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Review: Black Widow (2021)
I thought I would find this boring but you know what? It was fun. It was simple, but I wasn’t bored.
Spoilers.
Story
This movie covered a part of Natasha’s life when she was part of the Avengers, before her death.
As a child, Natasha was an undercover agent sent to Ohio to pose as a family with Alexei Shostakov (“Red Guardian”) as a father, Melina (a widow assassin) as a mother, and Natasha and Yelena as the daughters. After Alexei and Melina had succeeded, Alexei was imprisoned, and Natasha and Yelena were taken to the Red Room to be trained as widow assassins.
In the present, Yelena assassinated a former widow, but was exposed to a gas that neutralized the mind control agent through which Dreykov was controlling her. Yelena took the other gas vials from the former widow and sent them to Natasha’s address in Budapest. Natasha was a fugitive but her friend brought her the mail from Budapest. Dreykov’s masked assassin hunted down Natasha for the vials but was unsuccessful.
Natasha and Yelena reunited in Budapest where they ran from widows also taking them down. They picked up Alexei from a prison, and then found themselves in Melina’s isolated farm. Melina was currently the only one still working for Dreykov, and when the three had come to her door, she had already alerted the Red Room. During their time at Melina’s farm, the four reflected on what those days in Ohio meant to them. Melina and Alexei looked back on them fondly as the good days. Yelena looked back on them fondly as the only good parts of her life. Natasha looked back on them as falsehoods.
Before Red Room came to capture them, Melina and Natasha devised a plan where they would use face changing technology and take each other’s spot. Natasha would pose as Melina to see Dreykov and kill him, while Melina would pose as Natasha so that she would be sent to the prison, where Melina knew all the ways to hack through the systems. Yelena was sent to get her brain cut out because Dreykov wanted to study the effects of the neutralizing gas.
Their identities were uncovered. We also learned the identity of Dreykov’s masked assassin. She was Antonia, Dreykov’s daughter. Natasha thought she had killed Dreykov in an explosion with his daughter Antonia in the building. However, it was revealed that they were both alive. Dreykov had Antonia operated on to become a super soldier who could mimic every fighter.
Melina was trying to hack into the systems, but Dreykov stopped her remotely. Melina made a distraction by taking down the air base. Alexei was busy fighting Antonia. Yelena was supposed to expose the widow assassins to the neutralizing gas but Dreykov had called for them to take down Natasha. Yelena did eventually make it to Dreykov’s office, where all of the widow assassins were neutralized.
As the air base went down, Yelena jammed Dreykov’s jet and killed everyone on board. Natasha tried to come to a truce with Antonia but she was still under the mind control. After they’d fallen off the base onto land, they fought where Natasha succeeded in exposing Antonia to the neutralizing agent.
Natasha gave the rest of the gas to Yelena who would be leaving with Melina, Alexei, and the neutralized widows. Melina could replicate the agent and the others could work to free the rest of the widow assassins all over the world. Meanwhile, the politician who was after Natasha caught up to her, and she decided to confront him.
In a post-credits scene, Natasha was already dead. At her grave, Yelena was approached by someone who asked her if she wanted to kill the man responsible for Natasha’s’ death, revealed to be Clint Barton.
The story was simple enough, though I think it wouldn’t have been understandable without at least some knowledge of what was going on in the Avengers franchise. I could appreciate the emotional journey of Natasha as she reconciled with her past and found allies among her family, even if it wasn’t a real family.
I did feel that some of the message was too on the nose but at least it wasn’t hammered in to the dialogue. There was also an attempt at humour and some of it was kind of eyeroll-inducing, but again it wasn’t done in excess so I could kind of ignore it.
Like I said, simple.
Production
I think the reason why this movie was more palatable compared to other superhero movies I hadn’t liked in the past few years was because Black Widow and the widow assassins don’t have powers, so the action was mostly hand-to-hand combat.
It was awkward that Alexei, Melina, and Yelena had vaguely Eastern European accents. I guess the reason why Natasha would have had an American accent was because she was presently working in the US. I don’t think it makes that much sense though. Alexei and Melina as undercover agents were used to speaking in American English comfortably even in private (considering they did when at home in Ohio). Yelena I can kind of understand if she was working for the Red Room ever since she left Ohio at the age of 6. If they were going to speak in Russian accents, I felt like they should have just spoken in Russian, but this is an English movie for an English-speaking audience. So if at least three of them canonically spoke American English comfortably then why didn’t we just have those characters speak American English? It’s to drive home the fact that they’re Russian I guess.
Characters
Natasha Romanoff
Natasha was the cool and calm Black Widow that we were familiar with in the Avengers franchise. This movie expanded her back, which I think is an original story.
