"Black Widow" Review (Take Two, Spoilers)
Also reviews for the latest episodes of Monsters At Work, Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life, and The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse.
Black Widow (Take Two)
I had a bad reaction to the first time I saw this, and I knew I was probably being unfair. Natasha being dead isn't actually this movie's fault. That failing belongs to Avengers: Endgame. So seeing the positive reviews the movie got contrasting with how unhappy I was made me decide to revisit it as long as I still had Disney+ Premiere Access.
I'm glad I did. It's not perfect, and one of my biggest complaints still stands, but it's a really nice Marvel Studios picture, made richer for the fact that it's like none of the others.
Let's get my major complaint out of the way. This specific thing I think hurt my enjoyment of the movie. The climax is way too damn big. It's a freaking spectacle, and I found the character stuff in the movie far more intense and fascinating. I don't like that Marvel Studios believes it needs to top itself in special effects bonanzas for every single movie. Outside of that climax, the movie was unlike all of the others, which made it special. That specific climax IS like all the others, which automatically makes the movie LESS special.
But I'm glad I get to review it again and talk about the stuff I like this time. I mentioned the first go-round that my favorite thing about Alexei is that he's too stupid to understand he should be apologetic. As far as he's concerned, he's actually done nothing wrong, which is a VERY interesting facet to give a character who is not actually a sociopath or a bad guy. He just has a different point of view. What I like in this viewing is realizing Yelena is a similarly irascible type of character, snarkier than someone with her tragic backstory should be, and the first person to cast deserved shade over Natasha's various silly poses. They look great in slow-motion on a big movie screen. I imagine they look ridiculous to the person standing next to her when she's doing them.
The second viewing made me appreciate the beginning more. It was very sad this time out because I knew and understood WHY it was sad and messed up. And the main titles with the haunting song are somehow even more tragic this time out.
This movie explores human trafficking and the exploitation of young girls. Heavy subject matter for a summer blockbuster. Dreykoff is arguably the sickest Marvel Studio villain in history (he's even worse than Jessica Jones' Kilgrave) and when he says that the world's most overabundant resource is little girls, I was like, "This movie is exactly right for the times we live in." What kills me is that for awhile there I was all right with some of the Netflix Marvel Television stuff. Different tones and stories can make a continuity more well-rounded. But in the end, the Netflix stuff, and ALL the Marvel Television stuff, became nihilistic and dark and depressing, which isn't something that makes the MCU more well-rounded. It's tone is simply entirely outside of the MCU.
This movie explores those dark and realistic human themes, and still feels like the proper tone set up in the rest of the movies. Natasha is empowered to take down and kill Draykoff for the evil that he's done. Jessica Jones is forced to second-guess killing Kilgrave and having that be a controversy. I like the black and white morality of the Feige stuff. Maybe Natasha should feel legit guilt for what she did to Antonia and other innocent victims. But why make exploding a psychopath like Dreykov's helicopter a controversy to begin with? I cheered when he died because I should have. Natasha isn't torn up with guilt for it and I'm glad. Seriously. Grave marked "Unknown". Who DOESN'T want to see that monster blown up? Natasha was even gifted a very humiliating Crowning Moment Of Awesome against him beforehand too, so what's not to like?
The tag with Val is another thing I didn't like, but that and Natasha's death seemed like corporate mandates, and not something the film's writers and director had any control over. I won't penalize the movie too badly for that. It's not as damaging as the over-the-top climax.
I also kind of dug the secondary character of Mason this time out. He and Natasha have great chemistry, and I laughed when Yelena called him sensitive.
I'll tell you what moment was funny and not funny at all. Alexei is doing a very lame and unfunny time of the month joke, and both Natasha and Yelena are reminding him in graphic detail how they went under forced hysterectomies. It's horrific dialogue played for laughs simply because both women know and understand how awful it is, and are rubbing into Alexei's clueless face how awful it is. And his thoughtless comment deserves that level of shade and discomfort. I thought it was both funny and also something that made me feel kind of sick for finding it funny.
The scene with Alexei the pig still makes me cringe. Besides the climax, if I could change anything in the movie, I'd get rid of that. It's just TOO horrible.
