Black Widow is finally here..so what'd I think?
Welcome to a brand new thing where I, Jt of ECA, write about my thoughts and opinions on new movies from the MCU. Now, let me start off by saying I am no expert whatsoever and I am just a huge nerd who loves superheroes and nerd things. So let's kick off this brand new blog by talking about Black Widow!
Finally the movie that has been delayed, pushed backed and frankly shouldve already been out and in eveyone's MCU DVD collection is now here! Black Widow has been a movie that every nerd out there has been waiting for because of the tragic events of Avengers: Endgame, but honestly we should have seen this movie after 2016's Captain America: Civil War.
Let's start off with the good parts of the movie and honestly, I am just glad we can enjoy Scarlett Johansson one last time because she was perfect to play Natasha Romanoff in the MCU. Pairing her with Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian) and Rachel Weisz (Melina Vostokoff) was a great choice because they all did really well in this movie. Pugh and Harbour really stole the show for me simply because of their banter with any character they shared the screen with and because of their wittiness. Another thing that about the film was the action. I was hoping for some really good hand to hand combat from this film and it delivered. I won't say it's the best because that goes to Captain America: The Winter Solider, but it's a solid choice for second place (until Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings comes out). The best fight action scene to me is a tie between the first fight between Natasha and Taskmaster and the final fight between the same pair but skydiving in the air, I simply cannot choose a winner. Another solid for the film was the one-on-one's we get with different characters though-out. This movie was centered around the family aspect and how blood doesn't always mean family and I really felt that during any scene with Yelena and Nat. The best "family" scene was when we get the older Yelena, Natasha, Alexei, and Melina sitting at the dinner table and talking about table etiquette and old memories, it was a heartfelt scene. The last part that I'll discuss that was a plus to me was the end credit scene. For the past twelve plus years, Marvel has made us sit there in the theater after a great movie just to tease us for the future and I'm totally ok with that! At the end of Black Widow we see Yelena paying tribute to her sister by cleaning up her grave site and visiting her (I will not lie, I almost cried). Then all of a sudden we see one Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Val) played by the wonderful Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Now this isn't the first time we've seen Val before, no she was introduced to us the Disney+ show The Falcon and The Winter Solider as she was recruiting John Walker (US Agent) to be on her secret team which I believe is the Thunderbolts but that's a conversation for another day. During Yelena and Val's conversation we learn that Yelena has been working for Val and this is her off time, but Val has other pressing matters in mind. Val reaches in her bag and tells Yelena that she can go after the man that was responsible for her sisters death and when the camera pans over, we see a picture of Clint Barton (Hawkeye). Just typing that makes me get goosebumps because now we get to see Yelena Belova in the new and upcoming Disney+ show Hawkeye!
On to the not so good parts of the movie. First of all, one thing that Marvel does struggle with is their villains and how they portray them. Let's take the "villain" in this movie as an example which is Taskmaster played by Olga Kurylenko. Taskmaster is a Marvel villain who can mimic any fighting style to perfection after only seeing the fight once. In the comics, Taskmaster is Tony Masters; however, in this movie, Taskmaster is Antionia Dreykov, the daughter of General Dreykov. Natasha thought that she had killed Dreykov and Antonia in an explosion, but she did not. Now, the gender swap is fine with me and I actually like that part but what I didn't like was how diluted they make Taskmaster feel. Instead of perfecting fight moves she has a chip in her head that analyzes the fight which makes Taskmaster feel more like a robot than a villain, who is out to kill Nat. On the other side, they did leave the door open for a possible return for Taskmaster in the future, so we shall see. Another issues I had was the pacing with this movie. Sometimes it would be fast and on top of things but then it would slow all the way down and my brain was still processing what just happened and I would miss something. I don't have an issue with that in particular but this movie did it quite a bit, which threw me off. Lastly, I still feel like Nat didn't have a proper sendoff. Yes, we saw Yelena by her grave and yes, she made amends with her "family" but I still have this feeling of wanting more. Nat jumped to her death to save the world and we never got a proper goodbye or thank you for that. Now, I will say that this movie made me miss Natasha and I am glad she finally got the solo film she deserved.
Well, after typing all of that out and replying the movie in my head, I have come to a final ranking. I will be seeing this again and I will be getting this movie on DVD (I get all Marvel movies on DVD), but with all that being said, Black Widow gets a 7/10 for me! I hope you all enjoyed my review on the movie and if you have any comments, please reach out to me on our soical media pages and i will be happy to discuss! Thnaks and have a blessed day!