The worst sin that they committed in this film was what they did to Taskmaster.

remember when JOKER made like 90 million opening weekend and the positive fan buzz kept that movie floating to a billion dollars, despite the access media wanting it to fail, well the opposite is happening with BLACK WIDOW, the fan buzz is mostly "its okay" at best, and the access media is trying to give excuses for its falling numbers. THE FANS DETERMINE franchises EVERYTIME.

What infuriated me most was the treatment of Red Guardian. They couldn't even give him *ONE* heroic moment. He was always a joke, always a loser, and always saved by the women. This is the last MCU movie I'll watch.

On a stupider note, apparently a Tony Stark cameo was cut bc they didn't want the male avengers involved. On a lighter note, apparently when the mask was on, Taskmaster was played by a man bc they wanted someone more imposing. Oh gee, where's the outrage from people saying women can do anything men can do? Guess it only applies when convenient.

Black Widow could easily have carried her own film... IF the writers wrote a good movie...

It’s getting more and more difficult to separate sincerity from parody. Making the daughter the Taskmaster is like a joke in a movie making fun of comic book movies.

The part of the trailer that showed a 13 year old girl with *blue hair* told me everything I needed to know

Kills all the male prisoners: not a big deal. Kills daughter of misogynist: tragic, haunting.

Scarlett Johansson : " _I dont like how the character is objectified_ " The character is literally named after and designed after a female spider that draws in males for mating and then kills those males.

They did Taskmaster dirty by making him a woman even tho a male stunt double was doing everything the whole time... how brave. They also did red guardian dirty (not even going to bother talking about David Harbour in general) by just making him a buffoon there only for comedic relief.

If Johansen had any integrity she’d be pissed about how her character was trashed in a lousy move. Instead, she shills for it. How brave and amazing really 🥸

_"...I never really felt that the character of Natasha Romanoff was really strong enough to warrant her own stand-alone film."_ Based solely on what we've seen in the MCU, I don't think many of us can disagree. However, if you're like me, you were hoping that a Black Window film could lend the character that strength and depth. If done right, it could have made Natasha's sacrifice in Endgame far more emotional. Sadly, this film is too late AND too little.

this movie is just a vehicle for the 'new' Black Widow, Helena, for the M-She-U, just as 'Loki' was the vehicle for the new female Loki, who will no doubt appear, like Helena, in the Second Phase movies. A Second Phase which will feature Female Thor (already announced to be played by Natalie Portman), female Hawkeye (Kate Whatshername), Kamala Khan (a movie will no doubt be released later this year) and female Iron Man (it's a toss up between Pepper or some random Female of Diversity). Why give these morons the light of day, let alone a single penny?

Taskmaster can copy any fighting style...Widow not being challened by this AT ALL ...wow. Dont they know the writing rule if you mention a gun in the room you have to use it??

Holywood used to be watchable

What amazes me is how people seem to miss what the Red Guardian symbolizes in this movie and why he acts the way he does. It wasn't a character arc, it wasn't because he was in prison. He is in the movie to symbolize all male superheroes up until now: clumsy, stupid, pointless, obsolete. The Black Widows represent the superheroes of tomorrow: strong, agile, smart, women. This is Disney foreshadowing the path forward for Marvel movies, or the M She U. If you didn't see it, then you really weren't paying attention.

Why does anybody go to the movies anymore? A desperate grasp at nostalgia; for a time when movie makers knew their audience and made serious content?

To be somewhat fair, at the very end of this video: I'm pretty sure Scarlett wanted OUT of this franchise. So having Tony bring her back, isn't something she wanted. Just like Cap and Chris Evans. He wanted OUT too. Just like RDJ also... wanted OUT. They know its over.

Black Widow shined the most in Infinity War. You could tell that she was working so hard to hold onto her new family (the Avengers). She is going without sleep and not even eating just to find Hawkeye. We also learn the tragedy of her sterilization. So when she sacrifices herself, you understand exactly why she did it. She would do anything to save the people who felt the most like family to her.

