Movie Review: Black Widow

Black Widow [2021]

Thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020-2021, a lot of movies were delayed, and as such, I also didn't manage to watch them in time. Which was why I reviewed the rest of the MCU throughout 2021... at least up to phase two. I did rewatch every other movie up to Far From Home, the end of MCU's "Phase Three", but... but it was a bit too much work to re-review every single movie. I tried, but I guess it just wasn't super interesting to me to just repeat what I've said before, leading to severe writer's block. I think trying to do too much with the "bonus features" at the end of these reviews is also a bit too much for me, which is why I'm downsizing them a bit. 

Which is why I guess I'll just jump straight to talking about the Phase Four movies, starting off with Black Widow. And... and this is a movie that I have mixed feelings about. 

A lot of the detractors of this movie decry it for being pretty formulaic, and... and to some sense, it kind of is. Remove Black Widow and the fact that she's been a major character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for close to a decade, and the novelty that she's finally getting her own movie, and Black Widow doesn't really feel particularly interesting, y'know? Sure, we get the adaptations of several new beloved Marvel characters, and I'm a huge fan of Johannsson's portrayal of Black Widow, but this and the fact that the movie chronologically takes place before Infinity War was a bit of a strange decision. Now, I don't mind prequels or mid-quels or what have you, but it is admittedly a pretty strange decision to make this standalone movie and have it take place before the two biggest climactic movies in MCU canon. Sure, we get to know all the cryptic stuff of Black Widow's "red ledger" and "Budapest" and "Dreykov's daughter" and all that, but otherwise, it feels rather odd. 

Throw in all the fact that poor fan-favourite Taskmaster is arguably kind of... not adapted particularly well for the sake of a shocking twist, and the movie itself has a couple of things going against it. I don't think the treatment of Taskmaster is as bad as the "Mandarin" in Iron Man 3, but I would concede that turning him from a very badass 'I can copy any move that any martial artist makes' into essentially a voiceless, quiet assassin who doesn't actually communicate that he's ripping off other people's fighting styles other than like, posing once or twice in Black Panther or Captain America's battle poses... yeah. At least her outfit looks cool?

That said, though, that's about all I'm going to complain about, because this movie is actually very solid fare. It doesn't quite have the 'wow' factor of the Infinity War movies, or the heavy character-building and continuity-tying aspects of the Disney+ shows, or setting up new status quos like Far From Home, but it is a very solid story that does flesh out Black Widow's characterization a fair bit. Admittedly I've always been of the opinion that a Black Widow story is best told through a TV series (imagine Falcon and the Winter Soldier, or Agents of SHIELD, or Hawkeye, but with the Widow plot!) but for a typical 2 hour movie, Black Widow does check all the boxes. 

We start off with Natasha's childhood, where she's a child spy working with a false family -- her 'sister' Yelena Belova, her 'mother' Melina Vostokoff, and her 'father' Alexei Shostakov. They live posing as a regular family in America, before Alexei and Melina finally finish their mission, steal some classified information and return to Russia... at which point the false family is torn apart and both Natasha and Yelena are taken away to the horrendous training facility known as the Red Room. We get a particularly badass montage with a haunting cover of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit...

...and I really thought from this montage that we're going to get a show that's going to be a bit darker. If not bloodier-and-gorier, at least something that'll explore more mature themes. And... again, Black Widow itself isn't a bad movie at all, but it's definitely a bit of a lesser movie after promising all that, but then reduces most of its violence to relatively unnamed characters. 

We pick up with Black Widow after the events of Civil War, where she's on the run, and after a brief cameo by the always-welcome Thaddeus Ross, her ally Rick Mason helps her to hide out in a safehouse. Meanwhile, Natasha's former 'sister', Yelena Belova, runs into a conspiracy with other Black Widow agents, and gets freed from the nanomachines or something controlling her. Thus freed, Yelena goes rogue and mails the antidote vials to Natasha. This basically ends up putting Natasha in the crosshairs of the Red Room conspiracy, causing them to send the super-powerful Taskmaster after her. 

As Natasha goes off to track Yelena, she learns that not only is the Red Room alive, but also that Yelena is kind of... still views her as a 'sister' despite everything. This movie basically has Black Widow deal with her past and the fact that she hasn't quite 'burned her bridges' as much as she wanted to. And... and it's honestly kind of convenient that every single member of Black Widow's adopted family turns out to be decent people, and that's probably my biggest criticism about this plotline. But Yelena and Natasha have absolutely great chemistry, and Florence Pugh nails Yelena's "awkward adult little sister" energy very well. 

I also do like the fact that we do explore a bit of Natasha's defection and her friendship with Hawkeye -- and the fact that Natasha had to kill a young girl called Antonia Dreykov to escape. There's a bit of discussion about how Natasha essentially left Yelena behind in the Red Room's mercies without ever going back for her, but the movie and Yelena herself kind of handwaves this (rather understandably, although a bit too quickly IMO) with Yelena being brainwashed. 

