I really liked this movie for a number of reasons. Before I get into that, I want to say first that this movie was a long time coming. Even if it came out last year as intended, it was still a long overdue. It is a shame that after Marvel pretty much killed Black Widow off in Avengers: Endgame, that we get this movie. The potential for stories was always there, but Marvel didn't pull the trigger.
This movie felt more in line with Captain America: Winter Soldier. We're back to government run spy programs and intrigue. I will say that it is pretty telling that it's always the Russians that are the bad guy. I would like to see these movies face the fact that the US isn't much better. Need evidence of that? Go watch Falcon and the Winter Solider and the sad story of Isaiah Bradley and you will see what I mean.
Anyways, I liked that this felt more like CA:WS because that was one of my favorite movies. There is no world ending threat, it's just dealing with the past of our main character. We get more development of Natasha Romanoff here than we ever did in any of the movies she appeared in. Again, this is why this movie is long overdue. This would have gone a long way in making us feel more when we lose her. In this movie there's hand to hand fighting, so this movie doesn't go full Marvel with laser beams and crazy energy battles. There are fun car chases. Twists within twists.
The thing I most appreciated about this movie and didn't expect was its center being on family. We are introduced to Yelena Belova, as the most hardcore of fans know as the other Black Widow. Florence Pugh does an amazing job bringing this character to life in the film. She definitely steals the show and makes me excited for her taking over the role in the Marvel Universe. Their playful banter is definitely a highlight. Specifically Yelena taking the piss out of Natasha's traditional hero pose. She's right, it is silly and I'm glad they play with that here. I also have to give a shout out to David Harbour and Rachel Weisz. They also round things out in a wonderful way.
This movie also finally humanizes Natasha, which Scarlett Johansson finally gets to do more than have weird relationships with people like the Hulk. We get more of her origin, finally. Again, this is something that would have been helpful sooner, had this movie come out at least pre-Infinity War. We also get to see her "family" that was assigned to her by the Russian government and how they all deal with their time together, over twenty years later. They have problems just like any real family and come to realize how much they all mean to each other. I thought they did a great job getting this across. There is a lot of sitting around and talking, which I love. I think most people looking for the action, action, action of a normal Marvel movie will be disappointed. We have to remember this is what these movies used to be until Infinity War and Endgame happened. So I appreciated those scenes.
Now the action is pretty good, but Marvel couldn't help itself with it's overly elaborate ending set piece. Just like they did in Winter Soldier, a movie that was small in scope all of a sudden balloons into this whole other thing to remind you it's a Marvel movie. A sky fortress is cool, but I personally wish it could have been done with less explosions. The movie went from mildly believable to completely over the top in a span of a few minutes.
The other thing I really loved here is there are no romantic interests for anyone. There's no love story. There's no pining for love lost. Ladies, you would know this better, but to me it is nice to see a bad ass woman (two counting Yelena) not having to also chase a man while chasing her bad guy. This movie doesn't give a crap about going anywhere with that. The most we get is the friendship between Natasha and her supplier and I didn't feel like there was any kind of sexual tension there, thank goodness.
I want to close by saying how excited I was about seeing Taskmaster show up here and the way that the villain is handled. This is a villain that on it's face is pretty ridiculous. The costume is a mishmash of different elements, yet somehow perfect. He has the ability to see a fighting move and then can automatically replicate it without issue. They play that up a little bit here, but I wished they had gone further with it to show why he is such a threat. By not talking, Taskmaster comes off even more menacing and was a good unstoppable force for most of the movie.
Would I recommend seeing this movie? Absolutely. It's a spy movie about girls kicking ass. You support this, more movies like this get made. Plain and simple. Where would I rank this in my Marvel movies? I don't know yet, but it will be in the top third.
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