MOVIE REVIEW: BLACK WIDOW

 

MOVIE REVIEW:  BLACK WIDOW  

Another member of Earth's Mightiest Heroes finally gets their story told....and it took some time to get here...but it was about time for Natasha Romanov to be front and center for a Marvel movie, and thus---after having to endure countless delays due to COVID and other issues....we finally got Black Widow. 

With this story, we got to finally dive into the past of our heroine, showing that she was part of a fake family set up by Russia in 1995, as Natasha ( Scarlett Johansson), the younger Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), and Alexi Shostakov (David Harbour), had been placed in America as a typical American family, but Alexi and Melina were gathering intel from SHIELD, but soon find out that they've been made, so they have to pack up and go.  While Natasha is a tad more aware of what's going on, Yelena is still naive about everything, but they know they have to leave.  Alexi---as Super Soldier---uses his super strength to help delay the authorities from trying to catch them, as Melina, Natasha, and Yelena make their escape in a plane.  Alexi holds off the authorities long enough to hop on the plane, but Melina is injured by gunshot.  Eventually, the "family" makes good on its escape to Cuba.  

There, they're met by General Dreykov (Ray Winstone), and the girls are taken to the Red Room---a place where young girls are trained to becoming super spies.  Years have passed, and Shostakov has been sent to prison, Melina works on a farm, Yelena is a part of the Black Widows, performing missions for Dreykov, and Natasha....she defected to join SHIELD, and eventually became a core member of The Avengers.  Part of her initiation into SHIELD was to kill Dreykov, and she apparently kills him and his daughter, Antonia. In modern day, Natasha is on the run, because she violated the Sokovia Accords, and is being hunted by U.S. Secretary of State, General Thaddeus Ross.  However, she makes her escape, and hides out at a safehouse in Norway thanks to and old friend of hers, Rick Mason.  

Meanwhile, Yelena is after a rogue Black Widow who has some vials that she's trying to make off with, and ends up killing her, but as the rogue agent is dying, she hits Belova with the red chemical gas.  This chemical gas ends up eliminating the mind control that's been placed on the agents.  Yelena then takes the vials, and disappears.  She ended up sending them to Natasha, hoping that her and The Avengers would use them to free the other Black Widows. While driving to get supplies (and unknowingly having the antidote in her car), Natasha is attacked by Dreykov's main assassin from the Red Room - The Taskmaster.  An assassin who can copy anyone's fighting style and adapt it.  Both Natasha and Taskmaster fight, but Natasha escapes with the vials.  She discovers that the vials had been sent from Budapest, and she heads out there. 

Once in Budapest, she meets up with Yelena...and after a brief bit of fighting with each other, Yelena informs Natasha that Dreykov is still alive and the Red Room is still active.  It's not much longer after them meeting, that they have to flee to escape Taskmaster and the other Black Widows, whom have come to kill the two women.  The pair manage to escape via motorcycle and car, and hide out until they meet up with Natasha's friend Mason once again, who provides them with a helicopter to help them in their mission:  to destroy Dreykov, and shut down the Red Room.  But they're gonna need help.  They end up breaking Alexi out of prison in order to find out where Dreykov is.  Another huge fight occurs, and the trio manage to escape once again, and Alexi has them head to a farm outside of Saint Petersburg, where they meet up with Vostokov.  She's been  there refining the chemical to help control the Widows.  After a tense reunion, Vostokov had ended up calling Dreykov and letting him know that Natasha, Yelena, and Alexi were there.  They are all rendered unconscious, and taken prisoner. 

At the Red Room, which is an aerial compound, it's soon discovered that Natasha and Melina has switched places, using face-mask technology.  While Melina is breaking Alexi out, and helping Yelena escape from being carved up, Natasha is revealed to Dreykov, who boasts about his plans to control the world by using the Widows to infiltrate every aspect of every government on the planet.  Natasha cannot kill him, because of a pheromone that Dreykov uses to render the Widows incapable of harming him.  He then shows Natasha the identity of the Taskmaster:  his daughter Antonia.  She was severely hurt in the bomb explosion set off by Natasha, that he had to put implants in her head....making her the most loyal subject.  Natasha manages to bypass the pheromones by breaking her own nose, thus severing the nerve.  She beats him down, and tries to stop the other Widows across the globe from being activated.  Taskmaster, who'd been locked in a cell, battles Alexi, as Melina tries to shut down the Red Room.  Yelena makes her escape, and Natasha has to battle the other Black Widows that have been activated.  

The building begins to crumble, and Yelena arrives to expose the other Widows to the antidote, and they all begin to make their escape.  The building begins to collapse with the engines destroyed.  Yelena believes that she's going to die in this battle, as everything is crashing to the ground, but Natasha swoops down to catch up to her, and uses the parachute to help them glide to the ground.  Yelena managed to send a shot into the ship carrying Dreykov, and he's killed in the explosion.  Once on the ground, the Taskmaster and Natasha face off, but Natasha uses some vials that were floating down to break Antonia from the programming.  The Red Room is destroyed for good.

Natasha and Yelena hug and bond once again as sisters, as Melina and Alexi meet up with them.  It's time for Natasha to face off with Ross, who's arrived to arrest her, while Yelena, Alexi, Melina, Antonia, and the other Widows take off, set on their mission to free all the other Widows from Dreykov's mind control. Two weeks later, we see that Natasha....now with her blonde hair...and having the vest that was given to her by Yelena...meet up with Mason, who managed to secure a Quinjet for her.  She's off to free the remaining imprisoned Avengers at The Raft

The post credits scene, we see Yelena visiting the gravesite set up for Natasha, when Valentina Allegra de Fontaine shows up, and gives Belova's next target:  the man responsible for Natasha's death (according to Valentina)--Clint Barton. 

This movie was a rollercoaster ride from the outset...from jumping right into Natasha's past, to her being on the run from Ross, to eventually having to fight and outrun the other Black Widows with her sister Yelena.  The movie, thankfully, gave us a few pauses to catch our breath, but A LOT of this movie gave me serious Jason Bourne vibes.  I guess it's the spy nature of it, and the fact that NONE of these people have super powers....outside of Alexi...and they're managing these incredible feats.  The stunt coordination was brilliant, and I did love the fight scenes....they felt rough and brutal.  But most of all---I seriously dug the banter and sisterly relationship between Natasha and Yelena.  Yelena is headstrong, opinionated, and a little rough around the edges...but when she is free of the mind control, we see that she also has a heart.  Alexi, Melina, and Natasha are her family...and though it was fake by everyone else...it was real to HER.  Something we see Natasha have to come to terms with during the film, as she realizes that these people ARE her family...and all she has left.  And while, at the time, Natasha did NOT know what her fate was going to be after Thanos snapped half the universe away, she still made sure she found a way to kind of "pass the baton" to Yelena (in a way, since this was Johansson's last ride as Natasha Romanov, it was befitting of her to kind of give the keys to the car to Florence Pugh to become the next Black Widow).  Yelena's story in the MCU is truly just beginning, and we KNOW she'll cross paths with Barton and his daughter when the Hawkeye series hits Disney Plus later on this year.  I look forward to seeing Pugh's Yelena interact with the rest of the MCU, and how she'll fit into a newer version of The Avengers.  

For Scarlett Johansson...we thank her for all the years and adventures she gave us as Natasha.  She brought such strength and sensibility, and kept her grounded, even though she was in a world with Gods, Monsters, and super powered beings of various origins.  She was the lynchpin of the Avengers, and we will miss her as Black Widow.  But this movie is must see for MCU competeists...and it puts a nice bow on the story of Natasha Romanov.