#Black Widow Movie Review

[the-masked-reviewer]

The Avengers (2012) Review

potential spoilers ahead...

This being the movie everything had been building towards is actually what I think makes it as good as it is. It expects you to have watched the other 4 movies (8 hours 9 minutes), so it doesn't do much in terms of exposition and just throws you straight to the conflict.

The characters are written so well and feel like the same ones you've been watching (something that's difficult, if not impossible to say now). The costuming, both super suits and civilian clothes, is amazing. They do so well at expressing who the characters are through their wardrobes alone.

The humor is great. Especially coming from Tony Stark and almost all of his interactions with anyone. The team's dynamics show just how new and unstable the pairings are, even at the end when they are working together smoothly, its clear they are still new and have much to learn.

It makes sense that this movie was what led to such insane fandom growth and so many memes when the quality is this high and its such a fun and enjoyable movie.

The use of camerawork to add subtly and perspective on certain characters is amazing. Specifically the framing anytime Nick Fury is on screen. For almost the entirety of the movie, you only look up at him. The only time you are eye-level or (slightly) above is when the helicarrier is actively under attack and he is put on the defensive. The second he re-gains control, the camera is back to its low angle. This use of framing does so much of the work putting Fury as the all intimidating director that he has come to be known as.

[deasbanker]

Catch up on the Marvel movies that I miss, become aware of their similarities, and regard its "multiverse" as a means to integrate/streamline superhero movies based on Marvel Comics.

30/4/2024

I've watched 10 Marvel films from phase 4 to 5 this time. Overall, they were not that boring, thanks to fast-paced drama, rhythmical dialogue, casual/light atmosphere, and constantly dynamic image, but I honestly didn't enjoy most of them. As far as I can see reviews of the movies on the Internet or reaction of my friends, this slightly harsh review can be attributed to my personal taste in film. I like Black Widow the best among them and Spider-man: No Way Home followed by. Watching the movies from phase 4 to 5, I noticed that they have a little in common in terms of "multiverse", or many unforgettable female characters, who are not only strong and wise as we've seen before phase 4 but also so humorous that I could tell multilayered background underlies their characters and feel more familiar with them than ever, in fact.

[Then, I can see a certain direction which the studio has been going in: increasing the number of women appearance as speaking roles/major characters in films, presenting diverse female images in personality, embodying power by not just showing their fighting, thinking over/preventing expressions of post-feminism by cooperating with each other, valuing their own everyday life to make them seem ordinary far away from exceptional, and so forth. In other words, Hollywood has been striving to adapt to the time and meet an audience's needs. Some of my classmates and I used to think of that as superficial and commercial. Of course, I know the importance and influence of practice and visualization, but I always worry about specific representation of women which could be interpreted as an advocate and promote post-feminism/neoliberalism so naturally. I suppose there is another way of female empowerment but keeping depicting girls' knocking enemies to the ground or getting into MIT of any kind]

As for other films, I found that Shang-Chi had a lot of Asian/Chinese stereotypes, but I'm not supposed to judge if they're ok or not as I'm mere Japanese woman. Yet, Asians in Hollywood are always masters of something and strong, I would say; I scarcely see Japanese actors/actresses not using "Katana" and just being at work in American movies even to date.

[nancywheeeler]

look i am delighted marvel is finally in the find out stage after they fucked around and completely over-saturated the market but i can't help noticing it is always, always, always the female-led projects bearing the brunt of the criticism and just left out to dry by disney

[unpassive-viewer]

Black Widow v. The Marvels

Black Widow and The Marvels are both insulated MCU films - they have very little crossover with other MCU characters, and make use of mostly close ups and small sets. Despite their similarities, Black Widow accomplished this so much better than The Marvels. The cinematography was better, the scriptwriting was better, you actually sort of got to know the villain, the fight choreography was better, and as bad as the CG in Black Widow was, it was still better than The Marvels. Disney is absolutely kneecapping their new projects.

[marvelpluschannel]

Black Widow(2021) DC & Marvel Retrospective/Reviews

[batmandarkknightuniverse]

Black Widow(2021) Andres Pop Culture Guy Retrospective/Reviews

[theditwicks]

What's your opinion on the MCU?Favorite movie? Worst Movie? I know we usually do pokemon videos but we want to do one discussing Marvel and reading all your comments!

