Black Widow

[Barry]

      What a pleasure it has been to finally return to a movie theater after 18 months. AMC had opened up a theater here in January 2020 and it had a Dolby theater with Dolby sound and picture. And then it close the next month.

First, let me say that the theater was three quarters filled at 3 PM this afternoon which is pretty good. The picture and audio are incredible and we got to sit on leather seats that recline. We decided we are never going to a different theater again!

Of course this will be a non-spoiler review. This movie takes place after Capt. America Civil War and before Avengers infinity war. So this means that we know that the Black Widow will live no matter how much she is threatened.

In the beginning of the movie character seen watching a clip of James Bond’s “Moonraker.” Which is rather appropriate for a couple of reasons.

This movie essentially has no superheroes or super villains. It is essentially an old Cold War movie where Natosha Romanov, also known as the Black Widow, returns to her roots to discover her family and to stop a worldwide insidious plot, the same sort of silly plot that we got in the older James Bond movies.

The second reason is that they steal a scene from the aforementioned Bond movie but I cannot tell you what that is in no spoiler review.

In going back to her homeland to discover her past we are introduced to her sister played by Florence Pugh who does a very good job. Since we know what the fate of the Black Widow is at the end of Avengers Endgame, I think that Pugh will definitely have a place on the Avengers. We get to meet her parents, including the communist counterpart to Capt. America, a character known as the Red Guardian.

The Black Widow was originally introduced in the Iron Man series in 1964 as a Russian assassin. On several occasions she tried to kill Tony Stark. When the character Hawkeye was introduced he had the hots for Natasha and did her bidding and that kinda made him a bad guy. However, they both became very popular characters and became heroes that joined the Avengers. So first she fought Iron Man and then she fought with him.

My Thoughts:
More than anything I enjoyed being back in a movie theater. This movie had a predetermined ending so there was really very little suspense. It did have a lot of action and fighting and as I mentioned the imagery and the audio was terrific. But there was nothing here of any weight or substance. So I give it 2 ½ stars out of four.
And once again, the heroes are beaten to a pulp but have no visible signs of any injury whatsoever. She should have been the Black and Blue Widow.

Oh, there is a sequence that occurs after the very end after the credits  so stay for the whole thing. And it is a scene that ties together some of what we have seen on the Disney plus channel.

So, bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"




The Blonde BW is Marvel’s original one from the 1940s

[David Vaughn]

I have my tickets to see this at 12:30 today. It will be nice to get into a theater again (especially since it's going to be 111 degrees today). Thanks for the non-spoiler review Barry...I'm looking forward to seeing this. Then again, I'd pay $13.00 to watch Scarlett read the phone book, but I have some issues

[David Vaughn]

My wife and I both enjoyed it (she liked it a bit more than me). I'd go 4 out of 5, she would go 4.5/5. Lots of action and humor, which was fun. It was great to be back in a movie theater (a little over half filled), although our audience was a bit of a dud because it seemed like my wife and I were the only ones laughing some of the time. Oh well...it beat being outside (and I was wrong...hit 115 today). 

[Barry]

My wife and I both enjoyed it (she liked it a bit more than me). I'd go 4 out of 5, she would go 4.5/5. Lots of action and humor, which was fun. It was great to be back in a movie theater (a little over half filled), although our audience was a bit of a dud because it seemed like my wife and I were the only ones laughing some of the time. Oh well...it beat being outside (and I was wrong...hit 115 today).

Did you watch the Falcon and Winter soldier? Because the last scene was scheduled to go public before that series, not after.

[bmoney]

I loved it. Marvel is so much better than DC imho

[David Vaughn]

Did you watch the Falcon and Winter soldier? Because the last scene was scheduled to go public before that series, not after.

Yes I did. 

[bmoney]

Yes I did.

See i haven’t watched that. I may have to go back now and do so ahah

[jive turkey]

Pretty much like the other Marvel movies to me. Run over here and fight, run over there and fight. Some fun familial conversation in this one, I will admit. You really have to know every detail of the whole Marvel Universe to get into these movies, in my opinion.

I do want to say the Iron Man animatronic that flies from building to building at Disneyland is pretty damned cool.

