If you remember, Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow,
was trained as a Russian spy and fights with a lethal cruelty, all supported by
special powers, just another “soldier” from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In this film, we go back to her origin story, which takes
place in Ohio in 1995, where we meet Natasha (Ever Anderson), who looks 13, and
her younger sister (Violet McGraw).
At home, we can see that the girls’ homelife is far
from great. Their mother (Rachel Weisz) calls them for dinner when their father
(David Harbour) enters and tells them that they have an hour to leave their
home.
A hectic drive to the countryside, where a prop plane
is waiting, followed by police shooting directly at the plane. Their destination:
Cuba, where the two girls are given an unconscious drug and taken away.
You may have guessed, their parents are undercover
Russian spies, and the entire “family” dynamic and living arrangement was fake.
Back to the previous job, the girls are sent to General Dreykov, played by Ray
Winstone, an evil genius who raises them to be a part of his elite but
brainwashed army of powerful weapons, Widdows, where they are trained inside
the Red Room.
Moving ahead to years later, we see Natasha at 21 years
of age and trying to fix her broken life.
Remember that she is technically an Avenger but this
story takes place after “Captain America: Civil War,” and with the team broken up,
she deserted to the West at the request of S.H.I.E.L.D. which was led by Steve
Rogers.
In Budapest, Natasha reunites with her younger sister,
Yelena, played by Florence Pugh, who’s turned into an actual and tired killer. Even
though this is action-packed (and, again, worth either the ticket admission or
premier fee), there is hart in this story and complicated relationships with
history.
Lapacazo Sandoval said in his review, “Family
squabbles are real, and when Natasha and Yelena greet each other and duke it
out, we learn just how well these women are trained. But family wins out and
they unite over the horrible fact that Dreykov is the sinister figure that
stole their lives.”
Natasha thought she had avenged the team by blowing
him up, but she murdered his young daughter (Ryan Keira Armstrong and Olga
Kurylenko) actually.
To beat Dreykov, the two sisters try to reorganize
their “family” which begins with breaking Alexei out of a very dangerous
prison. Sandoval noted, “He has visually metamorphosed back into the Red
Guardian, the Russian version of Captain America. Melina is convincing if not a
bit suspect in how she conducts her life.”
When Natasha finally fights Dreykov, a business man in
a bureaucrat suit, she understands that, in will and smartness, they are evenly
matched. The tension brings a great finale that ends in a very big deal, which
I will dare not spoiler.
Huge credit to the director Cate Shortland, who makes
a mood from the first couple of shots.
Spoilers: at the end, Yelena visits Natasha’s grave
when Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, gives
her a mission to find Hawkeye, who Fontaine says was responsible for Natasha
dying.
I find this movie to be good. I don’t know if this is
one of the best in the MCU, but it might be another one of my favorite comic
book movies, but I don’t think so. However, the action I felt was really
engaging and I liked that there were a lot of those dialogue/talking moments
since it felt nice to have those quiet moments. Also, there were funny lines that I felt were worked in great, even though others might not agree. If you don’t feel safe to go
out to the theater, and you have a Disney+, it’s worth to pay the Premier
Access fee. That’s what I did since I wanted to play safe, and I think everyone
should. Definitely see this one, especially if you have been looking to seeing
this and seeing Scarlet Johansson possibly playing Natasha one last time.
Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay
tuned next Friday for the continuation of “Western Month.”
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