Black Widow Complete Review, Movie and Story Explained. 2021

Black Widow Complete Review

“Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) Finally Gets Her Moment to Shine in the MCU”
— Rolling Stone

 

Hey, Dave here with Black Widow Complete Review. Yes after Iron Man 2, Scarlet Johanson aka Black Widow is back! And guess what? The long-anticipated wait by marvel fans is finally over too, but the question is, was the movie worth the wait? Keep reading to know the complete story and get the complete overview, and also get a technical review of the movie at the end of the content.

Release Date of Black Widow 2021:

The movie was released recently on June 29, 2021 (world premieres) and July 9, 2021 (United States).

Rating:

It is rated 7 out of 10 in IMDb. The movie also has 80% Positive ratings in Rotten Tomato and 68% Positive ratings in Metacritic.
An average of 90 % of movie lovers liked the movie on Google.

 

Directed by Cate Shortland.
Production company: Marvel Studios.
Screenplay: Stan Lee, Jac Schaeffer, Ned Benson, Eric Pearson.
Story by: Stan Lee, Jac Schaeffer, Ned Benson, Don Rico, Don Heck.
Music composed by: Lorne Balfe, Alexandre Desplat.
Cinematography: Gabriel Beristain
Edited by: Leigh Folsom Boyd, Matthew Schmidt
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Action

Black Widow Complete Review.

Story of Black Widow 2021:

The story takes place in 1995. During that time Natasha (Natasha Romanoff) appears as a child living with her parents ( Alexei Shostakov as Father & Melina Vostokoff as the Mother) and her younger sister Yelena (Yelena Belova) peacefully in Ohio. Life seems normal and peaceful.

Opening scene :

In the movie Black Widow, both of the sisters are portrayed as physically fit and outdoorsy. They had a sense of competition for each other at play and that keeps them connected emotionally, but being the elder one, Natasha had a sense of superiority over her little sister and you will be able to see it clearly in the movie.

Their mother (Rachel Weiz):

(Rachel Weiz) is portrayed as a loving and knowledgeable mother who would tell her daughters stories and impart knowledge about interesting things around them. She is depicted as a strong foundation figure to both Natasha and Yelena.

Natasha is a keen observer in the movie always enchanted by her mother’s wisdom.

 

The father (David Harbour):

As the father, Harbour is also depicted as a caring person who would spend time with his daughters and talk about their fun at play, but suddenly the movie shifts towards a suspense hike when Alexei Shostakov & Melina Vostokoff (parents) starts talking about time.

Melina: How long do we have?
Aleixi: I don’t know. Like, an hour maybe.

Suddenly the father announces that they are moving from the house.

 

Alexi: You remember when I told you that one day we would have that big adventure? Today’s the day.
Yelena: Yay!

Father convinces the daughters about an adventure they were about to have and saying so they suddenly start packing things. Natasha was not happy and her mother could see the sadness in her eyes. She wanted to stay in Ohio but they had to move.

Mother: I AM SORRY.

Alexei loads his rifle and grabs his bullets while his younger daughter helps him out. They take nothing along with them not even a pair of shoes but only guns and a pistol. Natasha wanted to take a photo album with her but the mother refused.

Melena: Leave it! Leave it! Leave it! Get in the car!!

The next moment they abandons the house and starts driving towards the highway on their UV.

Young Yelena: Where are we going?
Melina: Home.
Young Yelena: Mommy, You’re Silly. We just left home.

After a long drive, they reached an isolated location where the family boards a private jet kept hidden from plain sight. Before leaving the car Natasha finds a recent picture of herself and Yelena next to the rearview mirror. She secretly slips the photo in her pocket and boards the private jet following her mother’s command, but Something was not right. The father was still outside the plane.

Natasha: Why isn’t Dad on the plane?

(Mother) Melena: He’s coming. He’s coming, baby. He’s coming.

Melena starts the engine of the plane. But when the plane enters the runway there were cop cars all around and a chase takes place. During the chase, the mother gets hit by a bullet and Natasha gets hurt. Assisted by the wounded mother Natasha somehow starts maneuvering the plane as the father was fighting the cops hanging from one of the plane’s right wings. More cops arrive at the scene but somehow, just before colliding with a car Natasha manages to take off and they escape, surviving the chase.

