"Your pain only makes you stronger."
Hello everyone!
Listen, I love me Peter Parker, too, but ... maybe not this particular one.
Black Widow, however, was one of those I always wanted more information about.
She was our window into SHIELD besides Coulson, and she was a total badass who managed to keep up with gods and super-soldiers just by being spectacularly trained, skilled and disciplined.
And yes, it helps that Scarlett Johansson pretty much NAILED the role once she was cast.
But having said all that - I'll say this movie suffers. A lot. And it suffers mainly from the incredibly ridiculous decision from the higher-ups, who didn't include this one in the chronological lineup of the Infinity Saga.
Before I get too far into that, though, let's just figure out what's what, shall we? Black Widow, enter, stage right!
And as always, links to previous Marvel-related movies can be found down at the bottom of the page.
The movie begins in the 90s, more specifically in Ohio, where a little tweeny Natasha Romanoff looks to be enjoying a normal kid life with her sister Yelena, and her parents, Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour).
Only, they're Soviet spies, and Alexei has just burned down a SHIELD facility working on the Winter Soldier program, so they gotta hustle.
Which, they do, to Cuba of all places (after Red Guardian manages to hitch a ride on the wing of their plane that none other than Natasha pilots because Melina gets shot during their flight - I was wondering about how they even took off with the weight on the wing, then how he stayed on, but, well, no logical questions I suppose!). This is where they meet up with Dreykov, the general behind this mastermind plan, and, despite Natasha's best hopes, the "family" gets split up.
Not only this, but she and Yelena get split up too, with Natasha cycled into the Black Widow Red Room program, and Yelena sorted as a "defect" (though where she is in between and why she isn't just, you know, offed as a defect but somehow later on indoctrinated into the modified program is beyond me).
We then flash-forward to events right after Civil War when Nat takes off into the unknown and shacks up in Norway, of all places, but while she's chillin' up north, Yelena's having a hard time when she's woken up - aka when a synthetic gas is used on her during an assignment that releases her from the mind control Dreykov puts all the Widows under (and yes, sadly there's many more Widows on the market, Natasha isn't unique).
She escapes, with more of the gas, and sends said gas to her sister from Budapest, which brings down the wrath of the Taskmaster, an individual who perfectly mirrors whatever his opponent is doing. Nat escapes - gas in tow - and heads to Budapest for a little reunion with Yelena, demanding to know what the heck is going on.
Specifically because, hello, Dreykov is DEAD. Remember the off-handed line in the 2012 Avengers movie, Nat and Clint talking about Budapest? Yeah, they rigged a building to blow so they could kill Dreykov and Nat could defect to SHIELD, the guy's daughter Antonia being collateral damage along the way.
Yelena (Florence Pugh) dispels the notion, and tells Nat that the Red Room can't be found - right before Widows attack them, forcing them to flee, and also bringing Taskmaster down on them on top of everything else.
Once they manage to evade (because, naturally), the sisters bicker as all sisters do, come to a few conclusions (Yelena thinks Nat's fighting pose after landing from a jump is hysterical, and Nat thinks ... well, a lot of things), and decide they're going to figure out where the Red Room is, and kill Dreykov.
So naturally they need help. They need ... dun dun dun ... Red Guardian.
Alexei has, unfortunately, let himself go a bit in prison, even though he remains the only Russian super soldier, but the girls go and break him out (with some unexpected consequences a la avalanche that buries the entire prison, sisters getting into more bickering mid-action, and a VERY amusing Alexei getting freaked out about anything too womanly), then head over to Melina who, contrary to what they believe, is alive and well.
Also working on the Widow program but, ya know.
If you think your family reunions are awkward, you should watch this particular one, during which everything unravels, especially since the girls feel particularly betrayed, this being the only family they'd ever truly known (Nat also feels it's moot point, but Yelena's not convinced). Alexei and Yelena share a touching moment, right before the Red Room goons arrive to grab them, being alerted by Melina.