The experience in Ohio led Natasha to become jaded about the world. All that was real was that she was alone. The Avengers were the first group she ever felt kinship for.
In the family reunion with Alexei, Melina, and Yelena, Natasha was against the idea of them every having been a family because it was fake. I believe this was due to Natasha having felt hurt at her family being torn apart at a young age. She came around a bit, when she flipped through the album of fake holiday photos and found that she’d had some good memories. She realized that just because they weren’t a real family didn’t mean that she wasn’t allowed to value the good memories that came with being together. Melina also told Natasha that her mother hadn’t given her away, but that she was taken from her family and that her mother had tried looking for Natasha until her death. So Natasha was coming to realize that there were people who loved her even if it wasn’t shown in the most straightforward ways.
Natasha and Melina concocted a plan to take down Dreykov and free the widows. It didn’t quite work according to plan but they still got the job done. At the end of the movie, Natasha realized that she had no reason to demonize the people from her past who had tried their best. Through this experience, she saw that they were still willing to help her even though they weren’t ‘real family.’ That encouraged Natasha to face her troubles with the Avengers.
Yelena Belova
Yelena had played Natasha’s younger sister in the undercover family, and after the conclusion of the mission at age 6, she went to the Red Room to be trained. Yelena had a strong attachment to the family, considering it her real family and considering Melina her real mother.
Yelena sent the neutralizing gas to Natasha because she trusted Natasha. She treated Natasha like a real sister, jealous that Natasha wasn’t including her in the cool stuff she was doing, teasing her whenever she executed something poorly. Yelena was the most hurt when Natasha said that their family wasn’t real. Those were the best times of her life. She went away to calm herself down though they were soon caught by Dreykov.
Yelena retained the responsibility of freeing the widow assassins, though this time she was helped by not only Alexei and Melina, but the rest of the freed widow assassins at the base.
I think that because Yelena was an original character, that her writing felt much more natural compared to a character who was already established in Marvel canon. There was no need for her to constantly have to reference things in her past. Instead, her story was just related to the one in this movie, that of their undercover family. She was not anyone special, just Natasha’s adoptive sister. She was snarky as required by MCU characters, but that was not all she was. She had a complicated past and she had chosen to deal with it by appreciating it. I think Florence Pugh did this character justice.
Alexei Shostakov
Alexei was the dad of the undercover family. He had super strength and had a superhero persona, “Red Guardian.” He kind of had an inferiority complex when comparing himself to Captain America since Captain America had all of the publicity. He was sent on the undercover mission, and then when he returned he was imprisoned where he remained to the present day.
Alexei was presented as somewhat of a buffoon. He boasted about his own greatness and he wasn’t the smartest both in terms of intelligence and emotional intelligence. Now that I think about it, he didn’t have a great presence in the plot either. Natasha and Yelena wanted him to tell them where Dreykov was, which he didn’t know, but he knew where Melina was. Otherwise he was just there to fight.
At the end, he joined Melina and Yelena with the widow assassins.
Melina Vostokoff
Melina was a widow assassin. She posed as the mother of the undercover family and in the present day she was a scientist working with Dreykov. As she was still allied with Dreykov, she had alerted the Red Room when the others had arrived on her farm. Natasha was a little astonished at the levels of research she had done, the extent to which the mind control worked.
After seeing how much Natasha and Yelena had been affected by their formative experiences, she grew sympathetic, and agreed to help them in their plan to take down Dreykov. In addition to the research on pigs, Melina also seemed to be an expert hacker (as well as an adept black widow).
At the end of the movie, it was implied that Melina would help to free the widows by producing more of the neutralizing gas.
I looked up Melina Vostokoff and apparently her superhero alter ego, Iron Maiden, is a villain in the Black Widow stories. We could have gotten a fairly complex story line between Natasha and her mother figure Melina but I doubt MCU could really do it justice. Plus, Natasha is dead in MCU canon now.
General Dreykov
The big bad who hadn’t actually died when Natasha had killed him in an explosion. At the time of the explosion, his daughter Antonia was also in the building and Natasha held guilt over killing an innocent girl. In the present, Dreykov continued being cartoonishly evil. He also did not care for his daughter, only appreciating her for her fighting prowess. Yelena killed him causing an explosion on his jet, but we can’t be sure that he isn’t still alive I guess.
Themes
The big theme in this movie was that there was family around Natasha if she would just look. Even though they were a fake family, Melina, Alexei, Natasha, and Yelena found themselves allies with a shared goal. Her own mother was looking for her without Natasha knowing at all. And the Avengers were her family, so she would fight for them.
Overall
Not as bad as I expected. A decent enough action flick with a simple story that didn’t make things too confusing. There weren’t an overabundance of Marvel references nor was this movie too quippy that nothing ever felt sincere.
