Watching ‘Black Widow’ is a bitter sweet experience. You are watching a movie that you know, whether you like it or not, is the main character’s swan song. Also, the fact that Sydney is currently under lockdown, and you cannot enjoy the experience in the theatre, made it even sadder.
Disney+ release is a consolation prize, though at the time of writing Scarlett Johansson is suing Disney for a breach of contract that contributed to the sharp decline in revenue for the movie. For me the box office failure because of the simultaneous release could feed into the false claims that female superhero movies do not work in the future, which is unfortunate.
Nevertheless, for me ‘Black Widow’ is a very enjoyable movie in its own right. I think being a prequel to two of the most successful movies in the Infinity Saga has put a lot of weights on the shoulders of the cast and crew. That’s mostly because you need to make an individual movie that at the same time did not contradict to movies that were already made and seen by the audience. You need to pay enough tribute to those movies, while at the same time setting up new storylines that do not need further reconciliation. It is a huge job, and personally I think Cate Shortland managed that (which is nice that it is directed by a female director in my opinion).
The premise of Black Widow is quite straightforward. After the events of Civil War, Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow is on the run. She outsmarted all the men after her, seeking a quieter life somewhere else, only to be pulled back into action because of a package sent to her by her adopted sister Yelena Belova (played brilliantly by Florence Pugh). That’s when she realised that scores that were supposed to be settled were never settled.
Confronting the past that you determined to put aside to move on is never an easy task. That’s what Natasha needs to do to realise her part in the greater scheme of things. Every decision she made and everything conversation about the past played into her present and her future. The fact that we now understood more about her past, we understood her actions in Endgame at the same time.
‘Family’ is the main theme here. In Endgame, the Avengers thought they were Natasha’s only family, as this was what was discussed about earlier on in Endgame, but in fact, she got more than one, though none of them biological. ‘Family’ has a completely different meaning for Natasha, yet no matter how she defined it, ‘Family’ is still what it meant. Her dynamic with Yelena, who has never recovered from the abandonment she experienced at 6 comprised of funny sibling rivalry and passive aggression, and for me it was funny to watch, as no matter how professional and deadly you were trained as assassins, at the end of the day you are just two girls sharing a same past and family, and you never grew out of that experience.
David Harbour as Alexei, aka the Red Guardian provided a lot comic relief as a super soldier who still lives in the past, when the past is, well, long in the past. The girls’ grudges against him were completely understandable but he, as he said, simply was the muscles. And the muscles only he was. The good old days never left his mind, but then with what we already experienced and saw in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), you can’t help but wonder how much he said was true. Or is it that he had encountered something that we have yet to see? There was a moment before watching the movie I wondered whether I can delineate David Harbour’s Red Guradian from the character in Stranger Things, as it was so magnificently performed. All doubts were cast away as soon as he appeared again in the modern times in the prison.
Rachel Weisz as Melina didn’t really have much time to shine. In fact, I think she was seriously underutilised. I personally hoped to see more of her, especially when you saw the Iron Maiden homage or Easter Egg showing up in her barn. She did a good job out of what was available for her character at this point, but I do hope that we could see more of her in the future. Especially when Tony Stark is now out of the picture as the tech guru, and we yet to know what role Shuri would be playing in Black Pantha: Wakanda Forever. I believe there are more layers we can see from Rachel Weisz’s Melina if Marvel is willing to.
There is without a doubt that Black Widow is also setting up what is to come, especially with Yelena as the next generation Black Widow. It is still sad to see Scarlett Johansson saying farewell to a character she had created for 10 years, but as with a lot of things in the movie industry, when it’s time to move on, it’s time to move on. Florence Pugh seemed to have set up Yelena quite well as the next Black Widow without trying to be her bigger sister’s incarnation. We will probably see her again in the Hawkeye series, and probably in other MCU properties. How this character will grow will depend on whether Marvel wants to provide the platform for her, and how she handles the character. Somehow, with now a great premise set up by ‘Black Widow’, I think this will not be the last we saw of the Black Widows.
Black Widow is now in theatres, where theatres are still open, and on Disney+ with additional Premiere Access.
