This movie feels like.an after thought with remaining budget and one more movie for Scarlett's contract, I wasn't expecting something world-changing but I certainly wanted another experience like The Winter Soldier or even Civil War, but it falls flat and it's sad because the first 20 minutes before the title (which by the way, the title sequence is amazing) really promise something good.
The villain is wasted worse than. Walton Goggin's character in Ant Man 2 and Karl Urban in Thor Ragnarok, he barely appears and the only interesting thing it brought up with Natasha was pointless in the end, this character deserved a movie like this much before.
It's like a mediocre phase 2 movie that came out 7 years later, the action set pieces are really good but nothing memorable, even if the fight scenes manage to be brutal, David Harbour's character and Taskmaster are totally underused and wasted, and Florence Pugh is the best thing out of the whole film.
It's really sad how this is the last project from Scarlett as Black Widow, not worth watching on cinema at all, specially because of some really quick but terrible CGI shots that take you out of it entirely.
I don't quite understand the hate the movie is getting. Too many people expected full comic book accuracy with Taskmaster, which would have been hard to accomplish and harder to fit in the story they were trying to tell. I understand the disappointment from fans who expected that full Taskmaster story, but do not think it means that this movie was a flop. Florence Pugh was excellent in the film and the chemistry between her and Scarlett Johansson was great. Good fighting sequences except for parts of the third act where the CGI was very noticeable. Plus that end credit scene was amazing. One of my only complaints is that Marvel stated you wouldn't need to watch the shows to understand the movies but if you hadn't seen falcon and the winter solider the end credits may not make a 100 percent sense. At least make it clear the shows are a must watch if you are going to make them necessary to understand certain things. Overall a great movie.
I was someone truly interested in finally seeing a black widow solo film. Sadly it was unbelievably disappointing. In the comics black widow would not only be a skilled fighter, but she'd user her feminine personality and beauty to get information out of corrupt bad guys. Her character was like a female James Bond in the comics. But now it's like they decided to follow the same boring trend Hollywood is into right now. The trend is having any female character, who is strong, also be masculine. This felt like a boring Jason Bourne movie. It was just action scenes non stop with very boring plot and dialogue elements. The biggest disappointment of all..... Taskmaster....... I mean c'mon why do we have to keep ruining established comic book characters. Yikes.
Black Widow ends up feeling a bit pointless and filler-y after knowing the outcome of our protagonist. In the end, the movie just doesn't leave much of an impression and feels very by-the-numbers and lacks anything memorable about it at all. To me, it felt like a mediocre Spy/Bond film with Marvel paint added to it, and that's not a good thing for this franchise. I'd be surprised if I remember anything about this in a week's time, because right now this is my least favourite MCU movie.
The fight sequences are passable but don't have much oomphh to them or stick in your head as interesting. The bad guys are kind of just there for most of it and by the end are just a little generic with the twists and turns it expects you to be surprised at. The family stuff is probably the best stuff but even then there's some odd attempts at humour that don't really work and it kind of can't make its mind up if it's deadly serious or not. Alot of flashbacks and strange editing choices too.
In the end, this could have really been any Spy/Action film. Black Widow herself can't pull an entire movie by herself. Florence Pugh's character isn't much better and we also have essentially a Captain America ripoff person to try to add some dynamic and energy to it. There's just nothing here that kept me engaged or interested in how the story plays out. I was a bit bored, and I think I would pick Captain Marvel over this as at least that has Samuel L. Jackson and shape-shifting reptilians.
4.5/10.
Pugh carried this film, what a stellar performance!
Black widow had a very strong first half, then it completely derailed. The villain was barely in the movie and was a complete waste. As a female, I love black widow and was so excited for this film. Natasha has always been my favorite superhero, in the comics and in the MCU. I've seen every marvel movie in the cinemas and was literally bouncing off my seat waiting for it to start. Was also so thrilled for the movie to have a female director, finally! But let me tell you, in all honesty I was so disappointed with this movie, and this is coming from someone who was anxiously waiting for a Black Widow movie. The action scenes were way too forced and tremendously exaggerated, and on top of that the CGI is just meh. The plot is so predictable and sloppy, very flat storytelling. The last act doesn't even feel like something a MCU movie would have, considering how popular and good other MCU movies were. This movie could have been so much better, like the insane opening sequence seemed to imply. However, I loved the comedic and the family moments in the film and those got some good reactions out of me.
This movie does not feel like a final sendoff of Natasha Romanoff or even in close attempts to complete Romanoff's story arc. Florence Pugh and David Habour give stellar performances in this movie. After some time without Marvel movies, this movie is more of just an escapist popcorn fun and thats all. With all this in mind, the movie did atleast make me happy in wanting to watch more of Pugh's amazing future performances in the MCU. I am so excited to see Yelena in the future. Pugh definitely gained a fan. (:
I hope everyone has a safe and fun experience with finally being able to go back to the cinemas.