Spoilers.
Story
This movie covered a part of Natasha’s life when she was part of the Avengers, before her death.
As a child, Natasha was an undercover agent sent to Ohio to pose as a family with Alexei Shostakov (“Red Guardian”) as a father, Melina (a widow assassin) as a mother, and Natasha and Yelena as the daughters. After Alexei and Melina had succeeded, Alexei was imprisoned, and Natasha and Yelena were taken to the Red Room to be trained as widow assassins.
In the present, Yelena assassinated a former widow, but was exposed to a gas that neutralized the mind control agent through which Dreykov was controlling her. Yelena took the other gas vials from the former widow and sent them to Natasha’s address in Budapest. Natasha was a fugitive but her friend brought her the mail from Budapest. Dreykov’s masked assassin hunted down Natasha for the vials but was unsuccessful.
Natasha and Yelena reunited in Budapest where they ran from widows also taking them down. They picked up Alexei from a prison, and then found themselves in Melina’s isolated farm. Melina was currently the only one still working for Dreykov, and when the three had come to her door, she had already alerted the Red Room. During their time at Melina’s farm, the four reflected on what those days in Ohio meant to them. Melina and Alexei looked back on them fondly as the good days. Yelena looked back on them fondly as the only good parts of her life. Natasha looked back on them as falsehoods.
Before Red Room came to capture them, Melina and Natasha devised a plan where they would use face changing technology and take each other’s spot. Natasha would pose as Melina to see Dreykov and kill him, while Melina would pose as Natasha so that she would be sent to the prison, where Melina knew all the ways to hack through the systems. Yelena was sent to get her brain cut out because Dreykov wanted to study the effects of the neutralizing gas.
Their identities were uncovered. We also learned the identity of Dreykov’s masked assassin. She was Antonia, Dreykov’s daughter. Natasha thought she had killed Dreykov in an explosion with his daughter Antonia in the building. However, it was revealed that they were both alive. Dreykov had Antonia operated on to become a super soldier who could mimic every fighter.
Melina was trying to hack into the systems, but Dreykov stopped her remotely. Melina made a distraction by taking down the air base. Alexei was busy fighting Antonia. Yelena was supposed to expose the widow assassins to the neutralizing gas but Dreykov had called for them to take down Natasha. Yelena did eventually make it to Dreykov’s office, where all of the widow assassins were neutralized.
As the air base went down, Yelena jammed Dreykov’s jet and killed everyone on board. Natasha tried to come to a truce with Antonia but she was still under the mind control. After they’d fallen off the base onto land, they fought where Natasha succeeded in exposing Antonia to the neutralizing agent.
Natasha gave the rest of the gas to Yelena who would be leaving with Melina, Alexei, and the neutralized widows. Melina could replicate the agent and the others could work to free the rest of the widow assassins all over the world. Meanwhile, the politician who was after Natasha caught up to her, and she decided to confront him.
In a post-credits scene, Natasha was already dead. At her grave, Yelena was approached by someone who asked her if she wanted to kill the man responsible for Natasha’s’ death, revealed to be Clint Barton.
The story was simple enough, though I think it wouldn’t have been understandable without at least some knowledge of what was going on in the Avengers franchise. I could appreciate the emotional journey of Natasha as she reconciled with her past and found allies among her family, even if it wasn’t a real family.
I did feel that some of the message was too on the nose but at least it wasn’t hammered in to the dialogue. There was also an attempt at humour and some of it was kind of eyeroll-inducing, but again it wasn’t done in excess so I could kind of ignore it.
Like I said, simple.
Production
I think the reason why this movie was more palatable compared to other superhero movies I hadn’t liked in the past few years was because Black Widow and the widow assassins don’t have powers, so the action was mostly hand-to-hand combat.
It was awkward that Alexei, Melina, and Yelena had vaguely Eastern European accents. I guess the reason why Natasha would have had an American accent was because she was presently working in the US. I don’t think it makes that much sense though. Alexei and Melina as undercover agents were used to speaking in American English comfortably even in private (considering they did when at home in Ohio). Yelena I can kind of understand if she was working for the Red Room ever since she left Ohio at the age of 6. If they were going to speak in Russian accents, I felt like they should have just spoken in Russian, but this is an English movie for an English-speaking audience. So if at least three of them canonically spoke American English comfortably then why didn’t we just have those characters speak American English? It’s to drive home the fact that they’re Russian I guess.
Characters
Natasha Romanoff
Natasha was the cool and calm Black Widow that we were familiar with in the Avengers franchise. This movie expanded her back, which I think is an original story.
The experience in Ohio led Natasha to become jaded about the world. All that was real was that she was alone. The Avengers were the first group she ever felt kinship for.