 

 

After a long fight, Their plane lands in an airforce base in Cuba. The mother was immediately received by a medic team and both of the daughters were crying to see their mother wounded and weak.

Young Yelena: Get up, Mommy.
Melena: Pain only makes you stronger, remember?

Meanwhile, the mother was in a bad shape but the father was hugging and greeting a man of around 50ies and he said.

“The Red Guardian returns”

The old man was Draykov, the owner of Red Room. Alexei gives the old man a floppy disc and the group of people takes the mother inside a vehicle. Natasha confused about the whole event tried to fight the guys by pulling out a gun from one of the soldiers but the father tells her to stop, he tells Natasha that everything is going to be all right.

Father: You’re gonna be all right. Do you know why? Cause my girls are the toughest girls in the world.

 

Both Yelena and Natasha were injected with a drug and were taken into a vehicle. The old man seeing the bravery of the young girl asks the father her name.

Drekov: That one, she has fire in her. What was her name?
And the father answers “Natasha”.
DREYKOV: Ah… Natasha.

Natasha discovers that her parents were not her real biological parents but were some secret supersoldier agents playing their characters as her parents and working for Drekov.

Both of the girls were injected and transported to a strange place with armored soldiers all around and when they regained sense and opened their eyes they were inside a big container among lots of girls of her age. In no time the two sisters were separated in the scene by Draykov. Before separation, Natasha pulls out the picture she brought from Ohio and asks her sister to keep it.

 

 

 

Draykov walks up to Natasha and tells her :

“The Red Room is your home now”.

The two sisters were recruited in the Red Room Project. The red room, also known as the Black Widow Program. The Red Room is a top-secret Soviet (and later Russian) training program led by Dreykov. The program takes young orphan girls and turns them into elite assassins named “Black Widows”.

Years passed and she grew up in Red Room. During the period with Red Room, Natasha was living hundreds of lives at the same time with fake identities and she was an expert at the job.

After 21 years :

21 years later after bringing down the Red Room and Dreykov, she is working with the avengers now. The time when the civil war was taking place and Captain America was fighting in the war. The story continues when Natasha escapes from U.S. Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross and flees to a safehouse in Norway supplied by Mason.

Story of Grownup Yelena:

Meanwhile, Yelena now is grown up too and is fighting wars in Morocco. She was under influence of a new bioweapon that controls the human mind. She is one of the Human soldiers now whom Red Room was using like puppets by injecting a kind of chemical gas in the body.

During a track and retrieve mission Yelena kills one of her friends. Before the friend died she sprays a kind of chemical gas on Yelena’s face which brings her back to her normal mode. Yelena knew something was not right. The people she was fighting were actually her childhood friends from Red Room. Understanding the situation in the middle of her mission she cuts herself, takes out the GPS implanted inside her body, and flees from the scene with the package.

The Red Room finds out the situation and sends Task Master after the package.

 

 

 

Natasha in Noway.

On the other hand, Natasha is living a normal life somewhere in the countryside of Norway. She was on a run reflecting her past in the solitude by alienating herself from the real messed up spy kind of life, but she was always alert. Natasha gets a new passport, identity with the help of Mason, and plans to settle down for a while when she receives a mail from Budapest. She didn’t open the box. That night her petrol-powered generator breaks down and she had to leave the place.

Taking the parcel from Budapest and her belongings she heads towards the town when on the way her car gets tilted by some unknown force.

 

 

Supervillain enters the movie.

The story takes a turn when suddenly Task Master enters the scene destroying  Natasha,s car on top of a bridge.

Task Master is one of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel universe.
Task Master is a type of character who lives the life of a machine.

 

Taskmaster (real name: Anthony “Tony” Masters) is a Marvel supervillain who possesses the power to copy any fighting style or move that he observes. He is an extremely skilled fighter, capable of virtually any weapon known to man. He most often carries a sword, shield, and bow and arrows, but also carries knives, guns, and many other weapons.

Red Room assigns Task Master to track AND RETRIEVE THE PARCEL Yelena was having but what is he doing in Norway?

 

 

Villain Task Master encounters Natasha.

In this sequence, you could witness a combat scene on top of a bridge. A fight sequence you all were waiting for. Natasha was no match to Task. He dominates over Natasha, snatches the parcel from Natasha, and kicks her into a river where she disappears.

During the fight, Natasha somehow manages to steal the contents and when Task Master opens it, he found nothing inside. Natasha swims across the water long ago and Task Masters mission failed.

