After a long year of waiting, 'Black Widow' finally has her own movie. But is this too little too late? After all, Marvel seemed to reach its peak with 'Endgame', add a nice epilogue with 'Far from Home', and it feels a bit like it's time to move on. Not to mention, the idea of a 'Black Widow' movie has been on Marvel fans minds since her first appearance in 'Iron Man 2'. Personally, I was actually fine with the film's timing due to a few things in the film, but I can also see the point when people claim it should have come right after 'Civil War' - which is incidentally when it takes place. That's not before we delve into the past, and the intro to the film is a slice of origin, taking us back to 1995. In Ohio, we meet a surrogate family, starting with two young girls, Natasha Romanov (Ever Anderson) and Yelena Belova (Violet McGraw) who are enjoying their lives, having fun etc. That is until super soldier father figure, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) enters the scene to warn his Black Widow wife, Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) that their time is short. The parental units take the girls on an "adventure" to escape the scene with some SHIELD intel successfully stolen. Arriving in Cuba, they rendezvous with their boss, General Dreykov (Ray Winstone) who then has Natasha and Yelena sent to the "Red Room" to be trained. The credits start, and the opening is actually pretty damn disturbing. As years pass, Romanoff eventually becomes an Avenger with a checkered history, as we all know, and we do get some answers as to what she did so wrong in her past. To add to that, the year is now 2016, and she is a fugitive on the run for violating the Sokovia Accords (see 'Civil War'). Meanwhile, Yelena stays a Black Widow, and discovers that the Red Room holds a pretty significant dark secret, while Shostakov is in a secluded Russian prison, and Vostokoff is living on a farm somewhere. Once discovering the Red Room's secret, Yelena attempts to coax Natasha to help in her own subtle way, which will ultimately mean helping other Widows and hopefully bringing down Dreykov and his Red Room antics. Meanwhile still, a villain known as the Taskmaster (uncredited) is sent onto the scene to retrieve something Natasha and Yelena are carrying. The idea for Taskmaster is really neat - he can simply mimic anything he sees. So for instance, watching a newsfeed of Captain America fighting allows him to use a shield as a weapon very efficiently. The thing is, if anyone has a problem with any part of the movie, it's probably going to be Taskmaster fans being wronged. From my perspective, I'm very unfamiliar with the character comic-wise, so didn't see a big problem with the character. But for fans? I can definitely seeing this being the equivalent of Deadpool showing up in 'Wolverine' looking like Baraka. All that aside, it's time to get down to my personal opinion on this. There was actually a lot I liked about it, but first let's mention the negatives. First, I find it a touch odd that they actually brought in a few horror elements to this with the opening credits. It's creepy enough, but soon you find out just what they did to these girls in the Red Room and it sounds like a living nightmare. To be fair, that is the point, but I wasn't sure I expected it to get that dark. I expected a bit more of a 'Dark Angel' scenario. But that's just being nit-picky on my part. Sometimes the action is a bit over the top for something you'd think would be more grounded, and going back to Taskmaster, I can see that being the biggest disappointment of the film. Like I said, however, I did like a lot about this. It's a solid girl power theme without being so in your face. I liked the introduction of some new characters, namely Yelena and Red Guardian. I thought that the performances were good, and despite some of the action being over the top, I enjoyed that it was a Marvel take on a bit more of a spy/espionage movie, which really hasn't been done yet. To me, this is Marvel's answer to the 'Mission: Impossible' films - very similar in style. In the end, I definitely liked it more than I disliked it, but I will admit that it's one of Marvel's lesser films. I might suggest continuing the wait and not feeding Disney that extra cash. POST-CREDIT SCENE: Set after Romanoff's death in 'Endgame', Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) shows Yuleena Belova her next target; Clint Barton, who she claims to be Natasha's killer. 3/5
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Although this is slated basically as 'Captain America 3', one could totally see this as 'The Avengers 3' in that basically, everyone makes an appearance, save Hulk and Thor, and it does have quite a balance going on between Cap and Stark. In fact, it even got to the point where before this was released, the internet blew up with the whole "Team Cap or Team Stark?" question. Of course, most of us went with "Team Stark" for the sole reason that the one and only Spider-Man was actually making an appearance this time around, and he was on that side of things. 'Civil War' starts out with Stark being confronted by a woman who tells him that because of the Avengers, her son is now dead. This is something a lot of action hero films don't address incredibly well - the destruction they leave behind. And yes, before the DC fans jump down my throat, 'Batman v Superman' did it pretty well too. Anyway, Stark brings in Thadeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, now U.S. Secretary of State to discuss the "Sokovia Accords", which is essentially meant to keep our heroes in-check by the U.N., only bringing them in if absolutely necessary. And this is where it gets rather interesting. While Stark feels a tremendous guilt about what has happened, and more than willing to sign the Accords, Cap sees it as disruptive to their right to choose. For example, what if something bad is going down but it's not "important enough" for the Avengers to help. Cap's biggest personality trait IS that he wants to do what's right, no matter the cost. It gets to be this whole moral compass thing. On top of all of it, Bucky returns and is blamed for an attack in