In the family reunion with Alexei, Melina, and Yelena, Natasha was against the idea of them every having been a family because it was fake. I believe this was due to Natasha having felt hurt at her family being torn apart at a young age. She came around a bit, when she flipped through the album of fake holiday photos and found that she’d had some good memories. She realized that just because they weren’t a real family didn’t mean that she wasn’t allowed to value the good memories that came with being together. Melina also told Natasha that her mother hadn’t given her away, but that she was taken from her family and that her mother had tried looking for Natasha until her death. So Natasha was coming to realize that there were people who loved her even if it wasn’t shown in the most straightforward ways.
Natasha and Melina concocted a plan to take down Dreykov and free the widows. It didn’t quite work according to plan but they still got the job done. At the end of the movie, Natasha realized that she had no reason to demonize the people from her past who had tried their best. Through this experience, she saw that they were still willing to help her even though they weren’t ‘real family.’ That encouraged Natasha to face her troubles with the Avengers.
Yelena Belova
Yelena had played Natasha’s younger sister in the undercover family, and after the conclusion of the mission at age 6, she went to the Red Room to be trained. Yelena had a strong attachment to the family, considering it her real family and considering Melina her real mother.
Yelena sent the neutralizing gas to Natasha because she trusted Natasha. She treated Natasha like a real sister, jealous that Natasha wasn’t including her in the cool stuff she was doing, teasing her whenever she executed something poorly. Yelena was the most hurt when Natasha said that their family wasn’t real. Those were the best times of her life. She went away to calm herself down though they were soon caught by Dreykov.
Yelena retained the responsibility of freeing the widow assassins, though this time she was helped by not only Alexei and Melina, but the rest of the freed widow assassins at the base.
I think that because Yelena was an original character, that her writing felt much more natural compared to a character who was already established in Marvel canon. There was no need for her to constantly have to reference things in her past. Instead, her story was just related to the one in this movie, that of their undercover family. She was not anyone special, just Natasha’s adoptive sister. She was snarky as required by MCU characters, but that was not all she was. She had a complicated past and she had chosen to deal with it by appreciating it. I think Florence Pugh did this character justice.
Alexei Shostakov
Alexei was the dad of the undercover family. He had super strength and had a superhero persona, “Red Guardian.” He kind of had an inferiority complex when comparing himself to Captain America since Captain America had all of the publicity. He was sent on the undercover mission, and then when he returned he was imprisoned where he remained to the present day.
Alexei was presented as somewhat of a buffoon. He boasted about his own greatness and he wasn’t the smartest both in terms of intelligence and emotional intelligence. Now that I think about it, he didn’t have a great presence in the plot either. Natasha and Yelena wanted him to tell them where Dreykov was, which he didn’t know, but he knew where Melina was. Otherwise he was just there to fight.
At the end, he joined Melina and Yelena with the widow assassins.
Melina Vostokoff
Melina was a widow assassin. She posed as the mother of the undercover family and in the present day she was a scientist working with Dreykov. As she was still allied with Dreykov, she had alerted the Red Room when the others had arrived on her farm. Natasha was a little astonished at the levels of research she had done, the extent to which the mind control worked.
After seeing how much Natasha and Yelena had been affected by their formative experiences, she grew sympathetic, and agreed to help them in their plan to take down Dreykov. In addition to the research on pigs, Melina also seemed to be an expert hacker (as well as an adept black widow).
At the end of the movie, it was implied that Melina would help to free the widows by producing more of the neutralizing gas.
I looked up Melina Vostokoff and apparently her superhero alter ego, Iron Maiden, is a villain in the Black Widow stories. We could have gotten a fairly complex story line between Natasha and her mother figure Melina but I doubt MCU could really do it justice. Plus, Natasha is dead in MCU canon now.
General Dreykov
The big bad who hadn’t actually died when Natasha had killed him in an explosion. At the time of the explosion, his daughter Antonia was also in the building and Natasha held guilt over killing an innocent girl. In the present, Dreykov continued being cartoonishly evil. He also did not care for his daughter, only appreciating her for her fighting prowess. Yelena killed him causing an explosion on his jet, but we can’t be sure that he isn’t still alive I guess.
Themes
The big theme in this movie was that there was family around Natasha if she would just look. Even though they were a fake family, Melina, Alexei, Natasha, and Yelena found themselves allies with a shared goal. Her own mother was looking for her without Natasha knowing at all. And the Avengers were her family, so she would fight for them.
Overall
Not as bad as I expected. A decent enough action flick with a simple story that didn’t make things too confusing. There weren’t an overabundance of Marvel references nor was this movie too quippy that nothing ever felt sincere.