Black Widow

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)

Marvel has been just spinning the same formula for some time, and so is now trying to make up for their past with a lot of catching up to do, ripping off everything from The Bourne Identity to the underrated Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. All this is done in such a lackluster manner which is so bland and stupid that it is bound to disappoint die-hard fans of this superhero franchise. The screenplay is not as cheap and crappy as in Captain Marvel, yet it is still completely pointless and a lame bare popcorn movie. (07/14/2021)

The first half is great, it has a dark intro, raw, tight fights and great eye candy FX moments (the chimney scene, WOW!). I almost wouldn't be afraid to say that the first ten minutes not only form a decent backdrop for the origin of a character we don't really know much about, but it also has the emotional edge and directness that was so very good in Winter Soldier, for example. But once it swings into the second part, it becomes more of a comedy, because as it’s usual with comic-book films, few and far between don't go "check all the boxes" style – or rather, they have to please everyone. And so suddenly, the deadly serious-looking film becomes almost a merry-go-round, and it's completely buried from the higher rungs by the insanely over-the-top finale. Florence Pugh is the best, the characters are OK overall, just a bit messily put together. It still has the hallmarks of a bombastic high budget film, but in this version it could have come before the battle and not after. (07/12/2021)

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 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)