Review: Black Widow

 

Hey, Everybody! The Black Widow movie that a lot of people have been asking for is finally here! It's hard to believe that it's been 2 years since Spider-Man: Far from Home came out in theaters, and Black Widow is now finally in theaters. If you haven't seen the movie yet, beware of spoilers. So, come back if you watched it. 

Black Widow takes place between the events from Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. While on the run from General Ross after violating the Sokovia Accords, Natasha Romanoff has unfinished business with her old enemy, Dreykov, played by Ray Winstone. She gets the help from her "sister" Yelena, played by Florence Pugh. Nat is also on the run from a mysterious person by the name of Taskmaster, who can copy every Avenger's move and who works for Dreykov. You also learn about Nat's past including how she became the character that she is. Nat and Yelena were taken by Dreykov to be trained as his "Widows", his personal army. Nat also comes to terms with the broken relationship with her family including her father, Alexei also known as the Red Guardian and her mother, Melina. 

Now, I think that we could've gotten this movie 10 years ago when Nat was first introduced in Iron Man 2, so I guess you can say that this was kinda too little too late. But that doesn't mean that this was a pretty fun watch, because this was still great as any MCU movie has been. The action sequences were pretty awesome including the pursuit scene from Budapest, but that was not as good as that insane highway sequence from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Red Guardian's escape is I think its best action sequence by far. 

The solo film also revealed what happened in Budapest. So Natasha and Clint Barton/Hawkeye were on a mission to kill Dreykov by blowing up his building and his daughter was basically collateral damage and she and Clint were lucky enough to make it out of there. Oh, and guess what? Taskmaster was Dreykov's daughter Antonia all along! Was it a shocking twist, sure. But this was not the Taskmaster that I was hoping for! The character had zero depth what so ever! This just makes me want to get back into Spider-Man PS4 and fight the comic-accurate Taskmaster. As for the villain, Dreykov, he was one of the weaker villains in the Marvel canon, I would rank him very low with Yellowjacket, Ivan Vanko and Malekith the Dark Elf. Yes, Dreykov did violate many of these women's rights, I even tweeted that this guy should be put away by the Special Victims Unit. Imagine Olivia Benson and Fin Tutuola or Elliot Stabler interrogating Dreykov!

The best scenes are its quieter moments with Nat and Yelena. In the scene where the sisters stop for gas, Yelena makes fun of Natasha's famous pose, which I thought was cute. The family reunion was also pretty nice where there are funny moments mixed with hard-hitting drama, Florence Pugh gave an excellent performance as Yelena Belova and she's already such a great character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one of my favorite characters. Man, she did that pose and said "that was disgusting", I laughed. Every moment with her is great, like when she blew on a helicopter window, and when she and Red Guardian shared a moment when he sang "American Pie" because that was her favorite song when she was a child. 

David Harbour's Red Guardian is probably one of the funniest characters in the MCU. He even thought that he fought Steve Rogers in the 80s even though he was still frozen in ice, and that he broke that guy's arm in arm wrestling. I really hope that I see him in the fourth Captain America film. Maybe he'll be an Avenger who knows.

In the post-credit scene, there's a devastating moment where Yelena goes to Natasha's grave and whistles on to the gravestone, hoping that she can whistle back. Believe when I tell you that I cried, and then Julia-Louis Dreyfuss' Valentina shows up and gives her an assignment to go after Clint, which makes me very excited for the Hawkeye show! 

Now, if you're hoping for a Swan song to Nat's character arc, keeping looking, pal. 

So, here's my verdict, I enjoyed this movie so much due to its action sequences, the chemistry between Nat and her estranged family and its shocking post-credits scene. My biggest gripes were definitely Taskmaster and Dreykov. I mean, this was a comic book character that was wasted to its fullest potential. First it was Whiplash, then Mandarin, then Quicksilver and now Taskmaster. UGHH.

I'm going to give this a 7.5/10

Thank you guys so much for reading and don't forget to share your thoughts down below. Did you like this movie or did you hate it? Let me know.