[bmoney]

I enjoy the marvel humor. But of course what you described is gonna me in the movie. It’s an action superhero movie after all. 

Same with Bond movies lol 

[David Vaughn]

Pretty much like the other Marvel movies to me. Run over here and fight, run over there and fight. Some fun familial conversation in this one, I will admit. You really have to know every detail of the whole Marvel Universe to get into these movies, in my opinion.

I do want to say the Iron Man animatronic that flies from building to building at Disneyland is pretty damned cool.

Last summer, my wife and I spent a month and rewatched every Marvel film in sequence. We picked up so many things we missed the first time through because seeing them in order so close together your memory doesn't get fogged over  

[AVSCraig]

Last summer, my wife and I spent a month and rewatched every Marvel film in sequence. We picked up so many things we missed the first time through because seeing them in order so close together your memory doesn't get fogged over

Same here - it was our Covid lockdown weekly movie night. It's the only way to really have everything fit together and make sense, and a lot of fun. 

[Barry]

David and I are friends. I have read and enjoyed his reviews for years and he has guided me to several good movies and he has helped me avoid countless bad ones.
 
David and I have a different perspective for movies and it comes up every once in awhile. David enjoys beautifully photographed chase scenes and length is not an issue to him if the action is good and absorbing. David also likes well done and choreographed fight scenes in movies.
 
I have been bored by so many mandatory chase scenes and fights. Especially when they are predictable and you know the outcome. It also bothers me that the bad guys are either injured or killed very quickly and the hero of the movie is never injured as anyone would be who went through that sort of beating. Even in this movie the Black Widow, at times, is more of a superman.  And she is always able to find her sister during extraordinary explosions and such.
 
David and I have disagreed and have made jokes about how we feel about the Lone Ranger movie, a movie he liked and I didn't. That’s because, I think, David really enjoyed the well choreographed chase and fight scenes.
 
I was using a four star system for my rating, but if we want to use a five star system I will give it 3 1/2 stars.

[Barry]

 Spoiler Alert: don’t read until you have seen the movie.
 
At the beginning of the movie a brief clip from the James Bond movie Moonraker is shown. This is interesting for several reasons. First, this is a spy versus spy movie with a plot to take over the world just like a Bond movie would have. At the beginning of Moonraker, Bond leaves and airplane without a parachute and manages to land safely. This scene is duplicated at the end of this movie when the Black Widow jumps out of an airplane. And of course the movie features the wife of the current James Bond, Rachel Weisz.
 
But there’s another interesting thing here. Julia Louis Dreyfus was introduced in the Disney plus Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That was her first appearance in a mysterious role. She appears here at the very end of the movie continuing her role.
 
What is interesting is that this movie was supposed to come first. It was delayed a full year because of the covert 19 quarantine. So we are actually seeing her first appearance not her second. Here is a picture of "Val", then a agent of Shield from the 1960s

[AVSCraig]

Spoiler Alert: don’t read until you have seen the movie.
 
At the beginning of the movie a brief clip from the James Bond movie Moonraker is shown. This is interesting for several reasons. First, this is a spy versus spy movie with a plot to take over the world just like a Bond movie would have. At the beginning of Moonraker, Bond leaves and airplane without a parachute and manages to land safely. This scene is duplicated at the end of this movie when the Black Widow jumps out of an airplane. And of course the movie features the wife of the current James Bond, Rachel Weisz.
 
But there’s another interesting thing here. Julia Louis Dreyfus was introduced in the Disney plus Falcon and the Winter Soldier. That was her first appearance in a mysterious role. She appears here at the very end of the movie continuing her role.
 
What is interesting is that this movie was supposed to come first. It was delayed a full year because of the covert 19 quarantine. So we are actually seeing her first appearance not her second. Here is a picture of "Val", then a agent of Shield from the 1960s

So does watching this movie ( Black Widow ) require having seen the Disney + Falcon and the Winter Soldier series? 

[Barry]

So does watching this movie ( Black Widow ) require having seen the Disney + Falcon and the Winter Soldier series?

No, not at all.  It is Val's first appearance in the Black Widow. But it makes Falcon a little more intersting.