I pretty much guessed that my opinion would be kinder the second time out, and I think I owed it to the people who liked the movie, and were a little perplexed at that review, to get this new one out there as soon as I could. I stand by my first review as an accurate assessment of how the first viewing of the film effected me. But my opinion about the movie changed on the second. That happens quite often, frankly. I probably need to rereview a lot more stuff. ****1/2.
Monster At Work "The Vending Machine"
Wow, the Mift crew are REALLY useless at fixing things. They ALL should be fired.
I like Mike telling Sulley he wasn't thinking like an overpaid out-of-touch CEO.
Kids don't actually find clowns funny. That lesson would be more appropriate if they were still in the scare business.
Pretty good although Mift's rank incompetence is starting to get on my nerves. ***1/2.
Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life "The Whole Package / Bird Brains / Acorn In My Side"
The Whole Package:
It's interesting Chip and Dale have the intelligence of animals instead of people in this incarnation. They don't understand how either nutcrackers or the mail works.
Dale on the Roomba was fun.
But the end shows Chip and Dale are pretty much hopeless. ***1/2.
Bird Brain:
The premise of this is outright nuts. This at times gruesome and disturbing episode seems to be a legit parody of the movie version of Hannibal. And it's very interesting and weird to see Chip being portrayed as the dum-dum in the duo. But this was crazy (and also fun). ****.
Acorn In My Side:
This could have used some dialogue. I didn't really understand what was going on. And since when can Chip and Dale use and understand crosswalks?
Eh. **.
Episode Overall: ***.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Duet For Two"
Am I the only one who wished this was simply an 8 minute musical number?
I like the snake guy, and that he has a cartoon glove where his rattle should be. Him dressing up as Minnie at the end made me laugh.
I also thought Mickey and Minnie as the Beatles were funny.
Super cute. ***1/2.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Birdwatching"
See, if I were Minnie, if Goofy called me "a whopper", I woulda socked him in the chops.
I love that the Mama bird thought Mickey was one of her babies. Him flunking bird school was funny, and I laughed at the jokes with the Ravens and the Cardinals.
His expression as he said he didn't like where this was going was hilarious.
Also cute. ***1/2.
Black Widow (Take Two)
I had a bad reaction to the first time I saw this, and I knew I was probably being unfair. Natasha being dead isn't actually this movie's fault. That failing belongs to Avengers: Endgame. So seeing the positive reviews the movie got contrasting with how unhappy I was made me decide to revisit it as long as I still had Disney+ Premiere Access.
I'm glad I did. It's not perfect, and one of my biggest complaints still stands, but it's a really nice Marvel Studios picture, made richer for the fact that it's like none of the others.
Let's get my major complaint out of the way. This specific thing I think hurt my enjoyment of the movie. The climax is way too damn big. It's a freaking spectacle, and I found the character stuff in the movie far more intense and fascinating. I don't like that Marvel Studios believes it needs to top itself in special effects bonanzas for every single movie. Outside of that climax, the movie was unlike all of the others, which made it special. That specific climax IS like all the others, which automatically makes the movie LESS special.
But I'm glad I get to review it again and talk about the stuff I like this time. I mentioned the first go-round that my favorite thing about Alexei is that he's too stupid to understand he should be apologetic. As far as he's concerned, he's actually done nothing wrong, which is a VERY interesting facet to give a character who is not actually a sociopath or a bad guy. He just has a different point of view. What I like in this viewing is realizing Yelena is a similarly irascible type of character, snarkier than someone with her tragic backstory should be, and the first person to cast deserved shade over Natasha's various silly poses. They look great in slow-motion on a big movie screen. I imagine they look ridiculous to the person standing next to her when she's doing them.
The second viewing made me appreciate the beginning more. It was very sad this time out because I knew and understood WHY it was sad and messed up. And the main titles with the haunting song are somehow even more tragic this time out.
