I’ve said it once, I’ve said it twice, and I’ll keep saying it, Black Widow is good as an action movie and it does have some story to it, but the fact that it became another ‘girl power’ movie that the MCU has trotted out is kind of distracting. Granted, this is Natasha’s movie, and there’s no reason not to have it air finally so that people can get what they’ve been wanting for a while. But the continued propaganda that women are overly sexualized in superhero movies, or at least those that love to say such things, might need to go back and recollect their thoughts a bit since looking back at Iron Man 2, yes, Natasha did manage to be seen as a sexual individual, and yes, she did have that appeal in Avengers as well, but as part of her character that’s something she was trained to do. Like it or not, the power of women is a very diverse thing since not only can they kick butt in a superhero movie, but they can do something that men have to work harder at, which is to get people to drop their guard by being sensual and alluring since if you can believe it, this is one of the strongest weapons that some women have. Lure an opponent in, get their guard down, and then mess them up without mercy. How is that a problem?
It shouldn’t be really since Black Widow can do this with or without the allure, as she did in Iron Man 2 and yes, even in the Avengers. One would think that people might recognize that Scarlett Johansson’s natural attributes were paired nicely with Black Widow to create a character that has more than one way of dealing with various people and issues, but nope, the zipper on her suit comes down a bit and it’s suddenly too sexual. To be honest, this sounds more like a personal problem than anything to do with the movie.
But getting back to Black Widow, while Natasha has been seen as capable and deadly in the male-dominated movies, she’s seen as a powerhouse in this one since the number of bones she should have broken and the times she should have died become a little too accurate as she’s somehow been made nearly invincible in her own movie, whereas the guys in their own movies can get messed-up left and right and have to actually deal with their injuries. Plus, the main female characters in the other movies tend to be competent and trustworthy or multi-layered and insanely powerful in the other movies, while the men in this movie might have their own skills but are either goofy, handy but taken for granted, or irredeemably evil. Or, in General Ross’s case, simply belligerent and spiteful. The saving grace is that the male characters all do serve a purpose and come through without fail since Red Guardian is one tough son of a gun, while Dreykov is evil, but still kind of ineffective as anything but a mastermind that should not have been the main villain.
Had Taskmaster, his own daughter no less thanks to an obvious retcon, been able to take over the Red Room it’s fair to say that Natasha and her family might not have made it out as easily as they did. It’s great that Black Widow’s movie finally came out and there’s a lot to enjoy about this movie, but with the caveat that either due to this being her movie or because we won’t see her again, Natasha was suddenly allowed to absorb more punishment than many characters could take and keep going. While that’s not all that bad, the feeling of ‘girl power’ is usually empowering and all, but sometimes it becomes a little overwhelming and tends to eclipse the main point of the story, which was to show what Natasha had been up to between Civil War and Infinity War. The fact that she went back to settle a bit of unfinished business is pretty cool since it means she wasn’t idle while hiding out and was able to help promote another character as the big hope is that we’ll see a lot more of Yelena now.
That has yet to be decided no doubt, but it should be fun to see if she shows up in the Hawkeye show that should be headed to Disney+ eventually since that could be a good matchup. But until that happens, it’s fair to say that this was a good action movie, and maybe just leave it at that. Trying to go any deeper into Black Widow, which plenty of people are doing, is only bound to create one debate after another, and possibly cheapen the story just a little as people argue over the plot holes.
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