This movie answered the one question we all were dying to know. Where did Natasha get that vest she wears in infinity war

Let's be honest This movie should have happened during phase 2

"Task master" felt more like task manager

This movie should’ve come in captain marvels slot. We could’ve waited for Captain marvels origin until after endgame.

This movie would probably have been better received if it actually came out around the time of Civil War

This probably should’ve been more of a spy thriller rather than action movie…

It would have been much interesting if they had told the backstory of nat before she became an avenger!

_"Captain America: Winter Soldier is a _*_better_*_ Black Widow movie than the actual Black Widow movie..."_ *You just saved me 2 hours* 👍🏾

Hey, it’s not like we’ve seen a prequel marvel movie where they decide to make the villain mute for no good reason, right Wolverine?

Black widow: "I have a movie now" Ancient one: "You're about 5 years too late"

They really should have given Black Widow two movies. An actual origin story which would have released around the Iron Man time. Then this movie releases as a Yelena origin story and a BW send off

It feels like Marvel is focusing all it’s efforts into the future movies and this was just there to fill the gap.

MCU should really put some brakes on the quips and jokes now

Since this movie is about family, I am expecting a cameo from Dominic Toretto.

This movie literally feels like it should of came up years ago and made it uninteresting knowing that she dies later on .

Honestly, I'm not off the MCU train, but I'm generally not as excited to see an MCU movie as I used to be. Mainly, because of what you mentioned about the humor overshadowing or cancelling good dramatic moments.

This movie should have came out instead of Captain Marvel. It could have been perfect and would have add way more weight to her death in End game.

"Defflect with a joke" needs to be an attack in all future RPGs

Why is no one talking about how we aren’t shown how Natasha escaped about 20 cars at the end when they were all pulling up while she was still there?

You're talking about "bathos." Bathos: an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous. This is the worst part of MCU. They can't take a chance at drama.

“taskmaster is the most disappointing mcu villain yet” they actually topped all the others? how??

This movie is just a last minute attempt to cash in on Black Widow. Let's be real here, it's inexcusable that we got a Captain Marvel movie before Black Widow.

I feel like Yelena used sarcasm as a weapon. The joke remarks were her way of deflecting her own pain and redirecting it towards others, her “father”, her “sister”, etc...so, for her I felt the comedy was within her character. It didn’t feel like Marvel being Marvel, it felt like Yelena being Yelena.

It felt like she was still a secondary character in her own movie I’m not sure if anyone else felt that

Black Widow solo movie should've been made years ago. Marvel was way too late making this movie after we found out the character has die

This should have been the movie that was bookmarked with Infinity War and Endgame It would have made more sense and been powerful when it came to her death But no... They wanted Captain Marvel

This movie starts off so strong and then doesn't use the potential to its fullest. I had a good time watching it, just wish the stakes throughout the movie felt as high as they do in the beginning

The Best: Florence's Pugh Yelens The Worst: Taskmaster

Serious moment - deflect with a joke I struggle re-watching most of the MCU movies because of this formula.

Captain America Winter Soldier had the least jokes of all MCU movies. That's a good thing. 👍🏾

The only thing I'm looking forward to is Yelena clashing with Clint and his successor to become the future Hawkeye.

Man you’re 100% spot on, just didn’t feel a connection at all. Took too long to get to the action, comedy was too corny

Jeremy: "Taskmaster was the most disappointing MCU villain I've seen in the MCU yet" Oh damn, that's a pretty big deal for him to say

I love how Jeremy didn’t even mention Scarlett Johansson in this movie 😂 Edit: wow, never expected this many likes. Thank you guys!

Completely agree with the "jokes" thing. It happens a lot in the MCU in general, but they´ve overdone it in this one. And some action sequences (like the helicopter in the prison thing) were SO unrealistic that it felt like I was watching a parody or something. But I think the main problem in this film (SPOILERS) is that it makes no sense how the characters act when they first get together after many years apart. It´s like they are just trying to fool you, the viewer, for no reason at all (later, when they are in front of the villains, we know that they were pretending, but it make no sense for them to act like that when they were alone).