[edenhasfeelings]

The Multiverse Saga (1/2)

I gonna need everyone who’s saying MCU Phase 4 was shit to shut the fuck up like actually. It was an experimental phase. It was an intro phase to a new saga. The only projects in my opinion that were actually pretty ass were Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and She-Hulk. If Phase 1 of the MCU were to come out now as it did back then, people would be saying the same thing. Phase 1 was an intro phase, mostly origin stories. “Phase 1 all pointed to Thanos!”  The Iron Man movies didn’t at all? and we didn’t see Thanos until the very end credit scene of The Avengers. “We didn’t even get to see the big bad in any of these!” Um, maybe if you’re blind or didn’t watch all of the projects like you’re acting like you did. Also, instead of their being a singular greater plot, there are several; Kang and the Multiverse, Intros and Origins, what I’m calling Interdimensionality and Space Stuff, Street Level/Classic Avengers heroes, and introducing Mutants and the X-Men. Let me explain (yes, this is my special interest, leave me alone).

Black Widow The amount of bitch fits I heard about this movie, mostly from cishet white men. This movie felt out of place in Phase 4 because it was supposed to be released earlier than it was. The entirety of Phase 4 was a lot more crammed together because of, well, idk, maybe the fucking GLOBAL PANDEMIC. But it stood on its own as a great movie and a great intro to Yelena. 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings An origin story for a new hero, never mind the mind blowing graphics and digital effects, made this a great movie. And here we have a hint at a major plot point, mostly highlighted in the end credit scene with Wong, Bruce Banner, and Captain Marvel. The Ten Rings are the Infinity Stones of this saga. It also fits into the Multiverse/Interdimensional aspects of this Saga by introducing Ta Lo (unsure whether that’s space stuff, multiverse stuff, or both).

Eternals If Marvel kept consistently making movies in the same exact way with the same exact directors, people would be bitching about how nothing changes. But them adding a new director and film style sent everyone into an outcry about how out of place it is and shitty. I had a couple of problems with this movie, the main one being the awkward extended sex scene in a Marvel movie, but overall I thought it was a really cool and interesting way to introduce Black Knight and this new element of the Space MCU genre. Also, I loved Makkari and Druig  This movie also got a lot of hate because of Phastos having a husband and 2 second gay kiss scene that occurred. “They’re poisoning our children and forcing things down our throat!” some people cried in ignorance. So the awkward unnecessary straight sex scene was perfectly ok, but the 2 second gay kiss wasn’t? As other representation goes, the POC representation was phenomenal, as well as Makkari being deaf and using sign language.

Spider-Man: No Way Home This movie is self-explanatory. I don’t think anyone had a problem with this movie and if they did, then why. It literally fit right into the theme of the Multiverse Saga in the most mind-blowing, perfect way I didn’t actually expect them to attempt, was a wonderful closing to the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, and also gave a perfect explanation as to why we wouldn’t be seeing Spider-Man as much anymore (thanks Sony). Also a mild set up to Multiverse of Madness.

 Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness Ok, I will die mad about how shitty this movie was. I was severely disappointed. I’ve not seen this movie getting as much criticism as it deserves, but people will rail on all the other female directed movies. Sam Raimi was not the man for this movie. They peddled it as “the MCU’s first horror movie”, but The New Mutants did a better job of superhero horror than this did. The special effects were unusually shit (and ik that quality suffers because of how Marvel is run and their artists are treated), but it was unusually bad. The “horror” aspect was weak jump-scares and overused horror tropes (Wanda coming out of the mirror all bendy, for example). Speaking of Wanda, they absolutely butchered her character and story in my opinion. We don’t see her corruption at all, we just see the end credits scene of WandaVision and now all of a sudden she’s evil. The “Wanda turns evil to get her kids that never existed back” was so much more compelling and fucked up in the comics. Her killing herself at the end felt really gross in my opinion. “There is no way possible to get my kids back so let me just kill myself.” They crammed way too much plot in, and the emotional scenes fell flat. Despite their plot cramming, they didn’t deliver the “mind-bending multiverse” aspects that were promised. And while killing off Black Bolt and Reed Richards in 5 seconds was yes, a terrifying display of her abilities, it completely undermined the power of this crossover and the respective formidability and intelligence of these characters. The last scene of the movie was weird and made no sense, and the end credit scene felt out of place and thrown in there just to introduce Clea. It leaves audiences with no specific adventure or movie to look forward to, just that something is going to happen. The MCU timeline being dubbed as Dimension 616 pissed me off, because, hello, main comic time-stream is 616, the MCU has to be different. Also, one more thing, at the end of the first Doctor Strange, they made it seem like main timeline Karl Mordo was going to be the next villain, but instead we got this weird Multiverse version of him. On a more positive note, the whole Monica Rambeau as Captain Marvel, fancast John Krasinski playing Reed Richards, live action Captain Carter, and Professor Charles fucking Xavier was really, really cool. Professor Xavier’s presence was the first hint at the Mutant storyline, and the whole thing obviously prioritized the Multiverse Saga. It was also a great intro for America Chavez, and I loved that they didn’t at all try to erase the queerness of her character. 

Thor: Love and Thunder Phenomenal. A work of art. Taika Waititi hit it out of the ballpark once again with the same hilarious vibes as Thor: Ragnarok. This was very clearly a Space MCU  movie, as most all of Thor’s movies have been.  I especially loved the comic accuracy of Jane Foster’s Might Thor, and the ending her character deserved. Getting to see Heimdall in Valhalla was awesome. Gorr was a truly fearsome villain that we hadn’t seen in awhile, and he really made you feel for him, especially at the end. His character redemption made perfect sense. Love’s presence in the end was a little confusing to me, as she is a solely MCU character, but I am excited to see what they do with her character.  The representation hit home for me with Valkyrie being King, her blatant bisexuality, Korg’s comic accurate homosexuality, Heimdall’s son being seemingly transgender, and, something I noticed but didn’t see mentioned by anyone, was that Meik’s pronouns had changed from Ragnarok and Endgame.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever “They shouldn’t have given the Black Panther title to Shuri! They’re turning all the men into women to be woke!” Shut the fuck up please and thank you and pick up a goddamn comic book. Aside from No Way Home, this was the best fucking MCU Phase 4 movie, and is up there with the best MCU movies ever in my opinion. It was raw, and emotional, and gorgeously cinematic in every way possible. Surprisingly, we get a tie in to our Street Level/Classic Avengers characters by the presence of Valentina de Fontaine, who had only previously appeared in the The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye. This was also a set up for Mutants. Namor states that he is mutated and different from his people, hence why he is more powerful, has different physical quirks, is essentially immortal, and is treated like a god amongst them.

I will be going into more detail about the TV shows and specials later in another post.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Black Widow (Rafelson, 1987)

For the first half this feels like it’ll be as good as the genre gets. Conrad Hall shooting the hell out of the proceedings in a way that combines classic noir shadows and gleaming ‘80s surfaces. Two great lead performances, by Debra Winger as a lovely FBI agent looking to fill the hole in her life with this murder investigation, and Theresa Russell as an icy femme fatale looking to fill the hole in her life with her ill gotten gains from murdering a series of rich husbands. And Dennis Hopper and Nicol Williamson shade in some nice texture at the periphery, as the rich husbands of Russell’s who probably have holes in their lives that need filling too.

But this really flounders in the second half when the action moves to Hawaii. We gain some nice location ambience, and a nicely sleazy performance by James Hong as a private detective. But we also get Russell’s new mark Sami Frey, who the movie insists on placing in a love triangle with Winger and Russell. I’m with Ebert that the movie loses its nerve after teasing at a lesbian relationship between the two (the closest we get is Russell giving Winger an angry kiss), and unfortunately the relationships they have with Frey are totally DOA. I hope all that talk of filling holes hasn’t made you too uncomfortable, but this guy ain’t filling a hole in anyone’s life. They should have looked elsewhere, maybe to each other, to fill the… okay, I’ll stop, this is making me uncomfortable too. Please don’t hit unfollow.

