Black Widow — A Review

14th August, 2021.

It’s got to be said, I’m a man with time on his hand.

You’ve possibly guessed, haven’t you?

Pointless brain Teasers don’t happen by themselves, after all.

Neither do any other videos I make!

At any rate: I’ve time to watch the odd movie.

And had a choice of three, tonight: Censor, In The Earth … or Black Widow.

I went — as you’ve possibly guessed — for Black Widow.

I’ll tell you more, when I finish this post, tomorrow night.

But I think I’ve made an ungood* choice.

~≈⌘≈~

15th August, 2021.

It’s officially the day after I started this post … so let me tell you about last night’s film … 

Black Widow opens in Ohio, in 1995: showing us a young Natasha Romanoff (Ever Anderson) cycling home to what we assume is the family home.

Her family are actually a sleeper cell composed of the father (Alexei/Red Guardian, played David Harbour), the mother (Melina/Black Widow, played by Rachel Weisz), and younger sister (young Yelena played by Violet McGraw)

Unfortunately?

The cell has to flee to Cuba with the help of Dreykov (Ray Winstone): after Alexei’s theft of sensitive information and torching of a nearby SHIELD base.

We slide into the opening credits.

And, posts titles … ?

And find the older Natasha (Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson†) on the run in the wake of Captain America: Civil War.

Whilst in an unnamed part of the world, Yelena (Florence Pugh) is fighting against a group of black clad agents: ultimately fleeing with several vials of a volatile red liquid that can neutralise the mind control used by Russia’s Red Room programme.

A programme she and her sister had been part of.

Yelena has bad memories of the programme, and wants it to stop.

The only way she can do that … ?

Conscript her adoptive siste, Natasha.

Then find they adoptive father, Alexei: the only person who knows where their adoptive mother is.

Then … 

Find out where the Red Room is, from a very reluctant Melina …

And confront it’s controller, Dreykov …

~≈⌘≈~

Now what did I make of all this … ?

To be honest … ?   Not a lot.

Let me start by saying this: that I’m not a particular fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It’s always struck me that’s there’s WAY too many of them to keep track.

The only ones I had seen?   Were the Blade films: which had little connection to the larger Marvel franchise.

Deadpool: which is both hysterical, and written so newcomers to the Universe don’t need to have seen others.

And Black Panther: which was a very entertaining watch, and, again, written as a standalone member of the series, with no connection — plot wise — to the rest of the franchise.

I was went into Black Widow, last night, thinking that it would be the same:  a standalone film, easily digestible to both fans, and non fans, alike.

To be frank?

From what I’ve seen?

It’s not something I — non Marvel fan that I am — found necessarily easy to follow: I think the writers (screen play by Eric Pearson, story by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson) assumed more knowledge of the background than many may have.

I didn’t realise there was more than one Black Widow than the Johansson character, for example.

Another issue for me?

In one scene, Melina is at one of the control panels of the airborne Red Room: a strategic one that can land the thing.

She’s locked in: by sliding bulkheads.

And — as far as I could see — has no way to escape.

Yet we see her helping Natasha, Yelena and Alexei, a few minutes later.   Without being shown how she escapes.

That’s seems fairly typical of the film.

Ray Winstone, as the villainous Dreykov, seems someone miscast: though I would rather have heard his native London accent, rather than his Russian one.

He wasn’t bad … just not at his best.

That’s possibly a list I would add to: were I to watch Black Widow, again.

As of now, however?

I have to say Black Widow cast are generally competent, the fight scenes are well done, the action scenes engaging … 

But?

Black Widow is an OK film to have seen.

It’s just not the best one I could have chosen.

Black Widow

★☆☆☆

*        If you’ve read Orwell’s Ninety-eighty-four, you’ll realise that ungood is an example of Newspeak, and simply means bad.   Somehow, it seemed a better choice of word than ‘duff,’  ‘ropey,’ ‘shoddy,’ … or even just ‘bad’.

†        Scarlett’s left handed.   It’s the first thing I noticed …