This movie explores human trafficking and the exploitation of young girls. Heavy subject matter for a summer blockbuster. Dreykoff is arguably the sickest Marvel Studio villain in history (he's even worse than Jessica Jones' Kilgrave) and when he says that the world's most overabundant resource is little girls, I was like, "This movie is exactly right for the times we live in." What kills me is that for awhile there I was all right with some of the Netflix Marvel Television stuff. Different tones and stories can make a continuity more well-rounded. But in the end, the Netflix stuff, and ALL the Marvel Television stuff, became nihilistic and dark and depressing, which isn't something that makes the MCU more well-rounded. It's tone is simply entirely outside of the MCU.
This movie explores those dark and realistic human themes, and still feels like the proper tone set up in the rest of the movies. Natasha is empowered to take down and kill Draykoff for the evil that he's done. Jessica Jones is forced to second-guess killing Kilgrave and having that be a controversy. I like the black and white morality of the Feige stuff. Maybe Natasha should feel legit guilt for what she did to Antonia and other innocent victims. But why make exploding a psychopath like Dreykov's helicopter a controversy to begin with? I cheered when he died because I should have. Natasha isn't torn up with guilt for it and I'm glad. Seriously. Grave marked "Unknown". Who DOESN'T want to see that monster blown up? Natasha was even gifted a very humiliating Crowning Moment Of Awesome against him beforehand too, so what's not to like?
The tag with Val is another thing I didn't like, but that and Natasha's death seemed like corporate mandates, and not something the film's writers and director had any control over. I won't penalize the movie too badly for that. It's not as damaging as the over-the-top climax.
I also kind of dug the secondary character of Mason this time out. He and Natasha have great chemistry, and I laughed when Yelena called him sensitive.
I'll tell you what moment was funny and not funny at all. Alexei is doing a very lame and unfunny time of the month joke, and both Natasha and Yelena are reminding him in graphic detail how they went under forced hysterectomies. It's horrific dialogue played for laughs simply because both women know and understand how awful it is, and are rubbing into Alexei's clueless face how awful it is. And his thoughtless comment deserves that level of shade and discomfort. I thought it was both funny and also something that made me feel kind of sick for finding it funny.
The scene with Alexei the pig still makes me cringe. Besides the climax, if I could change anything in the movie, I'd get rid of that. It's just TOO horrible.
I pretty much guessed that my opinion would be kinder the second time out, and I think I owed it to the people who liked the movie, and were a little perplexed at that review, to get this new one out there as soon as I could. I stand by my first review as an accurate assessment of how the first viewing of the film effected me. But my opinion about the movie changed on the second. That happens quite often, frankly. I probably need to rereview a lot more stuff. ****1/2.
Monster At Work "The Vending Machine"
Wow, the Mift crew are REALLY useless at fixing things. They ALL should be fired.
I like Mike telling Sulley he wasn't thinking like an overpaid out-of-touch CEO.
Kids don't actually find clowns funny. That lesson would be more appropriate if they were still in the scare business.
Pretty good although Mift's rank incompetence is starting to get on my nerves. ***1/2.
Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life "The Whole Package / Bird Brains / Acorn In My Side"
The Whole Package:
It's interesting Chip and Dale have the intelligence of animals instead of people in this incarnation. They don't understand how either nutcrackers or the mail works.
Dale on the Roomba was fun.
But the end shows Chip and Dale are pretty much hopeless. ***1/2.
Bird Brain:
The premise of this is outright nuts. This at times gruesome and disturbing episode seems to be a legit parody of the movie version of Hannibal. And it's very interesting and weird to see Chip being portrayed as the dum-dum in the duo. But this was crazy (and also fun). ****.
Acorn In My Side:
This could have used some dialogue. I didn't really understand what was going on. And since when can Chip and Dale use and understand crosswalks?
Eh. **.
Episode Overall: ***.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Duet For Two"
Am I the only one who wished this was simply an 8 minute musical number?
I like the snake guy, and that he has a cartoon glove where his rattle should be. Him dressing up as Minnie at the end made me laugh.
I also thought Mickey and Minnie as the Beatles were funny.
Super cute. ***1/2.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Birdwatching"
See, if I were Minnie, if Goofy called me "a whopper", I woulda socked him in the chops.
I love that the Mama bird thought Mickey was one of her babies. Him flunking bird school was funny, and I laughed at the jokes with the Ravens and the Cardinals.
His expression as he said he didn't like where this was going was hilarious.
Also cute. ***1/2.