THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
We fell in love with the spy turned avenger Natasha Romanoff when we first met her in Iron Man 2. After leaving a good impression, we all felt that she deserved her own film. But that never happened until 2021, which would be the last time we’d get to see Scarlett Johansson play the character. While it was long overdue, it was worth waiting for.
PLOT
Black Widow takes place in a 1995 flashback, showing Romanoff posing as an American family in Ohio with Russian agent Alexei Shostakov, who is known to Russia as the Red Guardian due to a successful super soldier dosage, a black widow named Melina Vostokoff and a younger child named Yelena Belova. When Alexei successfully stole intel from SHIELD, they flee to Cuba and meet their employer General Dreykov. Impressed with the success, he would take Natasha and Yelena to the Red Room, train them to be elite assassins like many girls in their age group. As years went by, Alexei would be imprisoned in Seventh Circle Prison for criticizing the Russian government. Nat would eventually defect to SHIELD by assassinating Dreykov in his office in Budapest. He allegedly died from a bomb she planted that also took the life of his daughter Antonia. Fast forward to 2016, Nat is on the run after violating Sokovia Accords, allowing Captain America to flee with The Winter Solider by stopping King T’Challa from apprehending them both. She is constantly chased down by Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt), but succeeds in being one step ahead of him. She plans to go into hiding in Norway. with the help of private contractor Rick Mason (OT Fagbenle). In Morocco, Yelena, who is still a Widow, comes into contact with a rogue agent, but gets exposed to a synthetic gas that neutralizes Dreykov’s mind control chemicals. She sends it to her former sister, hoping that maybe she and the Avengers can free other Widows, unaware of their fallout over the Accords. Nat does retrieve the package, but does not open it yet. When driving at night, she is attacked by a Red Room agent dubbed ‘Taskmaster’, that has photographic reflexes, allowing her to mimic the fighting techniques of other individuals. She is able to escape from the antagonist with the package and goes straight to Budapest, where it was sent from. She reunited with Yelena and discovers that the Red Room has remained active when she left because Dreykov is still alive. They do avoid Taskmaster along with a few Widows and once they do, they get a plane from Rick to break Alexei out of prison. They do this because they believe he knows where the Red Room is due to how close he was with Dreykov. If they find it, they would kill him for good and free every Widow from his will. Alexei explains that he has no idea either, but it is possible that Melina does. This surprises both women because they thought she had died after shot by SHIELD agents during their flee to Cuba. They go to a farm outside Saint Petersburg and find their former mother to be well, assigned to refines the chemical mind control used on the Widows. The former family has lunch and Melina makes clear that despite not being a real one, she loved them all like they were. Nat has an outburst by disagreeing, saying that there was no personal connection with them at all. This offends Yelena because she never saw it that way. Melina does alert Dreykov of the others’ arrival but Nat convinces her to betray him. They switch places by swapping outfits and wearing face mask technology, in order for the Avenger to get close to her former tormentor. They all are taken to the Red Room that turns out to be an aerial facility. Just as they are taken in, Yelena breaks free on her own while Melina frees Alexei. Natasha does confront Dreykov, who reveals to have countless Widows around the world under his control and that Taskmaster is his surviving daughter Antonia, who is under his control as well with the use of a chip and the pheromones. Because of her own exposure of pheromones that prevent her from harming him, she breaks her nose and allows him to hit her, in order to severe a nerve in her naval passage, freeing herself from it. She does get to defend herself against him, but he flees once he lets a group of Widows in to finish her. Luckily, Yelena saves her sister by exposing them to the antidote. As Melina takes down one of the facility’s engines that would destroy the Red Room, Alexei fights Taskmaster long enough to trap her in a cell. Nat is able to grab the last antidote and copy files of the other Widows around the globe. Her parents are able to board an aircraft off the facility but just as she escapes, she frees Antonia with the hope to free her from the mind control. Yelena is able to kill Dreykov for good by destroying his escape ship once he boards. As the women are free falling, Nat gives Yelena a parachute as she fights Antonia again. Once they reach land, she is able to successfully expose her from the antidote, freeing her from her father’s control. She does make amends with Yelena, assuring her that what they had in Ohio was real. She does give her the files of where the other Widows are, in hopes to free them as well. When she leaves and says goodbye to her family who leave with Antonia & the freed Widows, her sister gives her her vest to remember her by. Two weeks after the Red Room’s destruction, Natasha has dyed her hair blonde and is quipped with a Quinjet thanks to Rick, planning to free the imprisoned Avengers. The film ends in a post credit scene, taking place in the Post Blip Era. Yelena visits Natasha’s grave, after she had sacrificed herself to bring half of all life that was originally wiped out by Thanos. She does however encounter her current employer Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who assigns her to assassinate Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), who she blames for her sister’s death.
