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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Black Widow (2021) in Movies
Jul 8, 2021
An entertaining pose-struck by Johansson and Pugh
A long time in the waiting (again) but "Black Widow" is an excellent addition to the Marvel canon: almost a "Rogue One" in the series, taking us back to fill in some gaps after "Captain America: Civil War". It's just great to have ANY Marvel back in the cinema.... that Michael Giacchino Marvel tune set the hairs going on the back of my neck!
Positives:
- Loving the heart in this Marvel! There's more sense of "family" than in F9! Johansson and Pugh, in particular, have a great on-screen relationship, and nice sisterly bickering goes on. There's a fabulous scene in a petrol (gas) station between the pair that really shows what class acting is available in this outing.
- David Harbour adds some fine comedy as the "Red Guardian", complete with action figure! Seeing him squeezing into his old uniform reminded me strongly of Mr Incredible! And the relationship with Rachel Weisz's Melina is also great fun.
- Completing the strong acting complement is Ray Winstone as villain Dreykov. It's a role he's played so many times before that he could probably do it in his sleep: but still great to watch. A shout-out too to the lovely Olga Kurylenko, looking decidedly unlovely here! (She isn't given very much to do as Taskmaster though.)
- There were some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments for me: both through witty dialogue and visual gags. A helicopter 'landing' was particularly snort-worthy!
- Lorne Balfe delivers another stonking soundtrack, full of Russian undertones. Also great is a twisted version of Nirvana's "Teen Spirit" over the opening titles.
Negatives:
- Now I KNOW you need to suspend belief during Marvel films, but the "Red Room" location (no spoilers, and no - not the "50 Shades" type) stretches that too far. It leads to an over-blown, free-falling finale that somewhat lessened the impact for me of the rather more realistic flow of the movie to that point.
- Tonally the movie is rather inconsistent. As an example, the start of the movie is played 'straight', as is the role of Alexei. But when he reappears later in the film - and it took me a long time to appreciate the jailbird character was in fact him - then he suddenly becomes the comic heart of the movie.
- I loved the way the film built the relationships between the characters. So this is NOT a negative from me. But I *suspect* some Marvel action fans may find the narrative portions of the movie too slow for their liking.
Summary Thoughts on "Black Widow": Black Widow has always struck me as an odd and slightly second-rate member of The Avengers. After all, she has no specific "superpowers", so how has she survived all of the physical abuse to date? So, given what we know happened to her in "Endgame", I questioned whether this was an origin story that would hold much interest with me. But the knack here is that it really isn't an "origin story" at all. It covers her early life, pre-titles, but then skips all the intermediate biopic stuff to drill into this specific adventure in her life. And the quality of the acting and the relationships that are built up delivered something that I greatly enjoyed.
Cate Shortland seems an odd choice to front a huge movie like this (she has a very short movie CV) but I think she's done a great job here. I'd put it in the top quartile of Marvel movies for me.
And BTW, as it's Marvel so as you might expect there is an end credits scene. You have to wait until the very end of the credits for it (so you can appreciate Lorne Balfe's score some more). But it is worth waiting for, re-introducing a character from one of the Phase 4 TV series.
(For the full graphical version, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2021/07/07/black-widow-a-posers-guide-to-the-incredibles-3/. One Mann's Movies is also on Facebook and Tiktok (@onemannsmovies).)
Positives:
- Loving the heart in this Marvel! There's more sense of "family" than in F9! Johansson and Pugh, in particular, have a great on-screen relationship, and nice sisterly bickering goes on. There's a fabulous scene in a petrol (gas) station between the pair that really shows what class acting is available in this outing.
- David Harbour adds some fine comedy as the "Red Guardian", complete with action figure! Seeing him squeezing into his old uniform reminded me strongly of Mr Incredible! And the relationship with Rachel Weisz's Melina is also great fun.
- Completing the strong acting complement is Ray Winstone as villain Dreykov. It's a role he's played so many times before that he could probably do it in his sleep: but still great to watch. A shout-out too to the lovely Olga Kurylenko, looking decidedly unlovely here! (She isn't given very much to do as Taskmaster though.)
- There were some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments for me: both through witty dialogue and visual gags. A helicopter 'landing' was particularly snort-worthy!
- Lorne Balfe delivers another stonking soundtrack, full of Russian undertones. Also great is a twisted version of Nirvana's "Teen Spirit" over the opening titles.
Negatives:
- Now I KNOW you need to suspend belief during Marvel films, but the "Red Room" location (no spoilers, and no - not the "50 Shades" type) stretches that too far. It leads to an over-blown, free-falling finale that somewhat lessened the impact for me of the rather more realistic flow of the movie to that point.
- Tonally the movie is rather inconsistent. As an example, the start of the movie is played 'straight', as is the role of Alexei. But when he reappears later in the film - and it took me a long time to appreciate the jailbird character was in fact him - then he suddenly becomes the comic heart of the movie.