 

 

 

What was inside the box?

Inside the parcel, there was the picture of young Natasha and Yelena together (The same picture she gave to Yelena when they were seperated) and some tube-like objects that glowed in the darkness. It was the same tube-like objects Yelena retrieved during her track and fetch mission in Morocco.

 

The sisters meet finally.

Natasha knew it was sent to her by sister Yelena from Budapest. The next day she reaches Budapest and heads to her safe house where she meets her sister Yelena. Thou Yelena was expecting Natasha, they had a dramatic reunion with a deadly hand-to-hand fight finally giving up on each other ending up in childhood memories.

They discuss the Tube like objects. Yelena explains her about the synthetic Chemical gas and informs her about the organization that was working on the technology through which anyone would be able to control a person like a robot. In short, the gas is a counteragent to chemical subjugation. The gas immunizes the brain’s neuropathways for external manipulation. It is supposed to be the deadliest weapon to date.

The tubes that now Natasha possesses were anti-gas agents against the Chemical gas that controls the human mind. Yelena also told her that she didn’t know what to do and so she sent the parcel to her.

Yelena: Why don’t you take it to one of your super-scientist friends? They can explain it to you. Tony Stark, maybe?

Black Widow (Natasha): I’m on the run. You could’ve gotten me killed.

Yelena: Well, what was I supposed to do? You’re the only superhero person that I know. That was the whole reason I sent it to you. I kept checking the news,expecting to see Captain America bringing down the Red Room.

 

Yelena gives Natasha important secrets.

Yelena tells her that the Red room is still functioning even if Natasha had put an end to Dreykov long ago (The Owner of Red Room) Yelena also tells her that Drakovs daughter is still alive.
While they were conversing they were attacked by super soldiers and Task Master from Red Room. After an extensive tank and bike chase, the sisters somehow escape the attack and takes shelter in a small town.

 

Both sisters plans to Kill Dracov.

They decide to put an end to everything they had to face during childhood. They want to put an end to Organisation Red Room, whatever it takes.
Now the Gas in those tubes was the only thing that can stop Dreykov and his network of superhuman women. They both meet a friend and hires a chopper to get Alexei where ever he was because Alexei knows where they can find The Red Room.

Alexei appears in the movie again. (Black Widow complete Review)

The story takes another turn and takes us inside a jail where Alexei is stationed. He is an arm wrestler now and lives a shabby life with his cellmates. He is eighty-four years now but still young just like any other winter soldier.

He receives a dummy soldier as a gift sent to him by some fans. After fiddling with the toy for sometimes he figures out the story.
The toy was installed with a transmitter and was sent by Yelena and Natasha. When he puts it into his ears he could hear the sisters. The sisters give him direction and help him breaks out of the jail.

 

 

 

 

Daughters and Alexei Reunites.

After talking about the past and reconciling faults and turns, Alexei agrees to help the sisters find the Red Room, he had his reason to avenge Drakov too, and together, they heads to Melina’s place because it was Melina who knew where they could find thr Red Room. Melena was still working with Red Room.

 

 

Alexei, Natasha, and Yelena meet Melena.

After reaching St Petersburg Natasha, Yelena and Alexei reunites with Melina. The mother welcomed all of them with arms open. You would find emotional conflict among the family after they reunited after decades. Each one of them had to blame one another for their past and yet they were connected with three years of memory from Ohio.

Melena also tells Natasha about her real mother who was killed by Drakov.

Melena and Natasha plans.

But the moment takes turns when Melena also tells Natasha that the Red Room would be here any time as she had already alerted about their visit. Natasha and Melena makes a plans and accordingly they give themselves in.

Giving themselves in was also a part of their plan to reach Red Room. The Red Room headquarter is situated above the atmosphere and stays hidden among the clouds and once they reached the place Natasha confronts Drakov and destroys The place.

 

What happens in the final scene?

After Natasha physically confronts Drekov he pushes the alarm and escapes as the Widows attack Natasha, but Yelena formulates an antidote bomb that frees the Widows from the mind command.

Natasha gets into the control desk and copies the locations of the other Widows worldwide as the Red Room begins to explode and fall. Natasha recovers the two surviving vitals of the antidote and releases Taskmaster from the locked cell. 