THOUGHTS
As the theaters reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is easy to argue that things were going back to normal. And to me, it definitely felt that way since a Marvel Studios films was playing on the big screen again. I could've paid for Premier Acess, but this movie does not deserve that way of viewing. After seeing this in the big screen, I thought it was totally worth it. Director Cate Shortland pulled off what was an exciting entry to the MCU and then some. You do get your fair share of fascinating action sequences that either practical or shown in standard visual effects, but the real reason this movie has my full attention is how it has a stronger approach to female empowerment, outdoing the first attempt done by 2019's Captain Marvel. Like prior films, this one tells us a message. But the difference is that this one is extremely important to share, especially in the climate the film was released: Women around the world have been treated as disposable objects for a long time, which is unfortunate because they are not that at all. They are people who work as hard as men do not deserve the objectification and misogyny that comes their way. When understanding this, I do hope this inspires women to be free of whatever metaphorical chains that hold them back and speak up for themselves. This message would never have been clear without the performances of another great cast all around. As expected, Johansson delivers in her final performance of the titular Avenger. Behind the character's known ego, we see her at her most vulnerable since Age of Ultron. We understand that she is someone haunted by her past and had a hard time freeing herself from the trauma. Lucky for her, she had the chance to do it and succeeded. Seeing her free herself from Dreykov is the definitive moment that will inspire women to stand up those that oppress them. Due to her success of finally wiping the red out of her ledger, you can tell that she officially came to peace with herself before her eventual sacrifice. Going into the new set of characters, Florence Pugh was the highlight of the film for me because as Yelena, she stood out for being cynical like her sister before her, but still tried gained a moral compass once she gained free will. She was also extremely hilarious throughout due to her deadpan sense of humor. Whenever she criticizes Nat's actions like her superhero landing, it gets challenging not to laugh. It does start out funny when she explains her hysterectomy to Alexei, but it is effective because it is a clever way to tell him she had a worse life than him. She may be mad at her family for not reaching out to her, but her love for them never faded because she appreciated their time together. Seeing her leave with the freed Widows was a passing of the torch moment, proving that she will be a great hero as the world continues to change. David Harbour was unexpectedly entertaining as Red Guardian. He is a flawed figure, but chose to be jovial throughout. He knew that he wasn't a perfect parent, but that didn't stop him from trying his best towards the girls, which is where the respect for him comes from. And briefly seeing him in action proves that age does not slow down super soldiers. So I don't mind him sticking around as the franchise progresses. Rachel Weisz was also a welcome addition as Melina. She was someone who embraced her loyalty and intelligence to the wrong people. But thankfully, the love and compassion she had towards her family is what made her change completely. Like the rest, I do imagine she'll fit right in wherever direction the series goes. In all honesty, the best acting of the whole film goes to the lunch scene because you can sense the genuine chemistry between the actresses and actor, along with the fact that you feel that these characters truly loved each other as a family. I never imagined who would ever get to play Dreykov because I never thought we would ever see him onscreen. Now that it has happened, I was completely disturbed of Ray Winstone's portrayal because I did not expect him to be so ruthless and abusive. The man is he completely psychotic for making a weapon out of his daughter, rather than leaving her be. He was so uncomfortable that he resembled Harvey Weinstein, which only made his death even more satisfying. I did not expect a gender swap at all when it came to Taskmaster, but it did suit the story. Although various stunt performers like Andrew Lister nailed the choreography, actress Olga Kurylenko accurately portrays her as the lethal weapon the character is supposed to be. Despite that, she was as innocent as the Widows before her, who deserved to be in relief once she was out of her father's control. Since she is still alive, there really is no telling where life will go from here. Last but not least, I knew the Disney+ shows would be essential viewing as the franchise would grow, but I did not expect it to happen so early into Phase 4. Seeing Julia Louis Dreyfus appear as Valentina was a delight, after already seeing her debut in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier months prior. Seeing her manipulate Yelena to go after Clint does not surprise me because it is clear she has a big plan in store for the future and having the last active OG Avenger on Earth out of the picture is only part of it. I may have been overall satisfied, but I have to admit that even a good movie like this can still have its own set of issues. First off, I agree with the fact that Alexei was misused by Dreykov. I mean what point is there for the Soviet's only super soldier to do undercover missions instead of field missions? That was basically giving him a desk job for someone with his abilities. His tattoos were pretty cool to notice, but how is a Red Guardian tattoo the last one to get? For someone with such bragging rights, it blows my mind how that was not the first one. And imagine if he didn't get nostalgic with the action figure. What could've been the back up plan if he didn't pull the string. I mean it'd be pretty for the girls to improvise off of that. I also thought it was odd of how we hear radio exposition of Rogers' whereabouts when we already saw Civil War and heard Ross debrief as he is hunting her down. We don't need to be reminded of every detail for this prequel. It was intense when Taskmaster first attacked Nat to get the vials, but why couldn't she just take it when Nat was distracted getting gasoline? Of course we want to build up tension for acknowledging Dreykov but since he did intend to use her once he finds her, it would've been cooler if he told his daughter to stand down and wait for the next opportunity. It may be neat for Yelena to give Nat childhood pictures along with the vials, but she could've gave instructions on what to do with it if she really needed her help. I can't stop wondering how SHIELD/HYDRA never encountered the Red Room at least once in the air? They had helicarriers and not even those aircrafts spotted that. That's the hardest thing for me to believe in this movie. Another weird thing that I noticed was how there was a stack of VHS tapes on Dreykov's desk. Considering that those things are basically rare at the time this movie came out and knowing how secretive the character is, I really don't see the point of him leaving that out in the open when they can also be viable information for the taking. It even made no sense for the antidotes to not only be easily accessible in plain sight, but Dreykov doesn't order for it to be destroyed. That is the one thing to free the other Widows from his mind control and if he wants to be one step ahead, he should've gotten rid of those things immediately.Other than that, I can still enjoy re watching once ignoring all said flaws. To wrap up, Black Widow is a good send off to a character who always proved to be as heroic as the other superheroes around her. If you have enjoyed seeing this character from the beginning, this movie will not disappoint you.
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