PhDeac
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- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
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Black Widow spoilers are fair game as of last night.
I thought Dreykov was an excellent villain, a good change of pace from “villains with a point.” He’s just an evil man who craves power and exploits girls and women. That’s true evil right there. He may not have the Infinity Stones. He’s the type of person we truly have to fear in real life which is a fitting villain in a grounded spy film.
I liked the family aspect of the film. Each character brought something interesting to the table. I’m impressed how they promoted the film as family, but didn’t let on that Red Guardian was the dad. I thought Harbour was good in that role. I could see how his work on Stranger Things crosses over into this film. Yelena was a lot of fun. She’s going to be a fan favorite character going forward.
I like how they used Rick Mason. I’m not even sure if they said his name. They didn’t force a love interest with Natasha. It was light flirting at the most. They could have made him a “Bond boy” but they didn’t. He had a minor role. He got Natasha things she needed that helped move the story along. I thought that role was done well especially since we all assumed he was really Taskmaster.
I’ve seen some complaints that the film wasted Taskmaster. I disagree. This was just an origin. Taskmaster is one of those villains who could just show up in any show or film for whatever reason for whichever side. I'm sure we'll see her again, maybe as soon as Hawkeye. Wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up with US Agent and Yelena on Valentina’s team.
I thought it was interesting to compare the pacing of an MCU film to the MCU shows. For example, in a show, Mason gets a backstory and has a more defined romantic interest with Natasha and we see how he commandeers a mobile home, helicopter, and jet. Or his role is eliminated all together and Natasha gets them herself.
Obviously, it would have been great for this film to come between Civil War and Black Panther. But even within that timeline, they could certainly follow this up with a sequel or two. Fill in some gaps in Natasha’s story before Infinity War. Maybe the family can track down a rogue widow cell. Maybe a widow infiltrated Wakanda and the Dora Milage are on the case too. I’d love to see a widow vs. Dora Milage battle since we didn’t get one in Civil War. We could learn more about how Yelena got involved with Valentina as well. Florence Pugh has been confirmed for the Hawkeye series.
I’d really like to see a Widows Disney+ show about a set of newly freed widows trying to find a life, career, and love for themselves after the events of this film. I could see it as a straight up spy show like a Charlie’s Angels or maybe Alias. Or it can be a skewed take on Sex in the City.
The box office numbers look good. Black Widow earned $80M in domestic theaters and $60M on Disney+ premiere for a $140M opening weekend. That’s 10th after all four Avengers films, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Civil War, IM 3, and GOTG2. So the best opening weekends of MCU first solo films were Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Black Widow. These are the films former Marvel CEO and Trump buddy Ike Permutter prevented because he thought films with women leads or mostly Black casts don’t make money. Of course, his baby was the Inhumans. Dumbass.
I thought Dreykov was an excellent villain, a good change of pace from “villains with a point.” He’s just an evil man who craves power and exploits girls and women. That’s true evil right there. He may not have the Infinity Stones. He’s the type of person we truly have to fear in real life which is a fitting villain in a grounded spy film.
I liked the family aspect of the film. Each character brought something interesting to the table. I’m impressed how they promoted the film as family, but didn’t let on that Red Guardian was the dad. I thought Harbour was good in that role. I could see how his work on Stranger Things crosses over into this film. Yelena was a lot of fun. She’s going to be a fan favorite character going forward.
I like how they used Rick Mason. I’m not even sure if they said his name. They didn’t force a love interest with Natasha. It was light flirting at the most. They could have made him a “Bond boy” but they didn’t. He had a minor role. He got Natasha things she needed that helped move the story along. I thought that role was done well especially since we all assumed he was really Taskmaster.
I’ve seen some complaints that the film wasted Taskmaster. I disagree. This was just an origin. Taskmaster is one of those villains who could just show up in any show or film for whatever reason for whichever side. I'm sure we'll see her again, maybe as soon as Hawkeye. Wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up with US Agent and Yelena on Valentina’s team.
I thought it was interesting to compare the pacing of an MCU film to the MCU shows. For example, in a show, Mason gets a backstory and has a more defined romantic interest with Natasha and we see how he commandeers a mobile home, helicopter, and jet. Or his role is eliminated all together and Natasha gets them herself.
Obviously, it would have been great for this film to come between Civil War and Black Panther. But even within that timeline, they could certainly follow this up with a sequel or two. Fill in some gaps in Natasha’s story before Infinity War. Maybe the family can track down a rogue widow cell. Maybe a widow infiltrated Wakanda and the Dora Milage are on the case too. I’d love to see a widow vs. Dora Milage battle since we didn’t get one in Civil War. We could learn more about how Yelena got involved with Valentina as well. Florence Pugh has been confirmed for the Hawkeye series.
I’d really like to see a Widows Disney+ show about a set of newly freed widows trying to find a life, career, and love for themselves after the events of this film. I could see it as a straight up spy show like a Charlie’s Angels or maybe Alias. Or it can be a skewed take on Sex in the City.
The box office numbers look good. Black Widow earned $80M in domestic theaters and $60M on Disney+ premiere for a $140M opening weekend. That’s 10th after all four Avengers films, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Civil War, IM 3, and GOTG2. So the best opening weekends of MCU first solo films were Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Black Widow. These are the films former Marvel CEO and Trump buddy Ike Permutter prevented because he thought films with women leads or mostly Black casts don’t make money. Of course, his baby was the Inhumans. Dumbass.