 

 

 

Alexei and Melena escape via a plane just as Yelena takes out Dreykov’s helicopter, eliminating him. Natasha gives Belova a parachute before battling Taskmaster in freefall.

After docking, Scarlett Johanson uses the antidote on Taskmaster, freeing her from servitude. The freed Widows joins them too as Melena, Alexei, and Yelena say goodbye to Natasha. 

Before leaving she gives Yelena the last antidote vial and the compact drive, telling her to find and free the other, still mind-controlled, Widows. 

Two weeks later, Natasha rejoins with Mason, who furnishes her with a Quinjet. She leaves, aiming to free the detained Avengers on the Raft.

 

Black Widow Complete Review.

Watch the Full Movie on :

 

Overall Review :

Now moving ahead to Black Widow Complete Review let us divide the case study into three parts.

• Why Black Widow is Different than Marvel Movies.

Black widow is not like any other Marvel Universe Movie. You won’t see any extraordinary superhero action, the cinematography and screenplay are just like any action drama movie where most of the time you will find conversations driven emotional scenes. There are funny scenes that will make you giggle as well as emotional and sad moments that would make you cry. Overall the movie is a well-played drama. The storyline is smooth and you won’t need any compass or reference to understand what’s going on. Even if there are years of jump cuts in the movie you will adapt well if you watch it closely.

• What the movie promises.

The movie is almost like any other Holly wood action movie more than a superhero movie. Keep in mind, Black Widow does not possess any superpower either. She is a well-conditioned and trained normal human being with a smart brain. The action used in this movie is mostly a combination of martial arts and sci-fi weapons. There are Car chase and parkour scenes combined too. You would see Marvel elements when Task Master appears in the movie but the movie does not focus on Task Master either, and that is what many moviegoers are upset about. The villain in the movie is not shown as a powerful character and has distorted some of the qualities, whereas in the marvel universe Task Master is an amazing character.

• What to expect from the movie.

In the movie, Director focuses primarily on Natasha and her personal life. Her early life struggle with Red Room and her inner conflict. The movie focuses basically on her family, career life and beautifully portrays the development of Black Widow as a person. In the movie, you can also have an idea of how the Avengers developed as a team and non the less induction of Yelena in Marvel Universe.

 

Technical Review :

In the technical part of Black Widow Complete Review we will discuss about he Editors and the VFX team.

• Editors.

Black Widow is edited by Leigh Folsom Boyd and Matthew Schmidt who did a great job. Leigh Folsom Boyd has already worked in movies like Ant-Man, Total Recall, Fast & Furious, and Furious 7.

Matthew Schmidt, on the other hand, has also past hits with marvel universe, he is the man behind Avengers Endgame, Captain America, and Captain America: Civil war. This makes it clear that the Black Widow is genuinely a product of THE MIXTURE of both of their contribution. You will find Black Widow has a different touch of visual transitions and play. While Marvel movies are known for their “To the point story plotting” in the Black Widow, you would see drama in parts that slow down the movie a bit.

• Visual Effects and Cinematography.

The team in the visual effects Supervisors have already worked with marvels before. They are the ones who created Team avengers. Definitely, Black Widow and Task Master are depicted precisely in Black Widow and the movie has not the realistic effects which Marvel prefers..

The Cinematographer.

Gabriel Beristain has also worked with Marvels before and executed several hits in movies like Blade 2, Street Kings, and The distinguished Gentleman. He has given some Beautiful shots at the beginning of the movie. In Black Widow you would see more of an artistic aspect in scenes as it focuses on Drama. The Fireflies and Tree had a psychological significance and that is what a great cinematographer always does.

Loijaa Rating :

Story: 6/10
VFX: 7/10
Action: 8/10
Drama: 8/10

 

In this part of Black Widow Complete Review, No doubt the movie is special for marvel Fans, also there are also mentions of winter soldier and captain marvel in the movie which will take you back to the Avenger’s days. The movie is a must-watch if you are a movie lover and if you have any friend who loves to stay updated about Marvel Universe share this Black Widow Complete Review.

Hope you loved our Black Widow Movie Review. Before leaving the site please don’t forget to check our Blogs on VFX and Movies. Just like Black Widow Complete Review we also write topics about other genres too.

Let’s keep in touch on
Facebook ►Loijaa Studios.
Instagram ► Loijaa Studios

Thank You for visiting the site and reading Black Widow Complete Review.