The fact that the villain's motivation for the Black Widow program was "there are too many women in the world" is not only dumb, it doesn't make sense. If his problem is that women outnumber men, why not just capture and kill them? Why train them to be even MORE efficient survivors?

Hawkeye will be playing second fiddle to his daughter, Kate, in his own show.

I was always disappointed that Scarjo didn't put on a heavy Russian accent for the role. That always felt like a big part of Black Widow to me.

She probably could have held her own if they had just released this much earlier on, but I think she works best with the rest of the agents of SHIELD. They compliment each other.

If I were waiting breathlessly for a black widow movie that shows off Scarlett johannsson's skills, I'd be pissed. I thought it was a decent movie, even though it was all women=awesome and men=bad or comic relief, but it was movie to replace black widow with her sister for the future. As a goodbye to an awesome character it totally sucked.

What I hate most is how royally fucked up Taskmaster. He's supposed to be a smartass on par with Spider-Man and Deadpool and his combat prowess let's him fight and even defeat characters like Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Black Panther. Also the whole girl power thing they tried to push is undermined by the fact that despite being played by a woman all of Taskmaster's fighting and stunts were performed by a man.

They totally devalued the mythos of female agents period! Natasha doesn't have any Superpowers, so do the other agents of her former organization. Just like he Loki show, this movie ignores MCU lore totally, which devalue her even more.

The funniest part about destroying a whole prison filled with guards and inmates, some possibly innocent , is that in Civil war this was the main reason they fought each other , the Serkovia accords, where is the character growth? what was the use for Civil War if an Avenger was just gonna keep on killing masses and then go have a family dinner like it was nothing?

Funny how young Red Guardian was a badass, then old Red Guardian was an imbecile.

Well it's hard for fans to care about a flashback movie for a character who was already killed off. Worse when the people making that movie have zero talent or imagination.

Taskmaster is his daughter? That is just doing dirty by Taskmaster, what a way to ruin a potentially creative villain.

The CGI is the poorest you've seen in an MCU film... having seen the truly awful CGI in Black Panther, that is a damning comment!

Underwhelming would be a good way to describe it. The biggest problem for me was that it just came too late. I wasn't the biggest fan of what they did to Taskmaster, but I don't read a lot of Marvel comics, so I've nothing to compare the movie version with. I also want to know how she got away from Ross the end of the movie as that seemed like a pivotal moment, but the movie didn't even show us. At least the post credit scene tied into The Falcon and the Winter Solider and possibly the new Hawkeye TV series.

There's an anime, that I forgot the name of that takes place in a fictional ancient China. The main character is a girl from a minor noble family with some minor aspirations to move above her status BUT not rejecting that she is a woman with limits of upward mobility. She is very intelligent and very aware of the world around her. There's a great story arc where she decided to participate in the scholar's exam, that even the smartest men had trouble getting into because of the intense demand of your intelligence. She being a woman is obviously looked down upon but it doesn't put her down. She had determination. There is a scene before she went to take the exam that illustrate woman vs men. A friend of her, who is a courtesan puts some makeup on her, touch up her face a bit to make her presentable. The girl asked why and the courtesan replied, that THIS is a woman's armor for when they go to war. The lesson is that no matter what you do, don't forget what you are. It literally takes what Tyrion said in GoT "Never forget who you are, because the world surely won't. Wear it like armor and it can never be used against you."

Black Widow never had a successful long running series and only had mini series for a reason. Honestly with how Black Widow and Hawkeye where shoved into Iron Man 2 and Thor it's clear that the original plan for Phase One was for Ant Man and Wasp to be introduced in the originally planned 2009 Ant Man movie by Edger Wright and having the Avengers be the original members of the team similar to the original formation in the comics.

You can't just take someone's place to get the Soul Stone, you have to sacrifice something or someone that you love.

Well Dave, any NPC that unsubscribes from you for telling the truth was never a sub worth having. Keep spitting them red pills!