Vienna where the Accords are to be ratified. The attack kills King T'Chaka of Wakanda, and ends up bringing in T'Challa, his son, as the Black Panther, seeking revenge for his father's murder. With seemingly everyone after Bucky, Cap's old friend, he finds the need to protect him, knowing that whatever he's done in the past had everything to do with being brainwashed. Of course, this all leads up to one hell of an Avengers vs Avengers fight scene that features everyone who has been introduced so far. The idea behind the fight being "Team Stark" trying to bring "Team Cap" in safely and securely for going against the Accords, while "Team Cap" stands against it all, putting more trust in themselves than a government with a possible agenda. The Russo Brothers do a fantastic job here, not only in the sense of giving the audience what they wanna see, but working with such a large cast. It's sincerely no wonder why they were chosen to direct 'Infinity War', as they kinda managed to bump Joss Whedon off as THE ensemble cast directors. On top of everything, it's interesting to see a film in which you can see the positives and negatives regarding each side. As a superhero, would you trust your government to do the right thing at the right time? Could you just sit there and let others take care of something you could take care of much faster? or on the flip side, could you live with the guilt of knowing that in order to save a majority, some casualties may need to occur? It's the first time an MCU movie has come along with that sort of deep thinking attached to it, where one CAN see both sides of the argument quite clearly. This one is a personal favorite of the MCU for me because it triggers that kind of thinking. 5/5 MID-CREDIT SCENE: In the aftermath of these events, Bucky chooses to freeze himself again until a cure for his brainwashing - which caused most of the trouble in this, is found. This loosely teases to 'Black Panther'. POST-CREDIT SCENE: Peter Parker, licking his wounds after the big fight, tests out a spider signal in his room, compliments of Tony Stark, loosely teasing 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'. Remember in my 'Iron Man' review how I said the next movie might not hold up as well? That's because the next movie is 'The Incredible Hulk'. That's not at all to say that the movie is bad. In fact, I quite enjoy it's execution, and it was definitely a triumph above whatever that 2003 Ang Lee disaster was. But let's face it, the Hulk himself looks and acts differently than he does now, and Banner was played by Ed Norton here instead of Mark Ruffalo, who I think we all agree is the better portrayal of Banner altogether. Norton did a fine job, but now we KNOW Ruffalo as that dude. To give this movie credit, however, it knew full well that we already knew what Hulks origin story was. Gamma radiation in an experiment gone awry, and it's all set up in the opening credits. The film actually starts while Banner is hiding in South America, chatting back and forth with someone named Mr. Blue, in search of a cure. In the meantime, General 'Thunderbolt' Ross (William Hurt) chases Banner with a desire to dissect him and use whatever it is that transforms Banner as a weapon. Eventually, the online chat between Banner and Blue results in Blue needing him to come back to his hometown in order to meet, and work on a cure together. During this time, Banner is also reunited with Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), who is our love interest in this story, the beauty who tames the beast, and of course the daughter of the crooked General Ross, complicating it all quite nicely. Meanwhile, again, Gen. Ross brings a war-hungry soldier into play named Blonsky (Tim Roth) using a super solider serum on him (hello 'Captain America' tease) in order to be able to fight the Hulk and attempt to bring him down. Of course, this leads to Blonsky craving a bit too much power, and I THINK we all know he eventually becomes The Abomination. The whole climactic scene of this is essentially a one-on-one monster fight in the middle of Manhattan (filmed largely in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario). It's cool if you're into that sort of thing, and frankly to be expected from a Hulk movie. The only reasons this hasn't aged well have to do with Norton's ultimate replacement, and the CG might look a little bit off here and there, although they still did great. However, this was a bit more of a serious story. There's not a hell of a lot of humor to this one, and it's more of a tragic tale. It's still a decent movie, and for me, it finds itself somewhere in the middle of my list when it comes to this universe. I appreciated it's execution, but it IS kinda difficult to keep the Hulk interesting while keeping him a dark figure. The "inner struggle" concept just gets old. What I am happy to see is the new Hulk where the studio has finally realized "hey, this is pretty goofy stuff" and they've since put some humor behind the character, realizing that what they have is essentially a giant, green gorilla with superhuman strength. Hulk still manages to be a tragic figure, but they have managed to balance things with the overall cartoonish concept of such a character. But, going back to this movie, 'The Incredible Hulk' is still very much technically a part of this particular universe, even though some consider it not to be. This is largely due to the differences in Edward Norton's Bruce Banner and Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner, which is now pretty much the definitive portrayal. The only thing really keeping this on that list of movies, though, is the pre-credits scene. Otherwise, one COULD technically skip this movie, and just be introduced to the Hulk through 'The Avengers'. But I would still recommend keeping this one on the list, because as far as Hulk movies go, this one probably did the solo project the best with what it had to work with. 3/5 PRE-CREDIT SCENE: Thunderbolt Ross is in a bar taking shots and contemplating his newfound problems. Tony Stark enters and informs him that a team of special people is going to be put together, hinting once again at a possible 'Avengers' movie. |