Melina, for her part, also tells Nat that her mother never abandoned her, but she was chosen for her genetic abilities, and bought.
Then they're off to the AIRBORNE RED ROOM, because Dreykov learned something from Fury I suppose, where it's revealed that Melina and Nat switched places and have a plan to bring the entire thing down to the ground. Nat just needs to get rid of Dreykov, which is initially problematic given that every Widow gets a pheromone block so they CAN'T touch the guy - but, you know, Melina has tricks up her sleeve, and Nat breaks her nose to sever that nerve connection.
Then punches the living daylights out of the man.
Unfortunately, the plan keeps changing as Melina's forced to destroy one of the reactors to get them to start a crash pattern, Alexei and she lock up Taskmaster, and Dreykov has the Widows beat up Nat. Fortunately, Yelena frees herself before anyone can open her skull up and dissect her brain, and gets the gas to the Widows so they can then all get the heck out of here.
Sort of. Nat downloads information on other world-wide Widows to give to Yelena, while Yelena goes to finally kill Dreykov by making his helicopter explode. This also shocks her off the platform, but Nat is a badass big sister who jumps right after her to give her a parachute, then gets tackled by Taskmaster, whom she previously freed from the cell.
On the ground, she exposes the poor girl to the synthetic gas, too, waking her up - because surprise! It's actually Dreykov's daughter, and he had a chip installed in her brain after the explosion bit, to make her his perfect soldier.
The family - Nat, Yelena, Alexei and Melina - reconcile just as SHIELD sirens sound, and they part ways, with Nat staying to ensure a deal with SHIELD while the other Widows come to pick the rest of them up. With Yelena in possession of the Widows info, and Melina able to create more of the gas, it's obviously high chance they'll be able to release the others, ASAP.
Nat, on the other hand, now with blonde, Infinity War hair, catches up with her contact again who's been supplying her with things all movie, and this time he gets her a SHIELD jet - which she decides to use to bust some Avengers out of prison and help to rebuild this second family she found.
And, since we all know how THAT ends, the movie wraps with Yelena at her sister's grave post-Endgame being given her new assassination target and assignment: Clint Barton who, as per twisted information, is responsible for the death of her beloved older sister.
FIN.
Now we all know how that resolves itself, since Yelena makes a fabulous appearance in the show Hawkeye where she and Clint resolve their differences and the truth comes out. And, honestly, I'm glad I watched that first, because otherwise I'd have probably not liked Yelena as much as I did already going into the movie. As it happened I knew her character well enough to be able to backtrack and see where she was coming from, and it was a pretty solid story, to be honest.
Nat is, as always, a pleasure, and Melina was an intriguing character to have in the mix with how obviously smart she is. I think Alexei was criminally underused, serving mostly as comic relief where I think he could have worked much better for a more serious undertone, but, you can't have it all I suppose.
Overall, the movie was good - but like I said at the beginning, the reason it isn't GREAT is because, at this point in time, for any Marvel fan who doesn't watch these movies on repeat (so, your average one), you'll have forgotten some of the details that've gone down since, and need to constantly be reminded of them. Or, in my case, Google was my best friend.
I really think they did Black Widow as a character super dirty. This movie could have very easily fit in with the timeline right where it's supposed to fit, after Civil War, and it would have made a whole lot more sense then, too.
Or anywhere within the Infinity Saga, really, not post-ending, Phase Four!
This feels like a half-baked attempt of Marvel execs to give in to fans and give them the origins or semi-origins Black Widow story they've been asking for FOR YEARS, and I don't know if they've succeeded all that well.
I'm going to have to go back and watch it chronologically in correct order to judge better but, while overall a good action movie that gives us a last look at Nat and establishes Yelena as the one to take over her mantle, which solidifies in Hawkeye, it really, really suffers from time and placement.
And that's a shame, because otherwise it could have been great!
xx
*images and video not mine
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