Black Widow

Marvel has been just spinning the same formula for some time, and so is now trying to make up for their past with a lot of catching up to do, ripping off everything from The Bourne Identity to the underrated Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. All this is done in such a lackluster manner which is so bland and stupid that it is bound to disappoint die-hard fans of this superhero franchise. The screenplay is not as cheap and crappy as in Captain Marvel, yet it is still completely pointless and a lame bare popcorn movie. (07/14/2021)

Never trust doomsayers. A true blue Marvel movie, targeted at ladies, but not at all dumb. The introduction is awesome, dark and uncompromising, then it gets into the old rut, but the second half is more than just good too. Infantile humor made at the expense of Harvey Weinstein and tops it all with a family-flavor sauce made by Disney. The ending is strangely cut short (it lacks elimination of Ross or an explanation of whether or not it was Kapo who helped), but due it being set during the Civil War, that is more or less understandable. The biggest surprise the Widow holds is David Harbour and the whole over-the-top prison escape. We want a series spin-off with Crimson Dynamo! And Florence Pugh steals the whole show in the end. Such a poser. (07/12/2021)

I was thrilled, about halfway through. Black Widow starts as an unexpectedly dark and adult comic book movie, presenting broken and hesitant heroes and heroines instead of jokes, and surprisingly gritty action that doesn't deny that the creators took inspiration from Jason Bourne and Mission: Impossible. It's also humorless, and for a while it felt like the most mature Marvel movie ever, unafraid of themes you wouldn't quite expect to find there. But then, somehow, it breaks. Halfway through, it's as if the makers decided that their audience probably doesn't actually crave something like this and went back to their old ways of playing it safe, give or take. Black Widow does even that well, and when you take away the not-so-good contact action scenes and the weaker Taskmaster, it's at least a solid job and an inoffensive Marvel average. It just felt a little too little when they went with a more mature yet fully functioning style in the first part. I don't want to make it sound like Black Widow is a bad movie. It's a well-done comic-book routine, but as a viewer, I'm not completely satisfied with that anymore. Especially when Scarlet Johansson and her crew managed to show me that they can do better. (07/08/2021)

I was quite surprised by how messy the script was — it felt like some characters' motivations got lost just to fit the plot's convenience. The action scenes didn't really grab me either; they were often dull or unnecessarily shaky, even when the scenes didn’t call for it. Oddly enough, I found everything else around the action more interesting, which isn’t what you typically expect from a Marvel movie. It’s not a disaster, still a quality product, but it bothers me that it doesn’t really stand out. It seems like Marvel is settling into a standard that’s neither offensive nor exciting. In the earlier phases of the MCU, each film had its own unique flair, but this has been fading since Ant-Man and the Wasp. A solo Black Widow movie should have come out years ago. On a positive note, David Harbour absolutely stole the show. (07/07/2021)

It's an incredible shame they didn't release Black Widow a month after Wonder Woman 84, it could have been a great female combo. It doesn't sound much like that anymore. That's how Captain Marvel and the series' WandaVision fizzled out in the interim, as the start of Phase 4 of the MCU comes at a time of distrust in the Covid-distorted media world. Still, the encounter with Scarlett Johansson's solo film, abundantly supported by Florence Pugh and Rachel Weisz, is thoroughly enjoyable. The action is traditionally ironically over-the-top, Cold War fans are satisfied, and this time the travel guide recommends Budapest. (07/12/2021)