This movie results from what happens when you hire people with little or no experience with filmmaking, nor are they familiar with marvel characters.

That wasn't Taskmaster, it was some sort of crappy variant! Great job Disney ruining an excellent comic book character!

Imagine my shock that taskmaster is a woman now

Why is Elaine from Seinfeld in the stinger? Does that mean George Costanza is an Avenger now?

Glad to see you back, Dave.

Black widow spiders have the hourglass shape on their stomachs, not their backs. I was in the National Guard back in the 80's, and I served with a guy who caught one in a jar while we were in Virginia. He took it home to Pennsylvania, and fed it to his pet Oscar-fish. A few minutes later Oscar went tits up.

Movie ruined Taskmaster and likely the last MCU movie people actually give a shit about until Dr. Strange Sequel

The plot wasn't a problem, barely an inconvenience.

For the most part, Black Widow was an ok movie but because of some heavy handed shit and how everyone saw the gender bent reveal of Taskmaster coming from a mile away. I bet if Taskmaster here isn't received well, they'll retcon it like The Madarian in a later movie

Just another piece of crap Disney Wokism-fest. Never going to watch! But, thank you, Dave for the straight up warning. Blessings!

In LoE Book 9 "Stenibelle " , while on Planet Fall, Stenibelle takes to robbing people on the docks. She's amazed how ridiculously easy it is for her to rob men (and women) coming in off of arriving ships. All she had to do was get in someone's face, smile, look innocent, and she had them. She accumulates so much stolen booty she gets bored with it all. For Stenibelle her most potent and sinister weapon was her charm and femininity, which she weilded without mercy.

The Critical Drinker is awesome.

My main problem is that Natasha was more of a spy not a superhero, everyone knew who she was.

I know, man. It was boring. Had cool characters, but the drama was mediocre, to be honest. I mean, it felt like they had a really cool idea about the movie, but messed up the execution with bad pacing and plot choices for the movie. So yeah, sadly it's the second MCU movie I won't be watching ever again. The first being Thor: The Dark World, of course. (The edit was to remove a few repeated words.😅)

The flashbacks showed they taught the widows to dance in the red room .seduction and graceful movement would seem to part of there training

I was looking forward to listening to the review. I have to say I am surprised. I found it neither dull nor boring. I did not find it particularly WOKE movie either. Yes, it did address some topical matters. However, I do not think it was trying to be offensive and not was it ham-fisted in how it handled it. For a contrast, Here is my movie review. I care about movies that cause me to think and feel for what is happening. The Black widow movie did this. That is why I care for this story about the rediscovery of family and overcoming your past to save today. I was crying 15 mins into the movie. Just think what happens. Two girls living an “ideal “ American life are: Forced to flee at a moment’s notice with few of their treasures. Forced to leave in a hail of bullets that seriously wound their mother. Forced to leave their parents with no warning. Forced to be pawns by people who care nothing for them. Imagine what it would be like to be those children. Is their plight not worth crying over? The modern Natasha position in life is not much better. She has been forced to flee and to hide. She has lost her new family, and her failures loom large over her. But all is not lost. She finds she does have a sister that she can depend on. She finds around the kitchen table that her “fake family”, in their own strange way, love each other. And so the fightback starts. And I was crying at the end. And why not? In the end, she was standing victorious. She had her family back. She had brought justice to those who abused her. She had addressed some of the red in her ledger. And she was returning to bring her other family together Is that not something worth crying with joy about? Few movies are without weaknesses. It has the usual Marvel problem of a weakly designed villain who wants to rule the world. The big set fights are surprisingly uninspiring, and this very human Avenger should probably die at least 3 times in the movie. But they do not take away from what we learn about Natasha. What do we learn about Natasha? She is a hero who thinks and feels. She is a hero who uses her skills and brains to outwit and outplay her opponents. She is the toughest girl in the world who has been made stronger by the pain she has endured. And she makes this movie wonderful.

