Metrics
Genre:
Superhero, Action
Rating:
7.7/10
Audience:
Superhero movie fans. Action movie fans. Kids, teens, adults.
Rewatch Time:
It’s 2h15, action and comedy, but not mindblowing. Every once in a while.
Winner:
Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh)
Review
I feel like my expectations for this movie were just too high - I have been a bit starved of movie trips recently. I kept waiting for the third act to start, but the movie kinda just ended, so I felt a little unsatisfied. I don’t remember anything wrong about the movie per se, maybe the pacing, but Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) is cool as always and Yelena is an awesome new addition to the MCU. I like the familial dynamic between the girls, Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour). Supporting cast of Ross (William Hurt) and Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). The plug Agent (O. T. Fagbenle) was funny, but the villains were a little meh. Taskmaster’s concept was cool, but I felt they misused Olga Kurylenko and misplayed the emotional stakes with the whole Budapest callback. Dreykov (Ray Winstone) was interesting, but his menacingness did evaporate way too quickly. The action itself was pretty good though, even if it’s difficult to believe they survive so many explosions and car crashes. Also this movie is almost entirely women, and it worked so well that nobody really noticed or made a big noise about it. People were comparing it to Captain Marvel, and this movie isn’t perfect, but it’s less forced, and its focus is rightly on Natasha and her bond with family.
Spoiler Territory
The starting was definitely awesome, and it was great to see young Natasha and Yelena together with their fake parents. Their young actresses (Ever Gabo Anderson and Violet McGraw respectively) did really well too. My favourite part of the movie was probably the montage with a slow acapella Smells Like Teen Spirit (by Malia J, original by Nirvana). Really really dark scenes, but they were really hard-hitting. Definitely great backstory to Natasha’s character that we’ve only heard of. I found Dreykov’s whole pheromone thing really stupid, and Natasha’s severed nerve thing was arguably even worse - him dying fell pretty flat too. The scene at the end where she looks into the distance as Ross and his cars show up really confused me, since they were just trying to arrest her earlier, and she ends up totally fine. So that was a little wack. I also really wanted Captain America to show up at the end, so that was sad.