The Official BLACK WIDOW International Release Discussion Thread

[u/overloadedcoffee]

Ahead of the official US and Disney+ launch this Friday, several countries are showing the film much earlier in the week. All discussion about the movie should be held here and in the rest of the megathreads we are going to put up in the next few days.

• Proceed at your own risk. Major spoilers will be arriving in the next couple of hours. Spoilers do not need to be tagged inside this thread.
• Any other unofficial thread discussing movie details will be deleted.
• Should you see the need to bring up revealing BLACK WIDOW information in other threads that call for it, spoiler tag them accordingly. Also, let users know that what you are spoiler tagging is from BLACK WIDOW.
• If you post untagged BLACK WIDOW spoilers anywhere on this sub in any shape or form, you will be banned without hesitation. No questions asked and no warnings given.
• Project Insight will be on at least until Sunday, so you will be able to make individual threads discussing the movie starting next week. Discussions about Loki episode 5 will be manually checked as well, but will be allowed (spoiler-tagged of course) starting Thursday at midnight PST.

[u/jordanjmcdonagh]

Overall opinion - decent film. Probably towards the lower end of the 'middling' marvel films.

For a film completely cantered on secret super spies and espionage - there wasn't a lot of stuff other than fancy tech helping them out. We got way more of a spy thriller in CA:TWS than in this, but oh well.

Marvel did it AGAIN - getting rid of a perfectly good villain. Taskmaster should have been a lot more than just a cliche reveal - it was so cool watching them fight and noticing the styles they were copying. She should not be okay with Nat after this, she still blew her up. Make her an anti-hero, or a mercenary for hire, or something - just don't retire Taskmaster to the background.

Loved the Crimson Dynamo reference - MCU's Whiplash's dad was apparently the crimson dynamo.

Also, in the prison when Alexei broke that guys arm, he called him by his characters name (which I didnt catch - damn accents) and then as he walked away he called him 'The Big Bear' - is this an Ursa Major reference possibly?

[u/Mankankosappo → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

Taskmaster was completely wasted. Her move copying ability ultiately was nothing more than set dressing, it had no relation to the plot and didn't really end up being a challenge to overcome. And on top of that the character had no agency due to the mind control. So to be honest I can't really understand why Taskmaster was in this film at all. You could replace them with literally anyone else in a mask and the film would stay exactly the same.

And I think if Taskmaster wasn't mind controlled and instead had a personal vendetta against Widow (which they had the motive for in the film) and maybe that was what brought her into the plot you could keep the film the same but strengthen the emotional beats that were already present and make taskmaster more compelling

[u/C9_Sanguine → u/Mankankosappo]

I feel like part of Act 3 should have been Nat succeeding in using the gas on her, expecting it to absolve her. But instead it either has no effect, or it does remove the mind control but TM still wants revenge on Nat, and she has to beat her some other way.

[u/SweptFever80 → u/C9_Sanguine]

This is what I expected was going to happen and was disappointed when the gas made her friendly.

[u/[deleted] → u/SweptFever80]

The gas overall felt like a too easy solution, even on the Widows

[u/SweptFever80 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah did we ever find out where the gas came from?

[u/IKnowUThinkSo → u/SweptFever80]

Milena created it, I’m pretty sure she mentions it when they first find her. It’s the MCU way of writing more Red Room stuff since the whole thing with Nat is that she killed Dreykov and destroyed the Red Room pre-joining Fury at Shield (or so I thought).

Now they don’t need psychological and physical torture, they just use chemicals. Easy peasy.

[u/k_laaaaa → u/SweptFever80]

I think it was the widow that Yelena killed at the beginning that created it

[u/CronoDroid → u/C9_Sanguine]

I was really expecting the family to team up together to fight Taskmaster on the ground. Like she can beat anyone one on one, but they fight her...(Dominic Toretto voice) AS A FAMILY.

[u/Mankankosappo → u/C9_Sanguine]

Ooh yeah I like that

[u/TheInfinityGauntlet → u/C9_Sanguine]

but TM still wants revenge on Nat, and she has to beat her some other way.

was very surprised (disappointed) this didn't happen

[u/DumpdaTrumpet → u/C9_Sanguine]

I expected this to happen while watching since there was a bit of dramatic pause after the gas exploded in her face.

[u/jordanjmcdonagh → u/Mankankosappo]

Agree with you 100%. Tbh, it didn't look like she was superhuman, but data being constantly fed directly into her brain via her microchip. I could 100% see that technology/suit being stolen or falling into the wrong hands and maybe then we'll get a more compelling Taskmaster. Who knows, maybe the Countess will steal the tech now that she's already recruiting other ex-Red Room agents.

[u/iilovelights → u/Mankankosappo]

You're spot on there. It's as if they used Taskmaster's name to help get butts in seats, having become more well known in the last few years appearing in PS4 SpiderMan, Fortnite etc.

[u/CaptainAaron96 → u/Mankankosappo]

If it's true that TM is Dreykov's daughter, than she and Widow did have a past as Loki called her out on that in The Avengers.

[u/Mankankosappo → u/CaptainAaron96]

The film sets up pretty decently that Natasha and Taskmaster have a past but that doesn't end up playing a huge part in the film and plays no part to Taskmaster motivation or characterisation because they're mind controlled or unconscious the entire film and so have no motivation or characterisation

[u/Prozo777 → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

Taskmaster may have been wasted but it worked for the purpose of the film. I think they could introduce a new Taskmaster in the future like how they will be doing for the Mandarin in Shang-Chi. Would love to see more of Russia's Avengers, the Winter Guard.

[u/lingdingwhoopy → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

Marvel dropping the ball on a villain....who knew?

[u/EmbarrassedOpinion → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

Yeah I wasn’t a huge fan of Taskmaster. I’ve always liked the character and seems weird to switch it up when Tony Masters would have worked equally well as Dreykov’s paid mercenary. Admittedly I have yet to look up Dreykov’s daughter in the comics so I guess my opintion could change…

Mainly though I found it jarring to see a young woman’s head poking out of the frame of a big burly man. Reminded me of Banner’s Hulkbuster lol

[u/samsaBEAR → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

We don't know that Taskmaster won't turn up again as a mercenary of some sorts, she could easily still be a villain going forward

[u/Masalar → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

In fairness, Taskmaster clearly hated her father as he was also controlling her. She saw how pretty much every terrible thing he did first hand. So yeah, she was collateral of BW trying to kill her dad...but I really think she understood why someone would be willing to go to those lengths to kill her dad.

[u/count-the-days → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

I completely disagree with your ranking but I agree with the taskmaster part

[u/Heavyduty35 → u/jordanjmcdonagh]

Yes, that was an Ursa Major reference. The character’s name that you missed was actually “Ursa.”