly dead Red Room. As the first known defected agent, our MC aims to help the remaining Widows stuck in a mind-controlled daze. But what superhero film doesn’t have the main lead building a team along the way to defeat the bad guy (ngl this sounded so much like Space Jam rn lmao). And personally, this is what makes Black Widow, not a solo film. We didn’t deal with and confront Natasha’s inner demons. We just brute forced our way out of it, Marvel-style.

They mentioned serious problems and topics but brushed it off as something way less than it should be. It tried to show how Natasha is haunted by her killing of Dreykov’s daughter during her first attempt at destroying the Red Room but fails when throughout the film, they made it seem that she already got over it. This ultimately doesn’t work for the audience and their emotions during the big reveal because they brushed it off throughout the previous scenes. Sure, some can argue that the movie is about Natasha learning that she had, and still actually does have a family outside the Avengers. Which makes her death during Endgame even sadder than it already is. But I thought, like most fans did, that this film was about Black Widow’s darker past. Unfortunately, it’s not which made it more underwhelming for me.

Ria: The plot of Black Widow focuses on the revenge of Natasha on Dreykov, the bad guy who made her into the ultimate spy, Yelena the ultimate assassin, and continues to train innocent young girls by controlling their minds. Black Widow’s plot is also the usual superhero movie. What really lacked from the movie is the emotional confrontation not with the family but with just Natasha’s character. Since the first Avengers movie, Marvel has already built a good foundation on the demons of Natasha so I expected Marvel to place importance on it. However, I feel they just skimmed past it, and then Natasha’s self-growth is just implied. And just like Jhanya, the emotional placement of some scenes didn’t work as well. It made the scenes underwhelming instead of overwhelming.

Jhanya: Now, talking about the actual film, I’m gonna be honest and say that there were 2 different movies. The first third, which was a gritty, dark, and grey spy thriller, and the other two-thirds was a colorful, action-packed, blockbuster MCU film. The start of the movie didn’t feel like a Marvel film, AND I LOVED IT. Natasha gave me very strong Jason Bourne vibes, which got me hooked, and looking forward to more gritty action scenes like her fight with the Taskmaster in the beginning. But then Taskmaster and the other Widows just decided to attack Natasha and Yelena in broad daylight. With a tank on the street. And in a very crowded train station. I don’t know. Although the stunts were on point for the whole chase sequence between them, I was confused. I thought that the Widows and Dreykov were trying to “hide in the shadows”? Isn’t that the whole point of his project??? Anyway, I think that’s where the film started changing its theme. The movie became the usual Marvel movie that we’ve come to be very familiar with. And of course, there were the usual Avengers mentions. Constantly reminding us that this was still an MCU film and not a Spy-Thriller.

Ria: I actually didn’t think of the whole movie as two movies, but Jhanya makes an excellent point. I did see a drastic change in the movie’s mood and tone halfway. Dark to the usual MCU sort of happy aura. And just like Jhanya, I preferred the darker tone. It fits Black Widow quite well (as I said, her inner demons). It had me hooked and showed me a different side to Black Widow. Then, collateral damage. I swear Marvel’s favorite word after Civil War was collateral damage. It’s like they didn’t care about other people anymore. I mean what’s with the bloody tank in broad daylight going through all the cars. I feel bad for the cars. Anyways, that was sort of the pivotal moment when everything started becoming mainly an MCU movie and not the dark theme it once had.

Jhanya: I understand that at the end of the day, Marvel wanted to have a Marvel film. But they had such a missed opportunity with this one. They could’ve dived deeper into the Black Widow project. They could’ve made a bigger deal of the fact that girls were being kidnapped all around the world just to be mind-controlled killing machines. And this step in a different direction would have made a spy thriller movie on par with the Bourne films. They had all the elements at their expense and yet decided to go with the Disney family-friendly genre :’). Speaking of mind control, I did not know that at all. Like, I thought Widows were like that mainly because they were trained. And to be honest, it would’ve been so epic if they didn’t show Yelena being cured at the start with the gas. That could have made for an even more exciting and nail-biting fight scene between her and Natasha at the start because the audience would think that she was still under Dreykov’s control.

Okay, at this point I’m rambling/ranting, but yeah, in summary, I’m very underwhelmed with how they conveyed the overall plot.

Ria: Jhanya and I have super similar thoughts on the plot. I feel quite underwhelmed by the lack of emotional confrontation with Natasha and the theme became quite the usual Marvel movie. It’s just such a shame, to be honest.

Jhanya: Now that I’m done nitpicking on this film, let’s talk about the characters.