What's good about the opening scene is that for once, an MCU movie felt so different. But yeah. Just that part. CA:WinterSoldier makes a much better spy movie. At this point, I bet Doctor Strange 2 which supposed to be kinda horror will be as generic as this.

Task Master was more disappointing than The Mandarin? Well that’s just... ouch

This should've been a low-budget action-thriller in the vein of Jack Reacher/The Bourne Identity, not a $200+ million CGI extravaganza

the best part of the movie was the first 10 minutes. i wanted to see an actual origin story type thing

On her joke, it’s dark humor. It fits nicely in the scene because, sometimes, we retort that has bad events with a dark humor. It’s like a solider reciting dog bomb joke. Alexis didn’t laugh but he understand screwed up. It is effective. Agreed with taskmaster though. That’s Proto-taskmaster, not taskmaster.

Man, Natasha deserved a good farewell, her death was overshadowed by Tony's sacrifice and this movie has left fans disappointed. A hero is only as good as the villain, so hearing that taskmaster is a disappointing secondary antagonist breaks my heart. Wonder how this movie would have been received if it was part of phase 2?

They really did Black Widow dirty like that. Kill her off, leave her body on Vormir to rot, wait YEARS to make a solo movie and make her solo movie eh. Smh

The motto of the MCU: when a situation gets too heavy, deflect with a joke

This movie should have been better than it actually was, it started to fall apart right after 2/3'ds of the way through. Also Jeremy please go on Friday night tights!

This movie seems like it was made to fulfill contractual obligations.

Pitch Meeting guy from Screenrant would have a good time with this movie.

Yelena's response to "Is it your time of the month?" was actually entirely improvised. The director was gonna cut that line from Red Guardian completely because it was written by a man but she kept it in due to Florence's improvised response to it.

my problem with this film is that it has no third act. it kind of just goes from the ground to the sky. the red room bit was amazing until i realized that it was the finale. there was no final act, no loss-retreat-regroup-final fight. its like if age of ultron went straight from ultrons creation to the sokovia battle without the car chase for vision and the bit at hawkeyes house. this film feels like a sidequest, a really big sidequest, but a sidequest nonetheless that doesnt resolve character relationships or give a proper conclusion or third act. i enjoyed it, but its probably the most forgettable mcu film to me.

This is the movie review that sums up my thoughts on the movie the best. Great job.

This movie is a testament to a lot of the issues that come with major franchising. Formulaic plot and dialogue structure, no stakes due to a character having already died in another film, etc. The best thing the MCU could probably do right now is shift as much of its focus away from the characters explored/affected in previous phases and move to new waters.

I actually LOVE Yelena talking about her hysterectomy. I think we saw enough of her dry sense of humor by that point that it is perfectly in-line with her character to talk about it that way to her surrogate dad whom she still has issues with

This movie should have been released after the first avengers film, because everything you said was true. I thought I was the only one that thought about Spider-Man Game of Taskmaster, and Taskmaster was beaten very easily right..??

i was so heartbroken when Yilena whistled at Natasha's grave, and the music stopped playing just as she finished whistling, so i was totally expecting to hear someone whistle back, and my heart was broken again by Elaine from Seinfeld of all people

They really needed John Wick, Atomic Blonde, The Raid level choreography to justify this movie's standard story. Amazing fight choreography could've gone an insanely long way for something like this.

I actually just loved the movie. Thought it was badass and really well made. Not everything had to be exactly how dreamed or pictured it to be to appreciate it. Florence Pugh is a legendddd

Task master being the villain is news to me 😳. I thought task master was the muscle...not a villain. Woah

Glad more are calling out the mcu on the overused jokes

This movie demolished task master. I never thought they would do so bad with such a cool villain, but they found a way. Task master is by far one of the worst villains in the MCU yet

I was like “has COVID made me jaded or was this the worst mcu movie in awhile”

jeremy your content is consistently awesome and you are definitely my favorite movie reviewer youtuber by far ... just felt like sending some love your way ! keep it up man

I think it should've been a more personal story, as we learn more of her past as an assassin, and maybe more violence and drama than spectacle, a more character's driven narrative in, my opinion

The first Marvel movie in over a year. This feels weird, since we’ve gotten two or three a year since 2013

They actually tried to play the forced hysterectomy seriously by saying how that made Natasha feel less than human back during Age of Ultron, but that just resulted in serious backlash. The way they played it now was not so much humorous but more like how many girls talk about periods to try to make guys uncomfortable, though very deservingly in this case.

