Black Widow
I loved every second of this film. Every second.
~ Maybe because of the Star Wars franchise where everything is retconned over and over again to within an inch of its life, when they announced the BW film I was glad to have it but also assumed the story would feel... not entirely organic to the greater MCU. And I didn't care! I was like, so what, it'll just be fun to have Natasha on her own, telling her own story. Even if it felt too little too late, I was just glad we were getting a BW film. But imo this dropped right into the MCU rather seamlessly.
~ This film made me cry several times. Just seeing her, and her aching loneliess, knowing what's in store for her. Also knowing she never ever gives up. Not ever.
~ Natasha is my favorite. I say Steve is my favorite, and that's entirely true, and Sam and Thor and Bucky along with Steve, all rotate in my heart in a jumble of constant affection. But Natasha is like a sister. I'm so fond of 99% of the mcu characters that I always get myself into trouble trying to sort out which ones I love more than the others, but Natasha claims first place. She was there before Steve. She's the first female MCU character I loved, and perhaps only Peggy can claim as much. This is all to say that, even knowing this, I did not expect that I would love her solo film as much as I did.
~ I'm very glad they got Cate Shortland to direct. By chance, because I've been watching a lot of horror and thriller films during the pandemic, I watched Cate's film The Berlin Syndrome several months ago, not realizing she was the director of Black Widow until after finishing the film. I didn't know what to think of The Berlin Syndrome. It's about a young woman traveling by herself in Berlin, who has a one night stand with a handsome German teacher only to be held captive in his apartment for months. It's not the type of film I would recommend to anyone, but it's not the usual "girl in the basement" film either, and it's sensitively directed by Cate (the lead is the actress from A Discovery of Witches). Anyway, having seen that film first, I could see Cate's same style in BW, and i loved the way she (and the writers') handling the more twisted aspects of the Black Widow history -- with the red room, these young girls who are conscripted into it, the way they're controlled by these horrible men. MarvelDisney isn't going to go into the really horrible places this sort of thing could go, but it was still there, and choosing Cate to direct really added to that, imo.
~ Along the same lines, I kept thinking of the tv show The Americans in certain parts of BW. Especially the fake family thing and the mixing of emotions and the fucked up ness of what happened to the kids. The brain washing.
~ I didn't need the Black Widow film to explain to me why Natasha is the way she is in the other MCU films, why she fought Clint so hard in Endgame, how non-judgmental she is, her need for the avengers as family, all of it I already understood as part of who she was. I've loved every part of Natasha's journey in the MCU, including her death, and that's why I'm so deeply annoyed by most people's take on her. Knowing already about the Red Room I could infer and fill in the emotional backstory for Natasha easily. Her actions and her portrayal made total sense to me, and that's how I wrote her in my stories.
~ But now there's this film. And that's a huge part of why I loved it so much, even more than I expected, because it just made real everything I already knew about Natasha and they did so seamlessly with the other MCU films. Everything I already felt about her to be true, this movie just put it on screen for me. And did so with action and a great sister dynamic, and complex character development for Natasha and Yelena, in the customary MCU style of doing so through action instead of OTT lengthy dialogue scenes. It works for them, and they're better at character through action than most other big actiony franchises.
~ I also adored Melina. And to some extend Alexei as well. That even with their conditioning, their little 3 year family dug deep into their souls, and changed some fundamental part of them that brainwashing and conditioning couldn't erase.
~ I especially loved the moment between Melina and Natasha when Melina is staring at her in wonder, marveling at Natasha's strength. At her power. Where did you learn such strength? ETA: She actually says How did you keep your heart? Which is better, but funny that I remembered it as strength, hm.
~ It's funny to write about Melina but not about
melina haha
~ I did find almost all parts of the plot entirely predictable. Without being spoiled one little bit, I knew right away that the Taskmaster was going to be a black widow and then as soon as we got Drekov's daughter's backstory I was like, oh yeah, she lived and she's the Taskmaster. Though briefly I thought Melina might be the Taskmaster which would have been fun too. The other beats of the story were easy to see coming. The only part that got me by surprise was the end credit scene with Valentina and Yelena. Valentina has surprised me TWICE now lol. Good for her.
~I am excite for Yelena/Kate. Yes! Also really looking forward to seeing Yelena going after Clint.
~Yelena was awesome and I'm going to love her as the new Black Widow, which is where I'm assuming she's heading as a character. Or maybe she's going to be her own thing, but she's going to be around for future films. I didn't know what to expect from the character because I have not enjoyed Yelena in some of the fiction I've read where she's appeared. But she was so great! The dynamic between the sisters, both younger and older, was awesome and felt real. Very sisterly. Where you love them and you're also just deeply annoyed by them. And then also they invoke deep guilt and then you have this like trigger instinct to kill whoever is going to hurt your sister. That all read very well on screen. Kudos to Scarlett and Florence.
eta: I was convinced the young actress who played child Natasha was Milla Jovovich's daughter, and I was right.