You are not losing any subscribers Dave, you will gain more.

Thank you for your insightful commentary. I'm in agreement with you and Critical Drinker about the misunderstanding of the female beauty use and current woke culture. It's making me take another look at the movie industry

I still think it was a major missed opportunity to cover the story of Hawkeye's first encounter with Black Widow and her turn to hero from cold assassin. Would have been a great origin story film for both of them in a way.

SO, once that red-gas-antidote was in Yelena's possession, why didn't she use it each time they were attacked by fellow Black Widow operatives? It would have neutralized the attacker(s) and given them ANOTHER ally.

With every review, I feel better and better about my decision to walk away from the MCU after Endgame.

If this movie had come along before the first Avengers movie, the character would still be relevant and the actress would still be UNAPOLOGETICALLY hot. Black Widow could have become a great character, a team centerpiece. Instead, we get weak, woke nonsense. A crappy story about passing the torch and showing up the Huwite Man.

Hey it's Elaine from Seinfeld, they should bring Mr Peterman into the MCU. The quality drop off in this series has been sharp since Infinity War.....

They made the base a cloud city just so they could do an inferior remake of Zod and Superman from Man of Steel using that satellite as a fighting platform lol

fynny enough, the agent Carter show actually explains the back widow program better. because it was just before the cold war, any female agent whole be extreamly underestimated and as such, allow more room to operate by there enemies, making them extreamly good subversive agents.

7 or 8 years ago with someone like Faveau or the Russo brothers directing and writing I would have given anything for this but now..pass.

If this was made in 2016 (or even 2018) I'm sure it would have been about Nat and Clint meeting and them then both working for SHIELD. And that would have been so much better.

It makes one wonder how the heck did the iron curtain collapse if they can make buildings hover in the clouds.

"There no magic way to bring her back" Marvel multiverse has entered chat

They should've made this movie instead of Captain Marvel. That movie was pointless and added *nothing* to the MCU. Black Widow could've been a contender but became the towel girl, instead.

Cue Vincent Price's monologue in Alice Cooper's "The Black Widow."

A movie so "Dull and Boring" that even reviews by great talents like Dave Cullen, redlettermedia, and the Critical Drinker are dull.

When it was a Borne/Mission Impossible/Bond style spy movie in the first act and half or so, it was pretty decent. soon as the started MCUing/F&Fing it, it felt like nothing special at all. We *know* these characters (aside from the fat red man) have 0 enhancements/powers, but the plot armor was so thick, and the fact we know when Nat dies, made the stakes meaningless. If they had *actually* had this movie between Civil War and Infinity War, would have made more sense. If they had had an actual good 3rd act, it would have been great.

Given a decent script she would be fine especially if they went with her and Hawkeye and her and what happened in Budapest making it about Hawkeye telling his daughter about how he first met Nat.

SPOILERS! The woman talking to Jelena in the after credits scene is Madame Hydra who was first introduced in the Winter Soldier and the Falcon series. So that scene must have been added in post-production after the film had been shot the years prior.

Instead of watching Black Widow, I watched the Spider-man trilogy last week (the films made in 2002, 2004, 2007). I probably had the better deal. That trilogy holds up better than I remembered them being (I last saw them in theater, after all). I appreciated that every villain (even Spidey's own stint as a villain in the third film) had a chance for redemption, and most of them even took the chance instead of dying in despair. I know this comment isn't very related to the video. I just like watching good, well-written movies.

There's no story, character, property, or franchise the Disney cannot ruin.

This movie finally answered for fans one of the biggest mysteries of the MCU! Why did Black Widow become a blonde and where she got that vest!!

Another problem was the ridiculously cheezy dialogue. Older MCU films didn't feel forced like this. A main example was their strangely self-conscious determination to make Natasha's sister's vest into a "running gag."

Dave Cullen is the only Red-headed stepchild that deserves a movie.

