MARVEL VS. BLACK WIDOW
Movie Review – Black Widow
Review by Ray Schillaci
No, this is not an article about Scarjo battling Marvel and Disney over releasing and contract disputes. Although, if you want my two cents worth, I can’t help but feel the motion picture, television and streaming industry are struggling to figure out how to handle distribution and production since the age of COVID-19 and various strains. That being said, if the actress made a reportedly $20 million salary, why go after Disney for another $80 million for streaming the film earlier than expected due to the pandemic?
Even in an alternate universe where there is no pandemic, I just could not see Black Widow doing the kind of business Marvel and Disney have been use to in the past. First off, ***SPOILER ALERT (for anybody who has not seen Avengers: Endgame)*** Black Widow is dead. As much as we liked her, Hawkeye and Nick Fury, they were secondary human characters with no superpowers in the Marvel universe. Tony Stark gets a pass because he had his Iron Man suit and dry quick wit.
Giving us a prequel may set us up for another character, but that’s not apparent in the previews. I can’t help but wonder if Black Widow would have been better suited to the smaller screen on Disney+ like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. As a feature film, Marvel/Disney seem to be straining too hard to justify Natasha Romanoff’s existence by placing her into Mission: Impossible/James Bond territory that ended up making me laugh as to how unbelievable it all was. The film reminded me of when Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan as 007 were in the most ridiculous situations and the theatrics just felt tired and awful (i.e. A View to a Kill and Die Another Day).
Now, Black Widow is not awful, but many of the set pieces felt to me that they were growing tired, and with an estimated budget of $200 million you would think you would not be calling out the green screen. Sure, Thanos was a giant-sized purple guy, but we never questioned his existence. We were too wrapped up in all the drama and the characters. In this hero entry, we end up rooting for two secondary characters: Florence Pugh’s scene stealing Yelena Belova and David Harbour’s comical Alexi/Red Guardian.
We get a glimpse into the very young Natasha’s life as her family is whisked out of a quiet town in Ohio and forced to flee to Cuba where they hand off stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets to their commander, General Dreykov. Natasha has gotten use to the family moving all of a sudden whereas Yelena yearns for stability and has her heart set firmly in the small town life. Early on, it is revealed that their parents have only been acting the part. They are spies and even Natasha’s sister is not related to her. To make matters worse, both girls are taken from their imposter parents and are placed in the dreaded “Red Room” for intensive training.
Just that alone feels a bit convoluted. Then fast track to 2016 where Natasha is a wanted fugitive for violating the Sokovia Accords and escapes the clutches of the U.S. Secretary of State. At this point, if you do not follow at least the Avenger movies you may be totally lost. Meanwhile, back in the bat cave…oops wrong franchise. We now find a more mature and cynical Yelena that kills a rogue former Black Widow and accidentally comes in contact with a synthetic gas that neutralizes her brain control. What, you say? Yeah, I got dizzy trying to keep up myself.
Yelena seeks out her estranged sister in hopes that the Avengers can help save the other mind controlled Black Widows. Eventually, there is a family reunion of sorts – and I use that term very loosely – with all sorts of shenanigans. The one constant bit of fun is Florence Pugh’s Yelena poking fun at sister Natasha and pointing out all of her “super hero posing.”
The film is a mixed bag of Marvel/Disney trying to up the ante for Natasha/Black Widow and the rest of her family. Director Cate Shortland (Lore, Berlin Syndrome) keeps the action set pieces at a breakneck pace and finds room for some enjoyable comic timing, but the film as a whole is far too long and feels over bloated with plot devices, stunts and CGI.
What Shortland and the writers do not capture is Scarlett Johansson’s star power. The actress has proved time and time again her ability to capture an audience with such films as Marriage Story and her remarkable turn in Jojo Rabbit. In Black Widow, Johansson is more of a straight man to Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova.
Will Pugh be the next Black Widow or will she be the Red Widow? That is the question we’re left with making the whole affair of the Black Widow movie almost feel like an afterthought. Don’t get me wrong, this latest Marvel adventure has some amiable fun. But, sizing the film up with the other Marvel movies I would rate it somewhere among Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World and Captain Marvel. Which makes me wonder why Marvel has yet to prove itself as a company that can deliver as strong a female as DC did with its first outing of Wonder Woman. Perhaps we will see it in full display with the powers of Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder with a little help from Taika Waititi.
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Directed by: Cate Shortland
Release Date: July 9, 2021
Run Time: 134 Minutes
Rated: PG-13
Country: USA
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
