C'mon you know you think the white catsuit is cool

What sets Black Widow (2021, Cate Shortland) apart from all the other Marvel Studios movies? Well, being a blockbuster featuring one of the few Avengers with no discernable super powers, it relies on what the other current big summer movies sell: gravity-defying set pieces where people, vehicles, and air craft ultimately transport us into what a kid’s imagination does with their toys. I always wondered what Black Widow’s super power was, and this movie taught me that it’s being able to walk away from the worst wrecks without a scratch (just like the Marvel brand itself). 

     Black Widow also maintains a policy wherein shots are framed from angles that never let us forget that Scarlett Johansson has a nice butt (notice how the poster illustrates the BW logo is a graphic symbolizing her hourglass figure).  And because it’s Hollywood, there’s also the obligatory 12 years younger Florence Pugh sent in to replace her. YELENA (Pugh) gets the best lines: “This would be a really cool way to die,” and “You’re such a poser,” too. And YELENA has the Marvel sarcasm down wonderfully. It’s really Pugh’s movie. She’s amazing.

     Along with the TV series that have been airing on Disney +, Black Widow observes the politics of representation that Phase IV mandates. Black Widow pits the sisters against TASKMASTER—a masked super solider who is revealed in the third act to be played by Olga Kurylenko. And under the mask her face has been badly scarred. So how do you think they will defeat this disfigured but still beautiful, powerful woman with what I think casting agents might call an “ethnic” look? Hint: her boss is a rich, powerful white male (played by Ray Winstone) who controls a cadre of racially and ethnically diverse young women from impoverished backgrounds. 

     Another thing about TASKMASTER is that her superpower is mirroring the fighting style of the person she’s fighting. It occurred to me that this is really funny because it explains why the fight scenes in Black Widow look like the exact same choreographed stunt fights in every other Marvel movie.

     In closing, I mean, don’t take my comments as being too cynical. As a big summer action movie, Black Widow goes hard, is fun, and at its heart is basically taking the best from what John Woo was doing in Hong Kong in the late 80s. Don’t all big super hero/spy/military/special ops/international assassin/Fast saga action movies all blend into the same genre nowadays anyway?

 

7/11/2021 AMC Madison Yards 8

Atlanta, GA

DCP