Black Widow

After almost two years, a Marvel movie finally hit the cinemas and the result is nothing to write home about. For me, a pretty useless movie about a useless character. The first hour is surprisingly solid, it's well paced, the action is kept down to earth and the fights have decent choreography – they're Bourne style so I enjoyed them. I'm also pleased with Florence Pugh, whom I like a lot, and the Taskmaster's entrance is awesome. By the second hour, however, I felt that perhaps the director had been replaced, the action goes by the wayside, and so does the fun goes, the humour is completely absent, the Taskmaster goes by the wayside! (it's reprehensible to sideline such an interesting villain like that!), and the finale was perhaps the weakest of all the action scenes, so I'm quite disappointed. I rate the first half as 8/10, the second half is about 5-6, and in the end I'm rounding up more towards 6, because for Marvel I found it unbalanced, the effects aren't too dazzling either, it felt a bit like it was going half throttle and quite possibly the first Marvel movie I definitely won't watch again. Story 3/5, Action 3/5, Humor 1/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 2/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5. 6/10. (21/07/2021)

After a two-year cinematic hiatus in the MCU, we got to see another Avengers solo film and I'm actually quite pleased. It might be the twenty-fourth time of basically the same thing, but in many ways it's still a very good mainstream production. A strong female element is very much present, but I can't say I mind that in any way. On the contrary, I think that the whole crew around Feige know how to work with those contemporary paradigms with due flair and grace. The first half delights with a very dark thriller atmosphere, which is appealingly reminiscent of the second and third Captain America films. Despite the top-notch action sequences, Black Widow doesn't avoid the expected schematic quality in its second half, where its initial cheesiness is replaced with the typical Marvel formula that ultimately places this solo effort in the broader MCU average. Which is certainly not a bad thing. [65%] (08/07/2021)

Never trust doomsayers. A true blue Marvel movie, targeted at ladies, but not at all dumb. The introduction is awesome, dark and uncompromising, then it gets into the old rut, but the second half is more than just good too. Infantile humor made at the expense of Harvey Weinstein and tops it all with a family-flavor sauce made by Disney. The ending is strangely cut short (it lacks elimination of Ross or an explanation of whether or not it was Kapo who helped), but due it being set during the Civil War, that is more or less understandable. The biggest surprise the Widow holds is David Harbour and the whole over-the-top prison escape. We want a series spin-off with Crimson Dynamo! And Florence Pugh steals the whole show in the end. Such a poser. (13/07/2021)

After the earth-shattering Endgame, I was pretty much looking forward to being reunited with Natasha, so I warmly welcomed the feature-length Black Widow solo outing. In terms of the cast, it is very decent, with each of the four main actors in the right place, with satisfying supporting characters. Visually, the film showcases itself especially in the second half, which was full of brisk and nicely paced action, though there were a few over-the-top moments, which the viewer must take with a grain of salt in films like this. Screenwriting-wise, Black Widow is a slightly less layered piece compared to the MCU team-ups, but it still sets up some pretty surprising moments. I also praise the post-credit scene and am curious about the follow-up film. A weaker four stars! (19/07/2021)

I have nothing against strong female characters who can have men for dinner, as long as they are believable and have some logical basis in the story, but when the core of the villain organization is skinny teenage girls (in other words, 40 kg in wet clothes) who are supposed to take over the world, I do have a problem. Not to mention that the pheromone idea is straight out of my own teenage attempts at literature when I was trying to write science fiction stories. So I'm thinking, Kevin Feige, do you want to hire me as a screenwriter? A little extra money would be nice :o) (27/07/2021)