But yeah, I kind of wish this was trashier and hornier, and willing to push its lesbian undertones further, because it does feel like a cop out. And that twist at the end… I’m of the opinion that twists go down when the movie was already working for you, and this very much wasn’t. But I also think if it had kept developing Winger’s character along the same lines as the first half instead of pushing her into the love triangle, it probably would have been an easier sell.

[moviesandmania]

CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW (1977) Reviews and free to watch online

Curse of the Black Widow is a 1977 American horror film Directed by Dan Curtis (Burnt Offerings; Dark Shadows; The Norliss Tapes; Trilogy of Terror) from a screenplay written by Earl Wallace and Robert Blees (Dr. Phibes Rises Again; Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?; Frogs). The telefilm originally aired on ABC on September 16, 1977. The made-for-television ABC Circle Films-Dan Curtis Productions movie…

[the-haunted-star]

My humble thoughts on

(Minor spoilers!)

After multiple delays and a pandemic ridden year it's at long last time to enjoy a new movie in the way they were meant to be enjoyed, on the big screen in a dark movie theater with fellow fans. It was a pleasure to be finally attending an opening night screening of a new Marvel film again and I'm glad to report it did not disappoint!

This film at its heart is definitely a family affair. Ever since Natasha was introduced way back in Iron Man 2 she has been a character trying to escape her tramatic past, redeem her misdeeds and find a place in which she belongs. Over the course of the past twenty plus movies, Natasha found a purpose worth fighting for and a family among her fellow Avengers. A family and purpose she ultimately sacrifices her life for to save the world in Endgame.

The events of this story take place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Natasha is on the run from the government for having violated the Sokovia Accords in Civil War when her past as a Black Widow comes back to haunt her. The opening of the movie is perhaps the most heart wreching as we see Natasha as a young girl when she is taken back to the "Red Room" to resume her training as a Black Widow. There is a montage of Natasha and many other young girls being forcefully taken and put through the grueling and torturous training program which is set to a haunting rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This sequence actually put a lump in my throat as it is just so sad and tragic.

The opening also introduces young Natasha's family although this is just a guise for an undercover mission. Years later Natasha is reunited with this long lost family when it's discovered that the Red Room she thought she had destroyed for good is in fact still in operation and actively creating new Black Widows. Natasha, her "sister" Yelena, her "mother" Melina and her "father" Alexi (The Red Guardian) join forces once again to end the Red Room once and for all. Along the way Natasha discovers that although their familial relation started simply as a cover, family bonds do not start and end with blood.

The supporting characters shine with Florence Pugh being the breakout star of the film as Yelena Belova, Natasha's surrogate sister and former Black Widow agent herself. She steals many of the scenes with her sarcastic sass and sharp wit. David Harbour is humorously lovable as the Red Guardian, Russia's washed up version of Captain America who he shares a decidedly one sided rivalry with which is a running gag through the film.

This film is packed start to finish with exciting action set pieces and fights. I think the benchmark for awesome fights still belongs to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but the fight scenes in this film definitely come close. They're fast, hard hitting and relentless. One nitpick I have about the action and this not limited to this film is when characters take extreme falls or are involved in huge wrecks, they are able to spring back up with seemingly little difficulty, injury or impairment. Natasha and Yelena both take some very nasty falls and bumps that really look like they should have several broken bones and yet they bounce back to their feet without much selling (to use a wrestling term.) It just takes you out of the moment when you say to yourself, "no way she would get up from that". It's one thing if it's a super powered individual like Thor but Natasha is a human character with no super upgrades.

Much of the film's action is spearheaded by the Taskmaster, a formidable and relentless beast that pursues Natasha and company like the Terminator going after Sara Connor. While I love the design of costume and the action scenes he's involved in, it's this character that was my main complaint about the film.