2:26 I do agree - the reprise of American Pie nearly put me to tears until the scene changed direction. Not to mention, that song having a deep-rooted connection with my family, and with the movie theming around family, this could have been a much more heartwarming moment.

Marvel (more likely Disney) love undermining tension with jokes. At least when it comes to the movies. It's frustrating and annoying.

I’m convinced the MCU movie producers straight up have a quip/joke quota for the directors and it’s about a few too high

I really liked the first half of the movie. By the end, however, I was just impatiently waiting for it to end.

I still really enjoyed it despite the things Jeremy points out. Because I like seeing the further adventures of characters I like. Especially when I get to sit in an IMAX to take it all in. It's Bond, Bourne, and MCU.

Ever since Ragnarok, I realised that the MCU needed to chill on the jokes. See if Blade is a comedy I swear to god.

The moment from Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 2 when Yondu sacrificed himself for Starlord was one of the best emotional moments of the MCU that is not deflected with a joke.

When a movie review starts with a comment like *"the intro credits were really good"* that kinda tells you all that you need to know about the rest of the movie.

"Black Widow" felt like it could have been cut up into a show and "Falcon & Winter Soldier" could have been stitched together into a movie. I am thinking with the amount of "widows" that have been released from the events of this movie, Marvel will try to make a show about them. Considering the after credits scene, "Black Widow" could have neatly fit into the TV Show universe they have going on. I think "Black Widow" would have benefited from a few more hours, especially to showcase the Red Guardian. It was disappointing not to see more Red Guardian in his hay day.... similar to how "Falcon and Winter Soldier" omitted a young Isaiah Bradley.

I fucks with Jeremy. He keeps it real. No sugar coating.

I was curious as to how they were going to justify this movie's existence and that's cool how they just... didn't

I REALLY appreciate this less frantic cut editing style Jeremy. PLEASE, keep it that way.

When did Black Widow become invincible? She survives insane explosions and crashes without a scratch, it really made it feel like there were no stakes at all in this movie. This was the perfect chance to make an MCU movie that was a bit more grounded, instead we get skyfort explosions and ragdoll CGI bullshit. What a shame.

“Fans wanted their Black Widow movie” since Iron Man 2. It should have come out in place of Captain -Cardboard- Marvel. Would’ve given her death more of an impact having spent that two hours with her. Bottom line, they dropped the ball on an amazing character.

Jeremy's gotten tougher with his scoring over the past 2-3 years. No way this would've gotten a drunk score 5 years ago. I like that his standards are higher.

80% on Rotten Tomatoes those critics were definitely drunk.

Thank you for validating how I feel. I went in really excited and felt disoriented by the end. Then I hear everyone raving about how great it was and I felt confused whether I was in my right state of mind or not. I felt very similarly about the story and the humor. Normally I love MCU humor, but this felt like too much. A lot of things were great though, but I felt like the film itself set up expectations that it didn't meet.

I'm starting to see more reviewers who are finally acknowledging the over use of humor in the MCU movies, which is used to cover up any real emotional weight of a scene... Something I've felt since 2012's The Avengers when Tony fell from the sky and the end and woke up with a lame joke about liking a restaurant.

Florence stole the movie for me. Her character was far and away more interesting than Natasha. Plus she was even more entertaining.