We then go into a bit of a setpiece jumping, where we recruit the other members of Natasha's old family. They break Alexei "Red Guardian" Shostakov out of prison, and... okay, the prison breakout scene does offer the obligatory pretty 'huge destruction' MCU action scene. Red Guardian himself is also excellently played by David Harbour -- a great source of laughs, between his constant insistence that he is an equal of Captain America (even though the timelines don't match up), his disgust at his daughters grossing him out with sterilization (a great take-that to this questionable plot point from Age of Ultron) and him unintentionally making Natasha uncomfortable by praising all the murder she's undoubtedly done. And while the movie plays up his dorkiness, we do get a couple of genuine 'dad' moments later on in the movie -- a particularly strong one is him and Yelena singing their little song, revealing that he's a big soft bear under it all.

When the Widows get to her, Melina is a bit less likable than Yelena and Alexei, though that might just be because the movie really flip-flops on whether she's actually evil or not, going through a couple of twists that make it look like Melina's betraying them but... surprise, turns out that she's working as a double-agent for Natasha and company. 

As our heroes are all taken to the Red Room facility -- an airborne spy base -- we get a requisite climax and... and it's probably one of the weaker parts of the movie. It's still very watchable and at no point did it drag, but poor Dreykov is just... not that interesting. He's just an old man with a generic mwa-ha-ha Bond villain motivation, and they did go just a bit too on-the-nose with his "girls are expendable resources" rhetoric. Plus, the anti-attack pheromones just feel kind of shoehorned in. We also get the huge reveal that Taskmaster is actually a grown-up Antonia Dreykov, but... but for a movie whose theme is to have Natasha face off against her past sins, it feels kind of counterintuitive and overly convenient that Antonia is brainwashed for a huge part of the climax, and beyond Natasha trying to rescue her from the exploding base, we don't really get a proper resolution to Antonia since she's more relieved that she's freed from mind-control than acknowledge her attempted-killer at all. (Also, the fact that the little girl that Natasha thought she killed is alive at all seems to kind of be another way-too-convenient moment). 

The climax happens relatively competently, with Alexei, Yelena and Melina all getting good moments on their own. All the action scenes are neat and well-done, as expected of an MCU entry, and I do like the little gag of Natasha Romanoff seemingly about to do a one-woman stand against the arriving police forces... and then we smash cut to a time before Infinity War with Black Widow about to ride her jet and pick up Captain America's buddies. Yelena and the others are set up to be going around freeing other mind-controlled Black Widows all over the world, which explains their absence in Infinity War and Endgame.

And... again, I feel like this is a perfectly solid movie, despite my gripes. It's a solid entry in the MCU, and far from being the worst! It's far from being the best, sure, but that's all right, honestly. Natasha, Yelena and Alexei are all a delight to watch, and the movie itself has enough nice comedic and action moments to keep you entertained. The plot itself is pretty all right for what it is, and while I admittedly expected something else, this movie isn't bad for what it does. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Post-Credits Scene: Yelena shows up on Natasha's grave, and then is told by Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine that the man responsible for Natasha's death is Clint Barton, setting up the Hawkeye Disney+ show. 
  
• Future Movies Foreshadowing: Less of foreshadowing 'future' movies, but chronologically-later movies for sure. Natasha buys blonde hair dye and later keeps Yelena's jacket, which would lead to her appearance in Avengers: Infinity War. And, of course, the aforementioned post-credits scene. 
• Past Movie Continuity: "Dreykov's daughter" was foreshadowed all the way back from 2012's The Avengers, when Loki lists the sins that Black Widow has been trying to purge from her ledger. Alexei also use the term 'red ledger' in this movie as well. Hawkeye and Black Widow note a 'Budapest' incident in The Avengers. Black Widow reuses the "thank you for your cooperation" line after tricking Dreykov into giving her all the information she needs, just like what she did to Loki in The Avengers. The Winter Soldier brainwashing project is implied heavily to be the genesis of how the Black Widows are made. The sterilization of Black Widows is mentioned in Avengers: Age of Ultron. 
• Movie Superhero Codenames: A notable aversion, all the Black Widows are called by that name repeatedly throughout the movie. Alexei also insists on calling himself the "Red Guardian", and Taskmaster is exclusively called by her codename until the huge reveal at the end. The only one who isn't called with a codename is Melina Vostokoff ("Iron Maiden"), but she's also a Black Widow here; and Rick Mason ("the Agent").
• Favourite Action Scene: Taskmaster's first ambush of Black Widow on the bridge was pretty cool.
• Funniest Line: Not exactly a line, but Yelena's discussion about Black Widow's signature three-point pose landing is pretty funny. 
• The "Ursa" whose arm Alexei broke in the prison is very likely a reference to Winter Guard member Ursa Major. Before his casting as Red Guardian is revealed, a large portion of the fandom thought David Harbour was playing him. 
• Yelena dismissively calls Alexei "Crimson Dynamo". Crimson Dynamo is an iconic Iron Man villain from Russia (actually featured in Black Widow's first appearance in the comics), and in the MCU, the first Crimson Dynamo, Anton Vankov, is one of the inspirations for Whiplash. 
• Alexei stole the mind control technology from the 'North Institute'. While a SHIELD facility in the MCU, in the comics it is an organization that Black Widow fought. 
• Black Widow's 'snow suit' is based on one of her more iconic, classic looks where she swaps her black bodysuit for a white one.