Black Widow was a brilliant character, played to perfection and one of the key figures in the MCU. Certainly the key female figure. She deserved a real movie with Budapest/Hawkeye/Winter Soldier. That film, if made to the best of MCU standards, would have been brilliant. Instead we got the Florence Pugh origin story. Disagree with your characterization of her power too. Think of this: Hawkeye, with morals off under mind control, nearly took down an entire heli-carrier with some of the most powerful Avengers onboard. Leading little more than a SWAT team he tears through that SHIELD ship mercilessly. The same guy chops through an entire troop of Thanos demons in Endgame. He was also the only one to avoid Wanda's mind-control in Ultron. We're talking the baddest of badasses here. And who go the best of him not once but twice? Natasha. She's a living weapon and beyond dangerous.

When you're so caught up in the politics of a story it MUST go such and so you end up with a foregone conclusion to your plot...and foregone conclusions tend to be BORING

Am I the only guy who doesn't find Scarlett Johansson very attractive?

I haven’t watched a MCU film for years. Glad to see I’m not missing anything.

you forgot the bit where the real Taskmaster is a man who has the ability and skill to take on all Avengers at once.

I disagree, she did warrant having her own film. The thing is, it should have been an origins one, like Captain America's, and certainly deserved a better story than what the movie ended up getting.

I got a KZfaq ad for a toilet cleaning product at the EXACT point where you said the villain "uses the one resource on Earth he says there is 'too much' of-" *sudden cut to Toilet Gel commercial*

And they already made a much better Black Widow movie on 'Red Sparrow'

I actually liked her "sister" she was actually funny IMO and maybe some cornyness due to writing but she made the film for me as an actress.

Civil War is where MCU died for me and just seeing Iron Man in Spiderboy Homecoming made me cringe.

Note: the black widow program was based on fact - the USSR raven program.

Like Wandavision and Falcon and the Winter Solider..Black Widow should have been a 6 episode TV series. The movie felt like a TV series or Direct to DVD quality

Black widow has always been very much a secondary character. Even in comics she's barely ever held a solo story in over 50 years

This film had the potential to be amazing, but here we are- disappointed with the outcome...

I heard the Red Room did have male supersoldiers they were called Wolf Spiders but the main focus was on the female assassins the Black Widows. I like to think Loki let Natasha think she fooled him he is the God of Mischief he knows the art of manipulation he's been doing it for centuries. What they should've done was give Natasha her own TV series she's got a rich history on the small screen we the audience would've gotten to see Natasha's life, her relationship with Yelena, her life as a spy & assassin.

I pictured the red room being somewhere deep in the mountains kind of like how Witchers trained at Kaer Morhen. Just some place away from civilization that you'd never find without a guide. Like are there just too many places in the mountains it had to be a floating base? I'd even settle for an ocean based red room that would've been cool too.

You've got it all wrong. This isn't a Black Widow movie. This is a Yelena origin movie.

The be fair, the last boss' comments about the overabundance of "Girls" as a resource is factual and accurate. (If you're talking about China, to name a famous example...) Doesn't apply to the West at all though, where the last century of girls and women are the most privileged demographic to have ever walked the Earth.

9:51 to 10:21 Those clips look awesome. What movies are they from?

Yalls thoughts on the loki series

She's definitely a better more relatable Female Role model than Rey Demigod Skywalker, The New Face of the Mary Sue Trope.

If I wanted gritty and realistic I’d go watch MOS or BvS. LOL! Just kidding.

Remember when Loki said that Natasha had a book full of red...a book that had drakovs daughter in it and how guilty Natasha felt about that daughter and what she did to her. Well it was real nice to find out that that was all a lie and Natasha wasn't the best spy ever but was instead an inept idiot who did nothing because her book really wasn't all that red at all.

What completely took me out of this movie was the things that Natasha survives in this movie. She's basically Steve Rogers or Tony Stark with his Iron Man suit when you look at all the things she survives, especially that fall from that chimney tower (or whatever it was). Mauler did a 4 hour review of this movie and I have to agree with him.