- I loved the way the film built the relationships between the characters. So this is NOT a negative from me. But I *suspect* some Marvel action fans may find the narrative portions of the movie too slow for their liking.
Summary Thoughts on "Black Widow": Black Widow has always struck me as an odd and slightly second-rate member of The Avengers. After all, she has no specific "superpowers", so how has she survived all of the physical abuse to date? So, given what we know happened to her in "Endgame", I questioned whether this was an origin story that would hold much interest with me. But the knack here is that it really isn't an "origin story" at all. It covers her early life, pre-titles, but then skips all the intermediate biopic stuff to drill into this specific adventure in her life. And the quality of the acting and the relationships that are built up delivered something that I greatly enjoyed.
Cate Shortland seems an odd choice to front a huge movie like this (she has a very short movie CV) but I think she's done a great job here. I'd put it in the top quartile of Marvel movies for me.
And BTW, as it's Marvel so as you might expect there is an end credits scene. You have to wait until the very end of the credits for it (so you can appreciate Lorne Balfe's score some more). But it is worth waiting for, re-introducing a character from one of the Phase 4 TV series.
(For the full graphical version, please check out One Mann's Movies on the web here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2021/07/07/black-widow-a-posers-guide-to-the-incredibles-3/. One Mann's Movies is also on Facebook and Tiktok (@onemannsmovies).)
Rickstrong23 (216 KP) rated The Gifted in TV
Jan 5, 2018
Closest to comic show about mutants
Another show from marvel.but alas it is diffrent...it actually follows the xman comics closer than most of the shows.it takes a few episodes to get into but pretty good.family show..marvel actually has the genome racial seperation and conflicts that x men was 50 percent about.tackett sentinals tbird blink these are actual characters.and hellfire club .
Luke (278 KP) rated Marvel's The Defenders - Season 1 in TV
Aug 27, 2017
Only 8 Episodes (1 more)
Some Times Jessica Can Be A Bit More Annoying
They Defend The Fact That Netflix Is Smashing The Marvel Universe
I really loved the defenders and even my wife had to binge watch it, the final fell a little flat. But upto then with the colours, the imagery and the deffining stats of the whole series were amazing and beautiful.
Dean (6927 KP) rated Avengers: Infinity War (2018) in Movies
Apr 30, 2018
Great action scenes (1 more)
Great Sfx
Another excellent entry for Marvel
Such a huge film with so many big characters. The film whizzes by even at 2 hrs 20mins. The battle scenes are great, just felt the big battle could have been a lot longer considering the amount of characters involved. Still with a fair amount of humour as well.
Miguel Covarrubias (143 KP) rated The Umbrella Academy in TV
Apr 18, 2019
The cure for marvel fatigue!
We absolutely loved The Umbrella Academy! The characters drew us in, and the depth of humanity in the storytelling kept us around for the whole thing. We were especially drawn to the coping mechanisms of each character. We were also drawn to the family dynamics.
ClareR (5879 KP) rated Norse Mythology in Books
Jun 14, 2019
A short and sweet book, but I would have been happy to read more! These are very human Gods: Thor seems rather challenged in the brain department, and Loki is the annoying child at the party (or anywhere!).
This is the complete opposite to the Marvel movies (neither a good or bad thing), and I feel it's more faithful to the original myths (go figure!). Thoroughly recommended!
This is the complete opposite to the Marvel movies (neither a good or bad thing), and I feel it's more faithful to the original myths (go figure!). Thoroughly recommended!
Britt Smith (36 KP) rated The Light Fantastic: Discworld Novel 2 in Books
Mar 13, 2018
Yet again, this second part to The Color of Magic was absolutely brilliant. I marvel at Pratchett's ability to make me smile each and every page, while still giving forth characters that I can feel attached to. Marked as one of my favorite books, I will no doubt return to this one even as I make my way through all the novels of the Discworld.
Makayla (1 KP) rated Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) in Movies
Jul 31, 2018
Funny (2 more)
Family movie
Great storyline
Entertaining
This is a movie for not only marvel fans, but anyone looking for something funny with a good storyline. I especially love how comedic it was without taking away from the storyline or overdoing it. To top it off, it was completely family friendly while staying entertaining to all age groups. I 100% recommend this movie to anyone and everyone.
Laura Doe (1350 KP) rated Deadpool 2 (2018) in Movies
Aug 14, 2018
If you liked the first deadpool, you’ll like this one too. Just as funny as the first one and brings back some of the favourite characters from it too, like Dopinder the taxi driver and Teenage Negasonic Warhead, as well as some new characters who are just as lovable.
I’d definitely prefer a lot more marvel films to have the same sort of humour in them.
I’d definitely prefer a lot more marvel films to have the same sort of humour in them.