First, the namesake of this film, Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff herself. Can I just say that Natasha Romanoff can be the love child of Jason Bourne and Ethan Hunt? From her dark, assassin, murderous past, and epic fight scenes to her being invincible because of the multiple injuries she avoided throughout this movie. I legit laughed every time Natasha should’ve died after being hit by Taskmaster or falling from ultra-high places. The film gave Natasha a bit more depth and expounded on what we already knew from her past appearances in MCU films. (that is all from me for Natasha. I will let Ria take over the Natasha fangirling from here xD)

Ria: I swear Ethan Hunt can’t with all of Natasha’s stunts. I mean come oooon she was practically flying everywhere and anywhere in that ship. But, I must say, her character in this movie just made me love Black Widow so much more. With a bit more depth (but still quite lacking), Natasha really proved to be a real star. Black Widow is also the best poser there is, hehe.

Jhanya: The family dynamic of Natasha, Yelena, Alexei, and Melina followed the usual family dynamic of MCU. Even though they started as an undercover family in Ohio, they grew to love one another after 3 years of pretending. Especially Yelena, who considers them as her only family. Alexei and Melina also secretly grew to love each other, but never got to pursue it romantically after the mission due to their situation. And Natasha is the angsty eldest kid who refuses to acknowledge them as a family because of all the hurt it brought her after they separated for good. And like every Marvel film family dynamic, in the end, they come together and defeat the bad guy, only to be separated again so they can move on with their lives LMAO.

Ria: So the two main themes of the movie are family and revenge. Being a dysfunctional family, naturally, lots of misunderstandings and complications have erupted since the start. With Natasha and Yelena being separated from their “parents” after Ohio, and them being separated from each other, all of them have their own battles to face.

Alexei is the father (who still fits in his old uniform) that has let go of the person he actually came to romantically like. He’s another super soldier who’s known to be best buds with Dreykov. He’s the comedian bringing most of the comedic situations in the story.

Melina, the scientifically big-brained mom of the group. I love her because she’s so smart. She has such big ideas which are unfortunately used to less than favorable intentions. Melina is also one of the most fierce female characters. She gets what she wants and stands her ground. Even though her daughters aren’t biologically related to her, we can see that all three women have strong minds as a common factor. #girlpower

Finally, Yelena. Yelena, I LOVE YOU. She’s the character who will replace Natasha in Phase 4. So it’s just accurate that she’s nearly as badass as Natasha. While Natasha is the ultimate spy, Yelena is the ultimate assassin. Aside from this, I don’t really know much about her yet since Black Widow served as her introduction. What we do know is that she has a similar upbringing as Natasha, she also has a ledger dripping red, and she’s badass. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Yelena in the next movies.

Jhanya: I will never understand the inclination of MCU villains to have big ships in the air for their evil plans. And Dreykov is no exception.

Ria: oh my god lmao. It’s true though. I mean don’t they care about the collateral damage the whole ship will cause when it falls from the sky? bruh

Jhanya: Dreykov as a Marvel Villain, is pretty mild when it comes to the physical damage and overall impact he has done. But his intentions and way of carrying out his plans are very sinister. I’d go the extra mile and say that the way he carries out his missions is the worst, compared to the other mostly-human MCU baddies. He intentionally kidnaps women because he believes that “women are something that the world has too much of”. I internally cringed when he said that tbh. Oh my god me also, like wtf??? And I’m pretty sure the male population is still more. And he also programs these women in a way that they could kill everyone, even themselves, under his command, but they can never kill him. Now, talk about a guy who knows how to fail-safe his evil projects sheesh.

Moving on, let’s talk about the Taskmaster, Dreykov’s special project. Taskmaster was so out of place for this film. Especially at the beginning, where a soldier in a boldly colored suit just shows up out of nowhere (now where have I seen that before? I wonder…. hmmmmm). As I’ve mentioned earlier, for an organization whose own goal is to hide in the shadows, why would you willingly choose to chase after two defected agents in a tank with a bow and arrow in the middle of a very populated city, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT? Negative aside, the action sequences with the Taskmaster are god-tier. We won’t spoil who the Taskmaster is in this review but be rest assured that you’ll figure it out about halfway into the film.

Ria: I don’t want to say much more or I will spoil much more also. But, I really agree with Jhanya. Dreykov is a loser and I wish he goes to hell.

Final Thoughts

Jhanya: Black Widow’s biggest flaw was being an MCU film. It had all the perfect elements to become a new female-lead, spy-thriller, blockbuster but was held back due to its cinematic universe and constant attempts of the production team to make it “family-friendly”. I’m not saying it’s bad, it was just a big miss by the MCU. With all the new things they’ve been trying to do recently (ex. WandaVision & Loki), this could’ve been the perfect character to do a new MCU film with. Unfortunately, they chose the safe route of making another predictable, family-oriented, superhero movie.

Ria: Overall, despite the disappointments I had with the movie, I still loved it. I’m totally biased. The movie had, I think, wonderful planning, it was in the execution where the addition of Marvel that the darker theme was very much subdued. It’s a shame but I do understand it. They wanted a family-friendly movie (like what Jhanya said). With all the hopes that I wished they included like more of the inner demons of Natasha, the great points were the awesome cinematography and awesome stunts that I swear are out of this world. I would recommend you go watch Black Widow and enjoy the girl power-filled movie.