Movie Reaction: Black Widow

Formula: (The Avengers - Captain America: The First Avenger - Thor - Iron Man) ^ The Bourne Legacy

 

Alt-Formula: (Iron Man 2 - Iron Man) ^ The Bourne Legacy

 

Another week, another sign that things are getting back to normal. After almost exactly 2 years, which feels like an eternity after how they've conditioned us for these, the MCU is back with a feature film. Obviously, a whopping 3 Disney+ series already this year cut down the anticipation a bit. It still such a nice "We're back" moment. More importantly, this marks the end of Black Widow trailers! Let's take a moment to celebrate that. I've had friendships that haven't lasted as long as the Black Widow trailers era. I started to believe that all movies had to begin with a Black Widow trailer that listed an incorrect release date.

 

The question is, was the movie worth the wait? And, like with all Marvel movies, you could answer that before the movie even started. Black Widow is "another MCU movie". It's not a grand reinvention or culmination. The most remarkable thing about it is how long overdo it was, even before COVID, given that the character first appeared a decade ago and Scarlett Johansson has proven her bonafides several times over. If you are excited for a Black Widow movie, then you'll be pleased by this. If you remain exhausted by the MCU and go into them with a "prove me wrong" attitude, well, first, who hurt you? Second, don't expect to have a new opinion here.

 

Black Widow is a prequel, necessitated by the events of Endgame (Spoiler, I guess). It's set around the time of Civil War. Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) gets reunited with her "family". And, by family, I mean, the three Russian agents she posed as a family with in Ohio in the mid-90s. Anyway, her "sister" Yelena (Florence Pugh) was trained as an assassin by the same group that Natasha escaped from to be an Avenger, except the group's control over the assassins has escalated to mind control technology. After Yelena is freed from the mind control, she and Natasha team up to free the rest of the assassins who are being controlled. This involves them tracking down their "father", Alexei (David Harbour) - a Russian super soldier like Captain America who has fallen on hard times - and "mother", Melina (Rachel Weisz) - a scientist who developed the mind control technology without realizing how it would be used.

 

The fun of the movie is seeing that quartet interact. Pugh and Harbour are unsurprisingly the real standouts. I'm not looking forward to 5 years from now when for no reason, everyone will decide to turn on Florence Pugh. It always happens (cough Jennifer Lawrence cough Anne Hathaway) and it sucks. Pugh is excellent in this. She's sarcastic and badass and going to town with her Russian accent. It couldn't be clearer to me that Marvel has more plans for her. Harbour is having fun playing a washed up, never-was super hero. The MCU hasn't had much time before this for superheroes the world didn't care about*. Harbour is shameless and insecure in a really delightful way. The movie is a reminder that Natasha has always been written as an ensemble player. Even though she is the lead of the movie, she doesn't demand to be front and center at all times. It seems odd since ScarJo is absolutely a star who can lead action movies, but Natasha just isn't a character who demands to be the focus. She's a natural team player, which does clash with her belief that she's a lone wolf. Or perhaps it's more intentional on Marvel's part. They are giving ScarJo this movie because she's earned it, but since it's a prequel for a dead character, they want to position Pugh as the exciting character to look forward to more stories with.

 

*Spider-Man: Homecoming comes close, but that is a story of a character on the rise.

 

Black Widow fits firmly into the house style of the MCU. The action scenes look smooth. The CGI is heavy but not distractingly so. It does a lot of aerial combat between a helicopter rescue scene and a mid-air fight happening while characters fall from a great height. That takes advantage of Natasha and Yelena's finesse fighting style. The big villain, a mimic who essentially downloads everyone else's fighting style, is a little wasted. They are mainly just used as a Captain America with a less-bouncy shield. Honestly, the most striking moments were occasional interstitial shots. This movie is really good at shots of people walking or training in unison in really cool ways. That isn't me grasping for something nice to say. I really did like those shots. Given that I know director Cate Shortland from absolutely nothing, I can draw one of two conclusions: 1) She's really good at working with Marvel to deliver a product. 2) The producers like Kevin Feige are the auteurs of the franchise and the director doesn't matter so much, so I'm cool with them giving some more diverse directors a credit to buy them other high-profile jobs.

 

I tend to argue that all the MCU movies exist in an A- to C+ space for me. They are consistently entertaining. I wouldn't put any among my favorite movies nor do I regret watching any. Black Widow falls neatly in that range. It's exciting. It brings in a couple new characters to the universe and puts a cap on the Black Widow character arc if this really is the end for her. It's the thing I wanted to see.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

 

After the Credits

(Spoiler-y Talk)

I know better, but I just have to do this. What's going on with the ages in this movie? The Marvel movies usually exist in a world out of time, but this one actually gives some years. I need to do some investigation.

There's a flashback to 1995 and most of the movie takes place 21 years later, so 2016. This movie was filmed in 2019. So let's play.

Yelena in 1995 is played by Violet McGraw, who was 8 years old in 2019. That makes Yelena 29 in 2016. Florence Pugh was 23 in 2019. In other words, the same year that Florence Pugh was getting an Oscar nomination for playing a 12-year-old in Little Women, she was also playing a 29-year-old. And, if we assume that the Hawkeye show she's apparently going to be in is set in the present day, that means a currently 25-year-old Pugh will be playing a 34-year-old assassin in that show.

Natasha's aging is a lot more reasonable. Ever Anderson played her in the 1995 portion and was 12 in 2019. That means Natasha is 33 is 2016. Scarlett Johansson was actually 35 when filming this and 31-2 when Civil War was happening. That all checks out.

Rachel Weisz would've been 25 in 1995, passing as the mother of a 12-year-old. That is pushing it. I'm fully giving David Harbour a pass, since he's playing a super-soldier. I have no idea how that affects aging.

The absolute craziest is Anotonia: the boss villain Dreykov's daughter. The movie flashes back to a grown Natasha believing she had killed young Anotonia years before. In that flashback, young Anotonia was played by then 9-year-old Ryan Kiera Armstrong. Let's very generously say that that was when Natasha was 20, because we know by 2010, she's fully with SHIELD at about 27 years old. If Natasha was 20 then and is 33 in Black Widow, that means 13 years have passed. Anotonia would be about 22. Olga Kurylenko, who plays 2016 Anatonia was turning 40 when that was filmed: several years older than ScarJo.

Again, I know it's not smart to pay attention to ages and timelines like this for a Marvel movie. I couldn't resist though. And I'm sure a much better MCU historian could explain the ages better to me. I'm sure someone has made more sense of it.