Been a minute around these parts, so I thought I should weigh in on Scar Jo's MCU swan song.
When Black Widow came out I insisted on dragging my family out to the theater, even though we could watch it for less in our living room. This was in that brief and glorious time in Los Angeles when there was a reprieve of the mask mandate, so it was extra fun. I was certainly in a great mood to see the movie, despite some grumblings here and there in the nerd-verse, and the good news is - overall I really enjoyed the movie and was happy to shell out another $30 later and watch it again at home.
Black Widow is a prequel set in the time right after the events in the movie Civil War.
The story starts with an amazing flashback to Natasha's childhood in the United States. Her parents, it turns out, are Soviet spies and her sister is not really her sister. Kid Widow is played by Mila Jovovovich's child who is just amazing in her role. This entire opening sequence is super strong and went a long way to reassure me that we were in good hands with the filmmakers.
After a super groovy but grim opening credits sequence, we get right into catching up with Natasha and a vicious assassin who turns out to be her brainwashed non-sister from childhood. The action is fantastic throughout the movie, good geography and plenty of thrills and chills, which is what I love in action sequences.
The story builds to a nice emotional climax by building up and fleshing out Natasha's family. Turns out this is her second family that she discovers after she has made a family with the Avengers.
There's a lot of great humor, as per usual in the MCU. I found myself laughing out loud a bunch of times. One of the things I love so much about these Marvel movies is that they always put the emphasis on Entertainment, and the second best tool they have at getting this done is humor.
The best tool they have is of course story - which is born out of the Disney braintrust which was born out of the Pixar and Disney Animation story breaking work ethic. Breaking a story has been put at the top of the pile of importance in making these mass marketed blockbusters for going on 20 years now, and it consistently shows. We are still, I would say, in a golden age of mainstream cinema when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy genre filmmaking.
The villain it turns out is Harvey Weinstein, (not literally, but clearly this is who is represented) which is a very powerful choice and makes it very satisfying when good finally triumphs in the end. The final act action wise is solid and also has some pretty great emotional payoffs.
I say pretty great, but it was not ABSOLUTELY great.
I confess I was and am (after watching BW again) a tad bit disappointed that the emotional resonance that was mined didn't quite plumb the depths that could have been reached.
I would have preferred to see a more direct connection with this movie and Natasha's fate in Endgame. As I'm not a movie maker I'm not sure exactly how I would've done that, but it seems to me there was great potential in a Black Widow movie, where we know that eventually down the road she will die, to get some real ugly crying out of the audience. A couple of ideas I had that would've helped, I think -
- Have Steve Rogers meet Natasha at the Quin Jet at the end. This probably is not realistic as Chris Evans now apparently hates money, but as it was the final pre-credits scene, I think it would've been a very powerful moment to remind us of the fate that awaits Natasha.
-The mid-credits cemetery scene was amazing until Julia-Louis Dreyfus showed up and turned it into a comic bit designed to connect to a Disney+ tv series or upcoming movie. This was a terrible choice I think, and it really diluted the emotional impact of the scene. My suggestion - have a truly quiet and emotional moment with Yelena and her sister at rest and let it play out. Save the exposition/connection blah blah blah to future tv shows and movies for after the credits entire.
- Somehow make a much more obvious and direct connection in this movie to Endgame. Either by literally using Hawkeye or other characters, or having a situation in the Black Widow movie that parallels what happens in Endgame. Having one of Natasha's family members sacrifice themselves in a similar fashion to how Natasha does in Endgame is probably a clunky way to do it, but there's probably all sorts of clever ways to make the emotional connection that would propel the Black Widow movie into the stratosphere of emotional resonance.
Anyways - I did really like the film a lot, loved certain parts of it that's for sure. Not sure exactly where it ranks on my master list, but at some point soon I will drop it in. As of right now it's definitely in the top half.
Just this last weekend we again trekked out to the theater, this time to see Shang-Chi. I am still ruminating on the movie, I will post a full review soon. Overall, I have very positive thoughts to share. Stay tuned!