I had planned to watch it again today but now I'm seeing the F&F9 instead. But I'll see Black Widow several more times before it's gone from the theaters! Dreamwidth Post |
~ Maybe because of the Star Wars franchise where everything is retconned over and over again to within an inch of its life, when they announced the BW film I was glad to have it but also assumed the story would feel... not entirely organic to the greater MCU. And I didn't care! I was like, so what, it'll just be fun to have Natasha on her own, telling her own story. Even if it felt too little too late, I was just glad we were getting a BW film. But imo this dropped right into the MCU rather seamlessly.
~ This film made me cry several times. Just seeing her, and her aching loneliess, knowing what's in store for her. Also knowing she never ever gives up. Not ever.
~ Natasha is my favorite. I say Steve is my favorite, and that's entirely true, and Sam and Thor and Bucky along with Steve, all rotate in my heart in a jumble of constant affection. But Natasha is like a sister. I'm so fond of 99% of the mcu characters that I always get myself into trouble trying to sort out which ones I love more than the others, but Natasha claims first place. She was there before Steve. She's the first female MCU character I loved, and perhaps only Peggy can claim as much. This is all to say that, even knowing this, I did not expect that I would love her solo film as much as I did.
~ I'm very glad they got Cate Shortland to direct. By chance, because I've been watching a lot of horror and thriller films during the pandemic, I watched Cate's film The Berlin Syndrome several months ago, not realizing she was the director of Black Widow until after finishing the film. I didn't know what to think of The Berlin Syndrome. It's about a young woman traveling by herself in Berlin, who has a one night stand with a handsome German teacher only to be held captive in his apartment for months. It's not the type of film I would recommend to anyone, but it's not the usual "girl in the basement" film either, and it's sensitively directed by Cate (the lead is the actress from A Discovery of Witches). Anyway, having seen that film first, I could see Cate's same style in BW, and i loved the way she (and the writers') handling the more twisted aspects of the Black Widow history -- with the red room, these young girls who are conscripted into it, the way they're controlled by these horrible men. MarvelDisney isn't going to go into the really horrible places this sort of thing could go, but it was still there, and choosing Cate to direct really added to that, imo.
~ Along the same lines, I kept thinking of the tv show The Americans in certain parts of BW. Especially the fake family thing and the mixing of emotions and the fucked up ness of what happened to the kids. The brain washing.
~ I didn't need the Black Widow film to explain to me why Natasha is the way she is in the other MCU films, why she fought Clint so hard in Endgame, how non-judgmental she is, her need for the avengers as family, all of it I already understood as part of who she was. I've loved every part of Natasha's journey in the MCU, including her death, and that's why I'm so deeply annoyed by most people's take on her. Knowing already about the Red Room I could infer and fill in the emotional backstory for Natasha easily. Her actions and her portrayal made total sense to me, and that's how I wrote her in my stories.
~ But now there's this film. And that's a huge part of why I loved it so much, even more than I expected, because it just made real everything I already knew about Natasha and they did so seamlessly with the other MCU films. Everything I already felt about her to be true, this movie just put it on screen for me. And did so with action and a great sister dynamic, and complex character development for Natasha and Yelena, in the customary MCU style of doing so through action instead of OTT lengthy dialogue scenes. It works for them, and they're better at character through action than most other big actiony franchises.
~ I also adored Melina. And to some extend Alexei as well. That even with their conditioning, their little 3 year family dug deep into their souls, and changed some fundamental part of them that brainwashing and conditioning couldn't erase.
~ I especially loved the moment between Melina and Natasha when Melina is staring at her in wonder, marveling at Natasha's strength. At her power. Where did you learn such strength? ETA: She actually says How did you keep your heart? Which is better, but funny that I remembered it as strength, hm.
~ It's funny to write about Melina but not about
melina haha
~ I did find almost all parts of the plot entirely predictable. Without being spoiled one little bit, I knew right away that the Taskmaster was going to be a black widow and then as soon as we got Drekov's daughter's backstory I was like, oh yeah, she lived and she's the Taskmaster. Though briefly I thought Melina might be the Taskmaster which would have been fun too. The other beats of the story were easy to see coming. The only part that got me by surprise was the end credit scene with Valentina and Yelena. Valentina has surprised me TWICE now lol. Good for her.
~I am excite for Yelena/Kate. Yes! Also really looking forward to seeing Yelena going after Clint.
~Yelena was awesome and I'm going to love her as the new Black Widow, which is where I'm assuming she's heading as a character. Or maybe she's going to be her own thing, but she's going to be around for future films. I didn't know what to expect from the character because I have not enjoyed Yelena in some of the fiction I've read where she's appeared. But she was so great! The dynamic between the sisters, both younger and older, was awesome and felt real. Very sisterly. Where you love them and you're also just deeply annoyed by them. And then also they invoke deep guilt and then you have this like trigger instinct to kill whoever is going to hurt your sister. That all read very well on screen. Kudos to Scarlett and Florence.
eta: I was convinced the young actress who played child Natasha was Milla Jovovich's daughter, and I was right.
I had planned to watch it again today but now I'm seeing the F&F9 instead. But I'll see Black Widow several more times before it's gone from the theaters! Dreamwidth Post |