Marvel has not had the best track record with the handling of its villains and the Taskmaster unfortunately joins that dubious list. I would compare this film version of Taskmaster to Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode 1 in that he looks really cool, badass and has some great fight scenes but is otherwise empty as an actual character. Taskmaster spends the entire film as a mute attack dog for the main villain (who wasn’t much more interesting either) and is part of a twist that one, you could see coming a mile away and two, just seems completely unnecessary. He becomes another character from the comics that is essentially “in name only” because they stripped everything away from the character that made him who he was in the comics except for the physical similarities. I knew going in this was probably going to be the case but it’s still disappointing nonetheless. I will never understand why Marvel does not handle its villains with the same care as they do its heroes when it comes to the source material.

Overall while the villains are a weak spot, the movie delivers a thrilling, action packed adventure with standout performances from the main cast and a heartfelt story about family, loss and redemption. A bittersweet swan song and official farewell to Natasha Romanoff the Black Widow. ⭐⭐⭐½

[write-ou-gauche]

Can a nice Marvel comics fan please explain to me:

Do you think the MCU's problem with character arcs and compelling motivations due to picking plot points and sorting through the chaos that is eight decades of overlapping, retconning, parallel storylines in Marvel comics, or is it a function of something getting lost in translation to screen? Is it a difference between medium, or is the studio more concerned about their well-documented spoiler paranoia than, I dunno, telling a story?

(I know that they care about raking in that Marvel MoneyTM more than paying the people who make those movies, and I don't doubt that has something to do with it, but I am specifically asking here about the relationship between the comics and the screen)

[educationaldm]

Jill Bearup takes a look to see whether Chat GPT could replace her expertise in reviewing / rating women's boots in movies.

[suchananewsblog]

Marvel at the Khans: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan on turning superheroes with ‘Wastelanders’

11 years. It has been 11 years since Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan tied the knot and the moniker ‘Saifeena’ entered collective Bollywood dictionaries.  But it’s also been 11 years since the acting duo worked together; a successful collaboration that yielded projects such as LOC: Kargil, Omkara, Kurban, Tashan (on the sets of which they fell in love) and Agent Vinod, which marked their…

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

FHPOC recommended Youtubers

[riseofthecommonwoodpile]

it’s kinda funny to me how, even though my biggest problem with Roger Ebert is how middle of the road white liberal his takes and blind spots were, he’s also one of the only mainstream film critics who actually has To Kill a Mockingbird’s number. Some quotes from his retrospective review:

To Kill a Mockingbird, set in Maycomb, Alabama, in 1932, uses the realities of its time only as a backdrop for the portrait of a brave white liberal.

The courtroom scenes are the most celebrated in the movie…Atticus' summation to the jury is one of Gregory Peck's great scenes, but of course the all-white jury finds Tom Robinson guilty anyway…The problem here, for me, is that the conviction of Tom Robinson is not the point of the scene, which looks right past him to focus on the nobility of Atticus Finch.

Atticus drives out to Tom Robinson's house to break the sad news to his widow, Helen. She is played by Kim Hamilton (who is not credited, and indeed has no speaking lines in a film that finds time for dialog by two superfluous white neighbors of the Finches)…[Bob Ewell] lurches out of the shadows and says to [one of the men], "Boy, go in the house and bring out Atticus Finch." One of the men does so, Ewell spits in Atticus's face, Atticus stares him down and drives away. The black people in this scene are not treated as characters, but as props, and kept entirely in long shot. The close-ups are reserved for the white hero and villain.

This is a tricky note to end on, because it brings Boo Radley in literally from the wings as a distraction from the facts: An innocent black man was framed for a crime that never took place, he was convicted by a white jury in the face of overwhelming evidence, and he was shot dead in problematic circumstances. Now we are expected to feel good because the events got Boo out of the house.

To Kill a Mockingbird is, as I said, a time capsule. It expresses the liberal pieties of a more innocent time, and it goes very easy on the realities of small-town Alabama in the 1930s. One of the most dramatic scenes shows a lynch mob facing Atticus, who is all by himself on the jailhouse steps the night before Tom Robinson's trial. The mob is armed and prepared to break in and hang Robinson, but Scout bursts onto the scene, recognizes a poor farmer who has been befriended by her father, and shames him (and all the other men) into leaving…Could a child turn away a lynch mob at that time, in that place? Isn't it nice to think so.

like, you know what Roger? gotta give it up to you for this one. you nailed it.