Movie Monday: Black Widow

 

This weekend, the fam absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see our first Marvel movie in nearly 2 years, Black Widow.   

Black Widow was originally scheduled for release last summer but the pandemic had other plans. 

The movie opens with a prologue set in 1995 with Russian undercover agents posing as a normal American family in Ohio. Alexei Shostakov (super soldier Red Guardian) and Melina Vostokoff (Black Widow) with their surrogate daughters Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova have to hightail it to Cuba when their undercover gig is up when Alexi steals some high tech SHIELD doo-hickey for his boss, Dreykov.  

The "family" is separated when Alexi is imprisoned while Natasha and Yelena are sent to the Red Room to be transformed into Black Widows.  

After the prologue, the movie picks up in 2016 after the events of Captain America: Civil War.  Natasha Romanoff is on the run for violating the Sokovia Accords. Thaddeus Ross is in HOT pursuit except he ain't nowhere where Natasha is. She's in Norway, living a quiet life like she's in an Ingmar Bergman film. 

(And Ross is the freaking U.S. Secretary of State engaged on the ground in this pursuit. Really, does he not have anything else to do with his time, given that he is the freaking U.S. Secretary of State and all?) 

Anyway, the Norwegian quiet gets blowed up real good when Taskmaster shows up. Taskmaster is an armored up goon with the power to match whatever power or ability they encounter. Turns out Taskmaster is not after Natasha but after some stuff she received from Budapest. 

Nat escapes Taskmaster with the stuff and heads off to Budapest where she meets up with her erstwhile "sister" Yelena. 

They spend a few minutes kicking each other's ass. 

The stuff is called "Red Dust" and it shorts out the mental conditioning of the mind controlled Black Widows. 

Natasha is a bit confused. She killed Dreykov, shut down the Red Room and there should be no other Black Widows.

Not dead, still open for business and very much still a thing.

And uh oh! Black Widows and Taskmaster are attacking. 

And this is when Black Widow really kicks into high gear. In addition to high velocity chase scenes and ultra violent fight sequences, the film really clicks with the interplay between Natasha and Yelena, each riffing on the other with snarky comments about their fighting skills, driving abilities, fashion choices (Yelena is really happy with her vest of many pockets) and... posing?

Yelena gives Nat grief over striking a dramatic pose after executing a leap or a jump while in combat. 

Later in the movie, Yelena will make the same post-leap pose herself. 

Yelena is not happy with herself about that. 

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff is a total bad ass. Her final confrontation with Dreykov is a particular highlight. When it looks like Dreykov has the upper hand and is beating the crap out of her, Natasha just laughs at him. Natasha straight up breaks her own nose to gain her advantage over Dreykov and later with a single twist, pushes it back in place again. 

Damn, Batman himself ain't got nothing on our Black Widow. 

This movie is a prequel to the events of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame which can undermine any sense of jeopardy we might feel for Natasha.  But the breakneck pace of Black Widow's storyline is enough to almost make you forget Natasha Romanoff's fatal pre-ordained fate from Endgame.

Until the post credit sequence.

Yelena Belova meets Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine at Romanoff's grave. The Contessa has an assignment for Yelena: kill Clint Barton.

Which I guess sets up the Hawkeye series coming later this year on Disney+.   

Black Widow starts a bit slow but builds into a high octane espionage thriller with some truly epic set pieces and some wonderful performances layered with humor and depth.