What annoys me with Taskmaster isn’t just the Gender Bend. Yes it’s annoying and unnecessary, and it’s been shown time and time again that people/fans, rarely like characters that have their identities/backstories changed for an agenda or for no reason other than to say ‘look at what we did’. It’s weird because it looks like in the majority of the movie, it’s a male stuntman doing the work, so it just seems even more out of place by them going down the route they did. I get what they were trying to do, but Taskmaster (Tony Masters) has such an interesting backstory as it is. At the end of the day, there is no need to racebend/genderbend/sexualitybend etc characters. If you want to have a, for example, black character, use one from the comics or create an original one. People wouldn’t like it it a black, LGBTQ or female character was changed to a white, straight or male character, so why do it to them? If anything it’s more of a degrade because you’re hoping that character will become popular by piggybacking off the legacy and fame of the original. By her being a women who’s our ‘first Taskmaster’, if they did Tony Masters, while the fans would be over the moon, we would still be plagued by the fact that Tony Masters would be a knock-off/copycat of the Drakov Taskmaster. Speaking of knockoffs, that was the biggest issue for me with regards to this new Taskamaster. Taskmaster was basically a rip-off of the Winter Soldier: Thought to have been killed and the protagonist feels guilt/responsibility for what happened to them. Kitted up with tech and trained to be a mindless killing machine. Master assassin who gives the protagonist a run for their money in a fight. First time they meet the protagonist, they throw a shield at them which nearly kills them. Shows up to cause problems then vanished until the final battle where they have an extended fight scene and revert back to good/normal, leaving their future open in the MCU Mind Controlled by the main villain who is in control of a spy/secret organisation. Another annoying thing, was the tech part of it. What makes Taskmaster so dangerous is he can copy any physical move he sees. In his solo series, he showed he could twirl a lasso and dive off the high diving board just by watching people do it on TV. It makes him incredibly dangerous both in and out of costume, and also an effective combatant. Also the fact that it’s an actual superpower. MCU Taskmaster has a HUD that seems to be able to predict people’s fighting moves or show like pressure points or weak spots, but they never explain how she can actually copy these moves that she’s seen (even though she copies the Winter Soldier Knife Sequence which doesn’t make sense because how was there footage of that for her to watch?). I get this MCU is based more off the realistic Ultimates universe, but I wish they would stop making everything/everyone’s superpowers technological replicas. Overall Taskmaster was forgettable, a copycat and a real upset for Taskmaster fans. Taskmaster is like Guy Gardener, he’s got a small fanbases compared to other similar characters, but he is immensely popular within that fanbase they love him to the ends of the Earth. To sum it up: Taskmaster was wasted potential .

I like the heavy shit. Logan for example. The farm house massacre was gripping.

I completely agree with Jeremy about the MCU & its over usage of jokes or lackluster villains (with exception to Thanos). But unfortunately they're NEVER gonna stop doing that crap for one reason - "The family oriented audience". Too many people with kids ect.. see these movies and make up a huge percentage of its revenue so they ain't gonna alienate that pocket of fans by making less kid friendly movies. So stupid jokes & the same old same old formula is the money maker for MCU until people finally get tired of superhero movies

I keep hearing that 'people are getting tired of superhero movies' when the actual verdict (imo) is that people are getting tired of seeing the same superhero movie again and again with different faces...

I agree with what you said about the part where Red Guardian gets hit with tranquilizers, but at the same time he did that so well I loved it!

“None of it feels inspired.” You just described Disney as a whole at this point.

Look at Jeremy's face, this is what loosing interest looks like.

I don’t know about everyone else but a prequel movie specifically about a character we already know their fate just does not interest me. Like Solo A Star Wars Story. Just a safe and predictable movie with no stakes.

I've been waiting for taskmaster since the mcu started actually rolling out the not so well known characters... and this is what I get. Agreed he's much better in the Spiderman game. Sad times.

I did like the hysterectomy scene because that's actually a natural trauma response in my book, like whenever I mention some past trauma I end up making a dark joke or laugh about it, so I loved the fact that they were able to joke about it because they have been able to move on from such an awful event and they are able to make Alexis uncomfortable with what he made them go through

It sounds like that Spider-Man No Way Home and Doctor Strange 2 need to be really good to keep people super interested in the MCU.

This movie was just...really late in the game, shoved aside for Blockbuster: the 90s.

'' Red Sparrow " was what I imagined a " Black Widow " movie would be like with the standard MCU comedy.

This review awesometacularly puts into words my feelings about this movie.

The way they deflect drama with jokes should be dubbed “Drama Cucking”

I like that Jeremy is real about it and not just an MCU kiss ass. Still though I love the Mcu lol

Taskmaster did ask a question at the end meaning that the character did speak.Guess you must have missed it

Someone asked me what this movie is about right after I watched it I couldn’t tell them.