Black Widow

It's an incredible shame they didn't release Black Widow a month after Wonder Woman 84, it could have been a great female combo. It doesn't sound much like that anymore. That's how Captain Marvel and the series' WandaVision fizzled out in the interim, as the start of Phase 4 of the MCU comes at a time of distrust in the Covid-distorted media world. Still, the encounter with Scarlett Johansson's solo film, abundantly supported by Florence Pugh and Rachel Weisz, is thoroughly enjoyable. The action is traditionally ironically over-the-top, Cold War fans are satisfied, and this time the travel guide recommends Budapest. (07/12/2021)

I was thrilled, about halfway through. Black Widow starts as an unexpectedly dark and adult comic book movie, presenting broken and hesitant heroes and heroines instead of jokes, and surprisingly gritty action that doesn't deny that the creators took inspiration from Jason Bourne and Mission: Impossible. It's also humorless, and for a while it felt like the most mature Marvel movie ever, unafraid of themes you wouldn't quite expect to find there. But then, somehow, it breaks. Halfway through, it's as if the makers decided that their audience probably doesn't actually crave something like this and went back to their old ways of playing it safe, give or take. Black Widow does even that well, and when you take away the not-so-good contact action scenes and the weaker Taskmaster, it's at least a solid job and an inoffensive Marvel average. It just felt a little too little when they went with a more mature yet fully functioning style in the first part. I don't want to make it sound like Black Widow is a bad movie. It's a well-done comic-book routine, but as a viewer, I'm not completely satisfied with that anymore. Especially when Scarlet Johansson and her crew managed to show me that they can do better. (07/08/2021)

After a two-year cinematic hiatus in the MCU, we got to see another Avengers solo film and I'm actually quite pleased. It might be the twenty-fourth time of basically the same thing, but in many ways it's still a very good mainstream production. A strong female element is very much present, but I can't say I mind that in any way. On the contrary, I think that the whole crew around Feige know how to work with those contemporary paradigms with due flair and grace. The first half delights with a very dark thriller atmosphere, which is appealingly reminiscent of the second and third Captain America films. Despite the top-notch action sequences, Black Widow doesn't avoid the expected schematic quality in its second half, where its initial cheesiness is replaced with the typical Marvel formula that ultimately places this solo effort in the broader MCU average. Which is certainly not a bad thing. [65%] (07/07/2021)

Never trust doomsayers. A true blue Marvel movie, targeted at ladies, but not at all dumb. The introduction is awesome, dark and uncompromising, then it gets into the old rut, but the second half is more than just good too. Infantile humor made at the expense of Harvey Weinstein and tops it all with a family-flavor sauce made by Disney. The ending is strangely cut short (it lacks elimination of Ross or an explanation of whether or not it was Kapo who helped), but due it being set during the Civil War, that is more or less understandable. The biggest surprise the Widow holds is David Harbour and the whole over-the-top prison escape. We want a series spin-off with Crimson Dynamo! And Florence Pugh steals the whole show in the end. Such a poser. (07/12/2021)

After almost two years, a Marvel movie finally hit the cinemas and the result is nothing to write home about. For me, a pretty useless movie about a useless character. The first hour is surprisingly solid, it's well paced, the action is kept down to earth and the fights have decent choreography – they're Bourne style so I enjoyed them. I'm also pleased with Florence Pugh, whom I like a lot, and the Taskmaster's entrance is awesome. By the second hour, however, I felt that perhaps the director had been replaced, the action goes by the wayside, and so does the fun goes, the humour is completely absent, the Taskmaster goes by the wayside! (it's reprehensible to sideline such an interesting villain like that!), and the finale was perhaps the weakest of all the action scenes, so I'm quite disappointed. I rate the first half as 8/10, the second half is about 5-6, and in the end I'm rounding up more towards 6, because for Marvel I found it unbalanced, the effects aren't too dazzling either, it felt a bit like it was going half throttle and quite possibly the first Marvel movie I definitely won't watch again. Story 3/5, Action 3/5, Humor 1/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 2/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5. 6/10. (07/20/2021)