Post by PG Cooper on Jul 31, 2021 15:54:36 GMT -5
The distance between Black Widow and Spider-Man: Far from Home is the longest gap between titles in the history of the MCU, narrowly beating out the 23 months between The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 at the beginning of this whole endeavor. On some level, that distance is actually a good thing. Avengers: Endgame had a real sense of finality to it and I wasn't eager to dive another series of movies so soon even if I mostly enjoyed Far from Home. A break helps avoid fatigue. In theory. In practice, however, it doesn't really feel like we've had a break from Marvel. This is in part my own fault for spending too much time in Twitter, but debate about the MCU never seems to stop and Marvel has also dropped three high profile TV series on Disney Plus in the last few months (of which I watched Wandavision and a tiny bit of Falcon and the Winter Soldier before quickly losing interest).
It doesn't help that, even without a pandemic delay, Black Widow feels well past its expiration date. Much as people have been asking for a Black Widow movie, this largely seemed more out of a desire for stronger women representation in the MCU rather than a burning desire to explore the character, who to my eyes is not terribly interesting. Moreover, releasing this movie after the character (spoilers I guess) fucking died in Endgame seems...maybe not pointless, but a bit poorly thought through. For starters, the film needs to spend a not insubstantial chunk of time contextualizing where this story falls in the timeline to keep viewers who don't follow this world religiously up to speed, which ends up harming the story at hand. Second, wouldn't any new insights or greater connections to the character been more useful before, as it would have made her sacrifice more emotionally charged? All that to say, the conditions surrounding this movie are odd and not entirely enticing. Even so, there's nothing here really strong execution couldn't overcome. I bitch about Marvel fatigue, but I also admit to enjoying most of the studio's output, especially in Phase Three. So for all my reservations, I did go into Black Widow with modest optimism.
Sadly, this movie underdelivered. I actually feel a bit guilty spending two whole paragraphs setting the movie up given my actual viewing experience can be summed up pretty simply: Black Widow is boring. A tedious, largely monotone movie which dangles just enough spectacle to remain watchable, but never really comes together as story or action movie. It takes too long for the dysfunctional family to come together, and when they finally do neither drama or comedy land particularly effectively. The film rather brazenly presents allegory for sexual abuse, whether in plotting and imagery which evoke sex trafficking, or its villain being clearly modeled on Harvey Weinstein. A theoretically bold move, but this subtext doesn't amount to much beyond a shorthand to denote how evil the villains are and fails to mask just how boring and one-note the characters are.
Action scenes, meanwhile, suffer from a lack of consequence. Despite posing as more of a harder-edged spy movie, the characters rarely feel human. Brutal stabbings are totally bloodless, absurdly violent car crashes amount to a mere scratch, characters can endure massive beatings and injury without slowing down. It all feels so artificial and lacking in tension. The best scene in the movie is probably the brief kitchen skirmish between Black Widow and Yelena. It's nothing exceptional from a choreography perspective, but the characters actually seem to get hurt and there's a hint of danger that's completely absent elsewhere. By the time Black Widow is hurtling through explosions and thousand feet freefalls, it's less that the action has become overblown so much as the movie transparently embracing how hollow its action has been from the start.
Marvel is perhaps a bit too competent at making blockbusters to make a complete failure. Even their worst movies are more bland and unremarkable rather than unrepentantly horrible and that's true of Black Widow. New cast members Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz are welcome additions and the film is passively entertaining from time to time, but the question of "why this movie" is even more profound than I expected. There's nothing in Black Widow that Marvel hasn't done better elsewhere. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a better spy movie, Captain Marvel integrates its feminist elements more fully, and the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are much better dysfunctional family stories. In a universe this oversaturated, new entries need to do more to distinguish themselves and Black Widow fails to hit that mark. If you've never liked Marvel, Black Widow will do nothing to change your mind and even hardcore MCU stans can get better elsewhere.
D+
It doesn't help that, even without a pandemic delay, Black Widow feels well past its expiration date. Much as people have been asking for a Black Widow movie, this largely seemed more out of a desire for stronger women representation in the MCU rather than a burning desire to explore the character, who to my eyes is not terribly interesting. Moreover, releasing this movie after the character (spoilers I guess) fucking died in Endgame seems...maybe not pointless, but a bit poorly thought through. For starters, the film needs to spend a not insubstantial chunk of time contextualizing where this story falls in the timeline to keep viewers who don't follow this world religiously up to speed, which ends up harming the story at hand. Second, wouldn't any new insights or greater connections to the character been more useful before, as it would have made her sacrifice more emotionally charged? All that to say, the conditions surrounding this movie are odd and not entirely enticing. Even so, there's nothing here really strong execution couldn't overcome. I bitch about Marvel fatigue, but I also admit to enjoying most of the studio's output, especially in Phase Three. So for all my reservations, I did go into Black Widow with modest optimism.
Sadly, this movie underdelivered. I actually feel a bit guilty spending two whole paragraphs setting the movie up given my actual viewing experience can be summed up pretty simply: Black Widow is boring. A tedious, largely monotone movie which dangles just enough spectacle to remain watchable, but never really comes together as story or action movie. It takes too long for the dysfunctional family to come together, and when they finally do neither drama or comedy land particularly effectively. The film rather brazenly presents allegory for sexual abuse, whether in plotting and imagery which evoke sex trafficking, or its villain being clearly modeled on Harvey Weinstein. A theoretically bold move, but this subtext doesn't amount to much beyond a shorthand to denote how evil the villains are and fails to mask just how boring and one-note the characters are.
Action scenes, meanwhile, suffer from a lack of consequence. Despite posing as more of a harder-edged spy movie, the characters rarely feel human. Brutal stabbings are totally bloodless, absurdly violent car crashes amount to a mere scratch, characters can endure massive beatings and injury without slowing down. It all feels so artificial and lacking in tension. The best scene in the movie is probably the brief kitchen skirmish between Black Widow and Yelena. It's nothing exceptional from a choreography perspective, but the characters actually seem to get hurt and there's a hint of danger that's completely absent elsewhere. By the time Black Widow is hurtling through explosions and thousand feet freefalls, it's less that the action has become overblown so much as the movie transparently embracing how hollow its action has been from the start.
Marvel is perhaps a bit too competent at making blockbusters to make a complete failure. Even their worst movies are more bland and unremarkable rather than unrepentantly horrible and that's true of Black Widow. New cast members Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz are welcome additions and the film is passively entertaining from time to time, but the question of "why this movie" is even more profound than I expected. There's nothing in Black Widow that Marvel hasn't done better elsewhere. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a better spy movie, Captain Marvel integrates its feminist elements more fully, and the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are much better dysfunctional family stories. In a universe this oversaturated, new entries need to do more to distinguish themselves and Black Widow fails to hit that mark. If you've never liked Marvel, Black Widow will do nothing to change your mind and even hardcore MCU stans can get better elsewhere.
D+
