(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Black Widow)
Doug (vo): It's the long-awaited Black Widow movie, and I do mean very long-awaited. For years, people have said this character has gotten the shaft, and after waiting what many argue was way too long for her to get her own solo film...only to wait even longer because of COVID...fans finally got the movie they...kinda...maybe...sorta wanted. Yeah, the consensus on this film is that it was just another Marvel movie without anything that new or really a ton of charm that a lot of the other movies had, resulting in people either not liking it or saying it's just okay. I'm...in the "OK" park, but I think for different reasons than a lot of other people are.
Story[]
Doug (vo): The story is one of those that's really simple but also really complex at the same time. Taking place right after Civil War, Black Widow discovers that the Red Room, the organization that turned her and her sister into assassins, is still alive and well, and her sister is out to get them. Realizing they're gonna need help to take them down, they turn this into a family affair, bringing in their eccentric but still powerful father and mother.
Review[]
Doug (vo): And that's...kind of it. I mean, yeah, it does have the typical Marvel stuff. There's, like, one really bad assassin that's chasing her down, and there's the big action sequences that, yeah, half of them didn't need to happen, but it is what we're here for, and you got the super-complicated strategies and one-liners that many argue are starting to show their age in this movie. Hell, they're starting to show their age a few Marvel movies ago. But I don't think that's the issue with the film. The issue, for me, comes down to what you see.
(Clips focusing on Natasha's interactions with her "family" are shown)
Doug (vo): The majority of this film, you just see Black Widow talking with her family, and personally, for me, I like that stuff. The family is really interesting to me. This is one of the few Marvel films where the side characters don't overstay their welcome. Some argue they're even more interesting than Black Widow. I guess I would agree, but I don't know. Part of the charm of Black Widow was she never said much. You could get across a lot in just an expression. She reminded me a lot of Indiana Jones that way.
(A clip from The Avengers is shown)
Doug (vo): Like, I love in The Avengers when she says...
Steve Rogers/Captain America: You sure about this?
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow: Yeah. It's gonna be fun.
(A clip from Raiders of the Lost Ark, showing Indiana Jones, while driving a Nazi truck, noticing one Nazi sneaking from behind through the window)
Doug (vo): To me, that was the equivalent of Jones going, "Oh."
Indiana Jones: Oh.
(We go back to being shown footage from Black Widow)
Doug (vo): Neither of those are clever or funny lines, but they work because that's the kind of characters they are. They're badass, but just do what needs to be done. They keep the speeches pretty short.
(Footage focusing on the film's action sequences is shown)
Doug (vo): But there's two important things you don't see a lot of in this movie. One is the action. Oh, there's lots of action, but it's not edited together well. This whole movie has kind of a Jason Bourne identity to it, and honestly, I don't mind that. I think it works pretty well, and it is different. But when you get to the chase scenes and your eyes don't have time to focus on what's going on, you just see a bunch of stuff shaking and cutting and exploding and you don't even know who's where, that can get very tiresome.
(Footage focusing on the film's villain, Dreykov, the leader of the Red Room, played by Ray Winstone, is shown)
Doug (vo): But the other important thing you don't see much in this movie, the villain. I sometimes had to remind myself who they were even fighting in this movie. Yeah, they said the Red Room, but who's in charge of the Red Room? I think you saw him, like, once in the distance, you rarely, rarely saw him. If this is the scumbag who's responsible for everything and they're trying to get to and they're trying to stop, I want to see more of him. I want to put a face and a personality to the main threat. And the tragedy is, they eventually do, and he's great. I can't be the first one to say he's like a Russian Harvey Weinstein, but this actor really makes him slimy and disgusting but diabolical, and he chews the scenery in the best way. But he's only given to us at the last third. Even Lord of the Rings had other villains you could focus on, not just Sauron. Hell, even Sauron had an eye. We didn't even get an eye throughout most of this. There's honestly not even much talk about him like they're building him up. No, there's, like, none of that. So that made it really hard to get invested.
(Clips focusing on the Taskmaster are shown)
Doug (vo): Oh, quick note, too. I have no idea who this character is in the comics, but apparently, they were done, like, Mandarin-levels dirty, like, nobody was happy with how this character turned out. I almost forgot this even was a character in the movie, so it didn't really bother me that much.
(More clips focusing on Natasha/Black Widow and her interactions with her "family" are shown, along with various other clips)
Doug (vo): But with that said, I do think the film works just enough. Scarlett Johansson is still great as Black Widow, and all of the other actors playing her family are also fantastic. It's another one of those films where there's a long scene where everybody just sits down, talks at a table, and the characters are so interesting, that could be the movie for me. I'd be totally okay just hearing them talk about the past and what it means to be this kind of family, their strengths, their weaknesses, their failings as parents and daughters. All that stuff, I find really fascinating. I also like that they did go for more of a darker look with this movie. I mean, if you were to show me this and tell me this wasn't a Marvel movie, I think it was some sort of spy flick or aggressive thriller. I know we've seen something similar in the Captain America movies, but I can't explain it. There's just something a little tougher and more aggressive in the way this is shot and the way it's paced. It really wants you to sit with the misery of what some of these characters are going through. It's not in a rush to get to the next punch or kick.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So as a Black Widow fan myself, is this everything I've been waiting for in her own movie? Not really, but I wouldn't just say it's another Marvel movie either. I do think there's a lot of elements that help it stand out, and it did really keep my attention with the main characters and their acting. I guess if you go in with the mindset of "It's good, but not great", you might find enough surprises in there that make you glad you saw it. Not a glowing recommendation, but still a recommendation. Not the Black Widow movie we deserve, but the one we...got.
(One of the film's final scenes, showing Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow awaiting the arrival of the forces trying to catch her, is shown)