My Review of Black Widow (2021)

 

Written by Eric Pearson And Jac Schaeffer And Ned Benson

Directed by Cate Shortland 

Natasha: "I've lived a lot of lives but I am done running from my past."

It's been two years since the events of Avengers: Endgame and with the Disney+ shows having kicked off the MCU's fourth phase off rather nicely, it was time for another big screen outing and this missing adventure of sorts from Natasha Romonoff was a good way to start things.

There's been a few questions about Natasha's past that needed some answers and things opened where younger versions of Natasha and  younger "sister" Yelena enjoyed a suburban life in Ohio before being separated from their "parents" Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz) by Red Room boss Dreykov (Ray Winstone).

Decades pass and while on the run from the events of Captain America: Civil War Natasha finds her reunited with her sister, Yelena (Florence Pugh) and it's not long until the two find themselves being targeted by Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) at the behest of Dreykov of course.

It turns out that Yelena has in her possession a cure for Dreykov's control over the Widows and as Natasha and Yelena reconnect and bicker, it's not long before they're breaking Alexei/Red Guardian out of prison and showing up on Melina's pig farm for an awkward family reunion.

The second live action blockbuster this summer to play heavily on the theme of family, there's a lot of raking over what the Red Room subjected Natasha and Yelena to, forcing both Alexei and Melina to atone for their roles in their daughters lives.

The family stuff works well and there's a believable rapport with Natasha, Yelena, Alexei and Melina. Without a doubt, it's the strongest element of the movie. What's not quite as strong are the villains of the piece.

Taskmaster for example can mimic other people's fighting skills and there's a few good moments where you see that in action but the reveal of the character's identity, connection to Dreykov and Natasha's past doesn't land as well as it could've done. Ultimately the character feels somewhat wasted in the movie.

Dreykov is also a similarly poorly realised baddie. I'm not the biggest fan of Ray Winstone and I thought he was pretty poor here. Dreykov is just too one dimensional and I felt like Natasha deserved a better enemy to go up against, even though he does fit the theme of Natasha freeing herself from her past.

As for the post credit scene that has been spoiled a lot by now, I did like the set up of it. Has Valentina (Julia Louise Dreyfuss) succeeded in setting Yelena after Clint Barton? We won't have long to wait as Yelena will be appearing on Hawkeye later this year. Clint should be on alert.

- Nice small role from OT Fagbenle as Natasha's finder friend, Mason. He's another character I assume we'll see again.

- For those who hated a certain plot from Avengers: Age Of Ultron, this movie doubled down on it big time.

- Standout music: Malia J's version of Smells Like Teen Spirit as well as Don McLean's American Pie.

- Chronology: The movie started off in Ohio 1995 while the majority of events were in 2016. 

Black Widow is not a perfect MCU movie but in my opinion, poor villains to one side, it provides a strong last hurrah for Natasha Romonoff but an even stronger debut Yelena Belova. Scarlett Johansson delivers a great performance but Florence Pugh does steal the show.

Rating: 8 out of 10

SDCC 2019 - Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 4 Announcement (Spoilers Included)

They sat out SDCC last year and this year upon their return, Marvel decided to go big with the announcement of five movies and five streaming shows on upcoming service, Disney+

So, here's a look of what we can actually expect in the next two years from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Black Widow: Due for release on May 1st 2020, this prequel movie will see Scarlett Johansson reprise her role as Natasha Romanov in a movie that is rumoured to be set during the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Joining Johansson here will be David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, O. T. Fagbenle as Rick Mason, Rachel Weisz as Melina/Iron Maiden as well as Ray Winstone in an undisclosed role. The main antagonist for this movie will be Taskmaster. Filming for this movie started in May.

Eternals: Due for released on November 6th 2020, this movie will focus on a space battle between the titular group and their enemies, the Deviants. Rounding off the cast for this movie are Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, the leader of the Eternals, Lia McHugh as Sprite and Don Lee as Gilgamesh. There's still some more casting for this movie to be confirmed but filming will begin in September in London for this one.

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Due for a February 12th 2021 release, this movie had been fast tracked by Kevin Feige since December 2018 and we now know that the title character will be played by Simu Liu with Tony Leung Chiu-wai portraying the Mandarin and Awkwafina also cast in a role in the film. Filming for this movie will take place in Australia within the next few months.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness: Due for a May 7th 2021 release, Benedict Cumberbatch's surgeon turned magical superhero will be getting a second solo outing and this time he'll be backed up by Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch as Nightmare has been confirmed as the main antagonist for this movie. This movie will also be tied into Olsen's upcoming Disney+ series, WandaVision, the latter which will stream prior to this movie's release.

Thor: Love And Thunder: Due for a November 5th 2021 release, I think we were all shocked earlier last week to find out that Chris Hemsworth was getting a fourth solo movie and with director Taika Waititi returning following the success of Thor: Ragnorak, this movie will not only see Thor reunite with Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie as the latter looks for a queen but in a major surprise, Natalie Portman will not only reprise her role as Jane Foster but she'll also be playing Lady Thor for good measure too. Between finally confirming Valkyrie's bisexuality and giving us Lady Thor, this movie isn't messing about.

Elsewhere, there was another surprise announcement of Mahershala Ali being confirmed as Blade for an upcoming movie while sequels for Black Panther, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Captain Marvel were confirmed with hints of mutants eventually making it into the main cinematic movies. However the fourth phase will seemingly be about the five above movies I mentioned and five upcoming television series, leading to this bit.

With Disney+ due to debut in the next few months, MCU fans will have a big incentive to watch the five upcoming series they're planning as these series will tie into the main cinematic universe in a fairly big way. First up will be The Falcon And The Winter Soldier with both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprising their respective roles with Emily VanCamp and Daniel Brühl set to reprise their roles as Sharon Carter and Baron Helmut Zemo from August 2020. Then it'll be WandaVision, focusing on the relationship with Olsen's Scarlet Witch and Paul Bettany's Vision while Teyonah Parris will appear as an adult version of Monica Rambeau while Loki will see Tom Hiddleston's mischievous trickster in a post Avengers: Endgame timeline. Both those series will debut in early 2021. After that, we've got What If…?, an animated anthology series with Jeffrey Wright voicing the Watcher and several familiar characters appearing in rather different circumstances, with a mid 2021 date being earmarked for it's release. The last series then will be Hawkeye with Jeremy Renner reprising the title role but also handing it over to Kate Bishop. This show will debut in late 2021.

Meanwhile it's also been confirmed that Marvel's Agents Of SHIELD will end after seven seasons. The show currently into it's sixth season, airing on both ABC and E4 respectively will be the most successful of Marvel live action show in spite of it often being ignored by the MCU itself (although Clark Gregg did recently play Agent Coulson in Captain Marvel). I stopped watching the show a few seasons back but it's incredible that the show lasted as long as it did. I also think that following it's imminent demise, the only Marvel shows we'll be getting for the foreseeable future will be on Disney+

So that's the next two years for the MCU sorted then. What were the most exciting announcements for you? Which movie or streaming shows are you most eager to see? Was there something you wish had been announced but wasn't?